Thursday, 25 October, 2018
Last year (7 November) we went up to Superga and were blown away by the Alpine scenery and the view of Torino below.
This year I went up alone. First, I got totally confused with the buses and, although I found a perfect bus that went all the way to the funicular, it turned out to be a coach and my BIP card wasn’t accepted on it. So I walked and walked and puzzled over the map and backtracked until I found a bus that would take me to the same spot. And of course I arrived just in time to see the hourly funicular train leave. Last time we were completely alone at that little station. This year a crowd started forming – mostly Italians, a couple of English, and a small French family.
Its not actually a funicular but was originally a little cable driven rack system train. Its name is the Sassi–Superga tramway (tranvia) and it climbs a steep grade for 3.1 km (1.9 miles) up to Superga from the Sassi area in about ten minutes. The altitude at the top is 650 m. (The basilica is a bit higher, at 672 meters above sea level.) The railway was opened on 27 April 1884. The cable driven rack railway system uses cables that run along the side of the track and passed around two large pulleys on each side of the cars, which in turn drives the cog wheels that propel the train consisting of the driven car (occupied by the driver and a brakeman) and up to three passenger cars. This was driven by a steam engine in the upper station until 1922, when it was replaced by an electric motor. After an accident when the cables broke in 1934, work began to convert to a conventional electric rack railway using the Strub rack system and it reopened on 16 April 1935.
Review of the tranvia: Well, it’s a great experience to have done it but for more thrills and a way better view, take the bus from just to the left of the station!
Continue reading “Superga – what a difference a year makes!”