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CookinFactory

Tuesday 26 September (Day Nine)

It was a quietish day. I’ve been looking for cooking classes while in Torino – original goal! I found a place that does classes with English if needed and have been emailing and messaging the owner of CookinFactory, Claudia Fraschini. I haven’t booked any classes yet but the schedule for Sept-Nov came out just before I left London. Today Claudia was holding an Open Day at the school and we decided to go there early, at 3pm when the doors were opening. It seemed a good chance to see the school, meet Claudia and sample some of the food that I would learn to prepare.

We decided to walk there – looking at the map, it was one straight road all the way there! Can’t go wrong. It actually did work out that way. We walked from the Porta Palatina straight down through the centre and past Porta Nuova station. Going south from there was a bit of an unknown – we have been in San Salvario but this part of the road runs along the railway tracks and isn’t very picturesque. There were factories and offices either side of the long, straight street and hardly any pedestrians. It was like we had left the city.

The walk was projected to be about 45 minutes so I suppose it took about that, perhaps an hour with a couple of bench breaks. With nothing much to report or photograph along the way we finally reached the closest main road, Sommeiller (which I am still unsure how to pronounce in Italian). On the final stretch we found a large Carrefour and popped inside to see what was on offer. This is the largest Carrefour we’ve come across just about anywhere – we always seem to be shopping in the Express version. It’s a nice bright layout with a take out counter too. However, we’re thinking we’re so close now and there will be samples so best not to eat.

This part of San Salvario is clean and tidy – the part we’re familiar with is a shabby immigrant area – so this is a contrast. Very residential with mostly newer buildings lining the streets in all directions. Then we find the side street for the CookinFactory. There’s an iron gate and an entry through a front garden area, quite posh. A woman lets us in and she’s not Claudia so Claudia must be found! English.

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Vanchiglietta, Vanchiglia and L’Acino

Monday 25 September (Day Eight)

Today was a great day! There was a good mix of all the things I love.

I was busy until about noon, then had a quick lunch with leftover pasta and meatballs. I did some research, still trying to find out about the bipparevale (monthly card). So far it’s just not clear so I tweeted to the GTT.

First we walked to Raspino, a bakery Krish had loved the last time we were here. It wasn’t open (expected) but it was the first step in exploring the Vanchiglia neighbourhood. I had three addresses that would act as markers along the way. I figured out that north of the river was Vanchiglietta, a pretty neighbourhood filled with trendy cafes and workshops. Very peaceful here. It definitely has all the earmarks of the sort of villagey feel such areas need to have to work well. Nothing much was open but I think another visit will work really well. There are plenty of places to sit quietly or have a coffee. There are also some art spaces and finally some interesting wall art.

Vanchiglietta
Vanchiglietta Street
Vanchiglietta
Vanchiglietta
Vanchiglietta Wall Art
Vanchiglietta Wall Art

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A quiet day and Lidl!

Sunday 24 September (Day Seven)

Today was the quietest day yet! I made a big pot full of meatballs and simmered them in some pasata for later. Then I could easily have relaxed all day and done nothing

Inside the FlatInside the Flat

But we went for a walk across the river to Lidl, walking along some of the streets of the Aurora District. We passed many cafes and abandoned factories and imagined them renovated and becoming fancy in the next few years.

This flat across the Doro was fascinatingThis flat across the Doro was fascinating

At Lidl I managed to find orange juice, something that had evaded me, and also cooking oil and more milk. And there’s chocolate for later!

All day today, the churches all around us were ringing bells. We wondered if they coordinated somehow so that they weren’t all ringing at the same time.

Meatballs with tagliatelle and some rapini for lunch, then a lazy afternoon which ran into the evening. I finally started to make a new doll – I’m imagining blue and silver clothing. For dinner some risotto with pumpkin – needed more cheese! Another episode of The Expanse and bed time!

 

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Saturday market and the Egyptian Museum

Saturday 23 September (Day Six)

Saturday is market day! Well, every day is market day to be honest. However, on Saturday there’s an antique/flea market in the adjacent streets of Balon. I’ve not usually bothered with that market but it’s *right there* and it was wild. Dozens of stalls and blankets stretched on the cobblestones, ranging from real antiques to garage sale goods and bits and pieces of this and that. The streets of Balon are rough and the walls covered with streetart and graffiti, sadly much of the latter scrawling and political statements. The area is multi-ethnic but looks predominantly Arabic and North African. It’s hard to take photos here, like in many flea markets I’ve visited elsewhere in Europe. You can get anything from dirty looks to shouts of No Photo! To threats. I try to imagine why this is but think about stolen goods or illegals. It adds to the feeling of chaos and adventure.

But there are some nice things here and Krish spots a coffee book table about Torino but we don’t have much change and I teach him the art of haggling. I wonder if he’ll use it again later. There’s a few people selling toiletries and jewellery but much of what’s on offer is heaps of discarded toys and clothing and household goods. Still very interesting. Some people have whole table cloths and blankets spread out while others have smaller tea towel sized plots. Each is guarded by their owner, expecting sales. I am drawn to a large blanket covered with very colourful toys – dolls, toy cars, action figures. I want to come back and look at this again. There’s a restaurant at the first junction – the smell is tantalising and the menu looks good and cheap but I’ve promised myself meals at home today. I leave, promising myself that I’ll come armed with small bills and change another day.

Out of the market we amble into the Quadrilatero that runs into the Porta Palazzo food market. We rediscover a toy store from our last visits and I know I want to come back and buy things here. The window is fantastic and I’ve never gone inside. I check out some of the Chinese stores – find fish sauce for another day, and strike it with finding tiger balm. Then we go in search of lentils to make dhal – I’ve read I can find them in a store close to the market. They’re there! As are many peas, beans, spices and seeds and the like – in packages and in bulk. They cost more than expected but now we know where to find them.

The market is heaving today and thank goodness we have a short list. Tables are groaning under huge cauliflowers, bushels of tomatoes, onions, garlic, tangerines, grapes, fantastic looking mushrooms…it’s overwhelming. I duck into the covered market (one of four here in the square) and buy a square of pizza to fortify myself against the crazy shopping ahead, even for the few items I know I need. Today I know I want to make risotto, and some meat balls for pasta at the very least so the various ingredients get hunted down. Even more so today, the merchants aren’t pleased with small orders but we love the egg stall, where nothing is too little and nothing is too much trouble.

Very happy to leave the market today and we know we will avoid Saturdays in the future.

Another nice rest in the afternoon after a lunch of arancini and salad.

Arincini for lunch

Then after 6 we leave for the museum. There are a lot of people in line but we hang in there and it’s not long before we head down to the starting point. I’m very pleased that the small entry fee tonight includes an audio guide. I’ve never been very good at following these but I feel determined today.

Leaving the ticket hall, escalators take you up a few flights to begin the tour. All together there are three permanent exhibitions and two temporary. There’s just too much to tell you about the museum itself.  Its one of the largest collections of Egyptian artifacts with more than 30,000 items on display.

Turin has been collecting artifacts since 1630. There are paintings, parchments, statues, sarcophagi, mummies, tombs, and more. It’s very impressive. The most impressive room is on the ground floor and in q dark hall, statues of various kings are spotlighted – it’s pretty stunning. We aren’t really museum people but we arrived at about 6:45 and didn’t leave until almost 11pm as the doors were closing, and we left knowing that we hadn’t seen it all.

We walked back through the dark, then illuminated streets, through some wonderful arcades and courtyards and then finally through the Quadrilatero where there were crowds of people in party mode. Near the end of the road a great band was playing and we want to go back and find them when we’re not quite so weary and ready for bed.

 

On our way home
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Booking Tours

Friday, 22 September (Day Five)

Today there were three things on the list:

  • Book factory tours at the Torino Info
  • Find out about and buy a monthly transport pass
  • Go to Rosso Piccante in the evening

We walked past the archaeological museum, which is very close by the Porta Palatina in a complex called I Palazzi Reale. I noticed that the wall beside the towers was broken where the road crossed it and started again on the museum side. The structure is quite interesting, with a thin layer of red brick, a large layer of stones, another thin layer of red brick, repeated. I wonder if the wall is the same era as the gate. I also thought about the Romans using basically the same red bricks as we use today! There are some ruins inside the museum grounds – it might be a small amphitheatre but a semi-circular design anyway, not very large with a few tiers. I’ll have to find out what the ruins are – there were quite a few people gathered at ground level looking down, so no chance to read any signage. There’s also a tall tower open for climbing. I will try to do this one day if the entry is free, one day when I don’t have as much walking ahead or late in a day when I’ve been doing things at home. The royal palace is a museum and with no sovereign in Italy it’s open and not inaccessible like Buckingham Palace. It has a large courtyard inlaid with stones that form a pattern – must find out what it looks like from above – a royal or Torinese symbol perhaps?

Wandering into a small caffe area I was suddenly struck with a thought. There was no rush. I could do this any time I wanted. This was a very happy thought. Best to take advantage though or the holiday would end and ‘no rush’ will have turned into ‘no time.’

We needed some toiletries and I’d been thinking how much I missed Shoppers Drug Mart, even Superdrug or Boots! Pharmacies in Italy seem to be only the very serious or very specialised – perfume only, beauty only…where do people buy shampoo and hand soap? Apparently, the supermarket is the best choice but I’ll keep exploring that. We happened on a shop called Ipersoap which seemed to promise something so in we went. The shelves are full of bargain cleaning products – from hand soap to shower gel to dish detergent to floor cleaners. We even knew a few of the brands – bingo!

The Torino Info is in the large square of Piazza Castello. Its always busy. We wanted to book some tours and Krish began the process of doing this. Despite the servers speaking many languages with apparent ease, it’s not the easiest thing to do. I wish it were only about language. There are so  many things that we need to understand, things that are done or thought of differently than we are used to. In the end, after one false start, we get the tours booked:

  • La Stampa – just for him
  • Caffarel
  • Costadoro Caffe – just for me
  • Thales Aerospace – just for him

Looking forward to it. I’m the most intrigued by the Caffarel since it’s a five hour tour. What will we do all that time? Do we eat chocolate for lunch?

Then we use the Google voice directions to get to the Egyptian museum, to find out about the Heritage Day entrance on Saturday night. The museum usually costs 15 Euros but on this one day it will be only 5 Euros, from 630pm to closing. We find out that we need only show up on the night so that’s a great relief. Sometimes no commitment is a good thing!

At the main station of Porta Nuova, we’re again confused by the (lack of) information. Where do we find out about the transport pass? The station is modern and bright but… At ground level there are shops and pathways leading to the platforms, below ground is the metro – no station workers in sight anywhere. As a rule you’ll find a transport information centre in stations like this but not here. Up at ground level we go outside and look for signs and then I see the GTT office across the street. It’s a small square building. Inside they tell us we need to go back to the station and we’ll find the office next to platform 20. Back we go. It’s there all right. It’s also jammed with people in a waiting room and there’s a confusing number system machine, like in an Italian post office. Choose what you want and take a number – what do we even want? There must be 75 people waiting and others milling around. It’s daunting! So we grab some forms and aim to figure it out another day. Since then we’ve asked some residents to fill us in on how to do this. Neither one knows and one admitted to complete confusion. Not just us then! This will have to wait till Monday. For now we’ll get a few tickets to save my legs.

Back at the flat things are again peaceful. My photos are starting to mount and these blogs don’t write themselves. It’s a great chance to just let things happen where I can, trust that with a little time all the things I want to do will fall into place – won’t they?

After a few hours we venture out again. We head for San Salvario because I want to revisit a restaurant I went with my niece, Adrianna. The ride there is simple – great to be getting the hang of the transport somewhat – and we take a small detour to the synagogue. I remember it as a beautiful building in the shabby deprived area of San Salvario. At night, though, it’s dark – no illumination and I can’t take any photos. It’s a very narrow street and I’ll have to come back during the day. It’s always sad to see armed guards outside any church and this one is no exception. Two soldiers in camo gear and with machine guns under their arms are standing by their vehicle, watching everyone who passes.

San Salvario is, as I said, shabby and deprived. Like most cities, this area is slowly gentrifying and I’d say in Torino this is happening quite slowly. Not much has changed. It’s very apparent that it’s earned its nightlife reputation though. There are lots of people in the caffes and restaurants, many sitting or standing on the street, voices high, music playing. It’s lively! We head towards Rosso and it looks exactly the same. The owner works here with his family and he’s behind the counter slicing salume. I’ve seen him every night on Facebook Live and told him I’m coming but suddenly I’m not brave enough to say hello. Never mind. We’re not really hungry! We choose a salume plate and a pasta with anchovies to share (a local specialty) and Krish has his eye on some marinated vegetables, which I know he’ll regret! The half litre of red wine is a bargain at 5 Euros and it’s mild and lovely. We ask about it later, thinking to buy some but it’s ‘from home!’ That’s a surprise.

Sadly, today the food disappoints. The salume is nice but it’s all dry meats – one of the cheeses is very nice, I should have asked what it was. Krish tasted and screwed up his nose at the vegetables – lesson learned! The pasta was nice but salty. I thought about my blood pressure and decided not to! I’ll come back but alone. That night Krish was moaning and claiming food poisoning. I think it was more about the acidity of the vegetables – he’s not such a pickle fan. And no Facebook Live or lively company but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I hate cameras.

Glad to get home and into bed tonight!