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Settimanale ticket, the rest of the Millos and Luci d’Artista

Thursday, 2 November (Day Forty-six)

Today, if we want to complete our Millo tour, we need to renew our BIP card so we walk over to the Tabaccheria where the man speaks English and we order a week’s travel. Simple!

On the tram, our cards don’t go BIP.  They make a hesitant warbling sound and a notice flashes up that might have read Not Valid. Not again! We carry on regardless but as we travel I read the receipt. It starts Monday! Apparently the settimanale is from Monday to Sunday and we weren’t aware. We make the decision to play dumb and work out the solutions but it does put a bit of a crimp in our plans to have unlimited travel for the remaining two weeks. Hmm.

Onward.

There are five Millos left and I’m pretty sure two of them were ones we have seen on our last visit. I even mentally locate them – on residential streets, with nothing much around them. Let’s see if I’m right.

In fact, I am. A bit of back and forth while we get our bearings on the map and find the Millos sometimes not quite where we imagined, but there they all are in the end. One is in a small children’s school playground. That’s the hardest to photograph. The last one is in a narrow street opposite some construction that makes it a little hard to photograph too.

Millo 9

Millo 10

Millo 11

Millo 13
The rest of the Millos

However, I find a nice cafe selling a slice of plain pizza and there behind the counter is Krish’s favourite Naples pastry -frolla. He’s been looking for one for quite a while and has even talked of making his own…some day. The frolla is made with sweet short pastry dough that surrounds a ricotta and dried fruit filling. (And no, it’s actually not too sweet!)

Video: How to make a frolla
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All Saints Day, Churches

Wednesday, 1 November (Day Forty-five)

Today is All Saints Day. The market and many stores are closed. And today we have no more days on our BIP card so the first order of the day is to get it filled up again. Then we plan to go see the rest of the Millo pieces in Barriera di Milano.

When we go out, we can’t find a tobacconist that’s open so we readjust our plans. We’ll stay local and visit a church we’ve seen from the tram.

It’s just a short walk away to the west of us. Along the way there are a few Chinese restaurants that we take note of. I’m feeling a bit ‘off’ today and a bowl of noodle soup sounds perfect. We even find a Chinese bakery. No 2 for a dollar bun here, though – Two euros a piece.

This area of Regina Marguerita is scruffy. People beg along here, they sell goods from shopping carts and carrier bags, and we’ve seen small gangs and individuals selling drugs. Not pretty but all part of city life.

Also to the west is Rondò della Forca (Gallows Corner). It’s a very large intersection with five roads meeting at the roundabout. Between  1835 to 1853 public hangings took place here. It’s also said to the birthplace of the square loaf – “Pancarrè” is a type of sliced bread, whose name is synonymous with “Square Bread”. Born in Turin, its origin is really special. Back in the old times, when an executioner went into a bakery to buy bread he was usually met with the resistance of the baker that was not happy to serve those who dealt in such a trade and, as a sign of contempt, would hand him the loaf upside down. Later on, this practice was banned by an ordinance, however, it was soon overtaken by bakers, who started to produce a new type of square bread, equal on each side, in order to continue undetected with their little “benevolent” custom as an inside joke (from “Alla scoperta del cibo” by Fabrizio Diolaiuti, Sperling & Kupfer).  That’s some history!

The church we’re looking for is called Maria Ausiliatrice – it’s a beauty!

Maria Ausiliatrice
Maria Ausiliatrice
Maria Ausiliatrice dome
Maria Ausiliatrice dome
Fountain for Three
Fountain for Three

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Pozzo Strada, Music Library, Corso Francia and HALLOWE’EN!

This morning I finally made my beef stew – with red wine, whole garlic, red onion wedges, thyme, and some young carrots. I taste it before we leave and am thrilled that it’s much more tender than the original too-lean meat promised.

On the way out we go along Via Milano. We used to be on this road a lot in ‘our’ old flat but haven’t gone along here too often this time. There are still things there that evoke the pure essence of Torino.

Torino Star
Torino Star
Via Milano and Piazza della Citta
Via Milano and Piazza della Citta

We went on the metro to Pozzo Strada. We had no idea what was there – we chose the station at random. Pozzo! Pozzo! Turns out it means ‘well.’ Nothing much around there – lots of low rise apartments. What was pretty cool, though, was how long and straight the road was (Roman roads here in Turin) and straight through to the Alps. Today we could see them.

Pozzo Strada
Pozzo Strada
Alps view
Alps view

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More Millos and a visit to the supermarket

Monday, 30 October (Day Forty-three)

Now the clocks have changed, I’m waking up at 5am. Nothing new there but hopefully I’ll get used to it. I have another time change to grapple with when we get back to London so we’ll see!

Today we decided to go to see some more Millo and then pick up some groceries. We have a map that shows where all the Millos are so we pick off four to the west of us and set off to the bus.

They are all in the Barriera di Milano, a mostly deprived area to the north west of us. The map shows them really clearly and in the end  the four we’ve chosen are all within very close distance of each other. Excellent! I’m feeling lazy.

Milano is interesting. There are several ethnic communities. We find a market with many Africans selling. I buy some bits of lace and some white thread as it closes. I also find a Latin American store and come close to buying tamales but they are frozen and I don’t feel like carrying the large frozen package around.

I feel somewhat uncomfortable photographing neighbourhoods that are busy with people. Sometimes the camera is unwelcome, sometimes someone will get hostile and often I feel awkward and ugly photographing something that’s obviously downtrodden. Like a rich, disinterested voyeur/anthropologist.

Barriera di Milano market
Barriera di Milano market
Barriera di Milano neighbourhood
Barriera di Milano neighbourhood

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A snoozy day and Sunday brunch

Sunday, 29 October (Day Forty-two)

Such a mellow day!

Woke up to a busy morning and then it was nothing but relaxing. Liat was coming over at 1pm and the clocks had changed overnight. No photos of brunch but it was a rye bagueta with smoked salmon, a salad of rocket, beet, goat cheese and toasted hazelnuts and Krish made some quinoa salad. I wasn’t sure how it would go but things worked out well.

We sat and chatted until it got dark – about this and that – about Toronto – about London – about Italian food – about restaurants. Talk so often goes to food when you’re eating. We ate chocolates and panetonne.

And despite good intentions, we had a snoozy evening and went to bed at the new early.

Sunday brunch
Sunday brunch