Our hotel in Turin
is an unusual place set all on its own in a park on the city's
outskirts. This morning, after a very basic breakfast in the room, we
hopped into the car and drove into the city centre, eventually
finding a place to park near the Mole Antonelliana, more of which
later.
A light rain was
falling as we walked down to the river and then back into the heart
of the city, stopping for a coffee in a small, yet grand cafe –
very turn-of-the-last-century. The cafe set the tone for the city
itself, which is simultaneously grand and understated, filled with
impressive and often very old buildings, enormous piazzas and long
colonnaded walkways – yet it also has a slightly dour, workaday
feel. There are lots of upmarket shops – we spotted a number of
Prada stores, for example – but it somehow doesn't feel in any way
ritzy.
We found an outlet
of Eataly – fancy gourmet food stores whose name you can't say out
loud without sounding a bit stupid – and pottered around it for a
while. Kate and the girls then spent an age wandering around a
Christmas shop, packed full of the little build-you-own-nativity
modules that are so popular in Italy.
After a pretty
uninspiring lunch, we wandered back towards the car, stopping for a
while in a really lovely wine shop. A little further on was a cat
cafe – a coffee shop with a group of live-in cats – so of course
we had to stop in. While the girls got to know the resident felines,
I ran the very long way back to the car to put some more money in the
meter.
We then continued
our slightly aimless pottering back towards the car, taking in the
impressive piazzas and grand buildings. We eventually made it back to
the Mole Antonelliana - one of the most impressive buildings in
Turin. Named for the architect who designed it, Alessandro Antonelli,
it was finished in 1889, at which time it was the tallest
brick-built building in the world (167.5 metres). Originally
conceived of as a synagogue, it now houses the Museo Nazionale del
Cinema, to which the very helpful man who checked us in at the hotel
had given us four tickets.
The museum was
cleverly put together, with a great collection of early 'cinematic
instruments' – old cameras and the like – and some clever themed
sets showing clips from the genres those sets represented (Westerns
in a saloon and so on), but to be honest, I'm not sure how much we
all got from the exhibits. The space itself, however, was incredible
– possibly the tallest indoor area I've ever been in, and we all
loved it. There was a walkway running all the way up and around the
inside area, with a special Sergio Leone exhibition along it, and
when we got to the top, looking over the railing gave us all a touch
of vertigo.
On the way home we
went looking for a shopping centre but Sally disgraced herself by
sending us down one of the strange roads that run parallel to the
main roads in Turin and getting us quite spectacularly and
stressfully lost.
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