Turin is a very fine city. In the matter of roominess it transcends anything that was ever dreamed of before, I fancy. It sits in the midst of a vast dead-level, and one is obliged to imagine that land may be had for the asking, and no taxes to pay, so lavishly do they use it. The streets are extravagantly wide, the paved squares are prodigious, the houses are huge and handsome, and compacted into uniform blocks that stretch away as straight as an arrow, into the distance.
- Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1878
Mark Twain was right: those extravagantly wide streets sure do stretch away into the distance... a very long distance, when you've walked 17 kilometres and can't wait to get to your destination! And the numbering scheme for the addresses never skips numbers, as in other cities; it puts in extra ones instead! So that if you are looking, say, for building number 86, you walk past number 80, and then number 80A, and then number 80-bis, and then numbers 80-bis-A, -B, -C and -D before you finally get to number 82 and make any progress. Not to mention that every time you need to cross a street, it takes five minutes for the traffic light to change, then five minutes to cross only as far as the traffic island in the middle - by which time the lights will have changed again 😂
We were very happy to get to the house number we were looking for on one of those extravagantly wide tree-lined avenues, just behind the gardens of the Palazzo Reale. Here Mariella's friend Laura welcomed us to her cosy flat and put our hiking clothes through the washing machine while we showered. Then she took us on a whirlwind tour of central Turin before dinner, including Porta Palazzo market, the cathedral for a stamp on our pilgrim credentials, the ancient Roman city gates with a stretch of Roman Road (the Via Domitia?), the royal palace, elegant shopping streets, vermouth in an old-fashioned bar, the university district where Mariella studied, the Mole Antonelliana tower, and even a street festival on the way back home!
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| The cathedral, where the shroud of Turin is kept |
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| The Roman Porta Palatina |
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| Remains of the Decumanus |
Turin was first inhabited by the Taurini, a Celto-Ligurian people, and became a Roman colony after 28 BC, under the name of Julia Augusta Taurinorum, with a population of about 5000. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire the city was conquered by the Ostrogoths and then the Lombards. In the Middle Ages the area became the property of the Counts of Savoy, growing to about 20,000 people by the fifteenth century, when the city was redesigned and many of its gardens and palaces were built; the university also dates back to this time.
Emmanuel Philibert made Turin the capital of the Duchy of Savoy in 1563. Piazza San Carlo and Via Nuova, now Via Roma, were added in the first half of the 17th century, the walls were enlarged, and the Royal Palace was built. From 1861 to 1865, Turin was the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
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| Palazzo Reale |
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| Palazzo Carignano |
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| Mole Antonelliana |
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| Street market and festival in Via Santa Giulia |
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| Punto Mes vermouth |
We returned to Laura's apartment for a delicious dinner, then unfolded her sofabed and retired early, exhausted after a busy day walking 17 kilometres into Turin and then another six kilometres exploring the city!
Gassino Torinese - Torino 17 km (+6!)
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