(Or in reality, North and the Middle.)
A strong point in Turin's favour, it's completely bicycle-able (and if you don't have a bike, it has a bike sharing system).
After Superga, your next viewpoint is likely to be Sacra di San Michele - a hilltop monastery at the entrance of the Susa valley, which apparently partly inspired Umberto Eco 's Name of the Rose.
Having checked all of these viewpoints, at the moment we're dedicating ourselves to exploring the nearby cliffs. Through a via ferrata...
... or climbing. After my first trial last year, I'm now continuing my very awkward attempts on the rock - I haven't really noticed any improvement, but in those moments when I'm not panicking I'm really enjoying it.
If back in January we'd have to make a wishlist for the perfect-scenario Return to Europe, it would contain a job in gender for me, job in waste management for Michele, and all this in Rome or in Turin. Just a few months after, it seems that karma practically granted us that wishlist. Just with a slight twist: instead of Rome OR Turin she understood Rome AND Turin, and conjured up a gender job for me in the capital, and a waste management job for Michele some 700km up in the north.
And so while we figure out a more sustainable solution, the last few months have seen a lot of weekend commute between the two cities. Which on one hand isn't quite ideal (I hate packing, and though high-speed trains are better than the regional ones, sometimes similar principles still apply), but at the same time it made it possible to get to know a new town and corner of Italy, and that's quite exciting.
And Turin couldn't be more different from Rome. In Rome, with its 2500 years of history layered in front of (and below) you, every corner is different and unique. Turin, on the other hand, looks all the same. I'm serious.
The whole town, with very few exceptions, is laid out in a perfect grid of parallel and perpendicular streets, which at least to me all look exactly the same. I admit that this is still driving me slightly crazy: I permanently have the matrix-virtual-reality feeling of "I've just been here". Most of my attempts at orientation fail disastrously.
You'd think it was the work of some 19th century maniacal urban planner, who was trying to make a whole city like Barcelona's Eixample. In reality, the maniacs behind the rigid regularity of Turin's streets were the ancient Romans (again!). The origin of Turin was a Roman fortified military encampment, Augusta Taurinorum, established in 28 B.C. - and the Roman military planners clearly had a thing for order. Their camps, called castrum, were built with a geometric precision - and the structure has been preserved up to now. How about that for leaving your mark.
Apart from its insanity-inducing layout, Turin is a very pleasant town, with wide boulevards shaded by trees, and with a feel of something between Paris and Vienna.
And so while we figure out a more sustainable solution, the last few months have seen a lot of weekend commute between the two cities. Which on one hand isn't quite ideal (I hate packing, and though high-speed trains are better than the regional ones, sometimes similar principles still apply), but at the same time it made it possible to get to know a new town and corner of Italy, and that's quite exciting.
And Turin couldn't be more different from Rome. In Rome, with its 2500 years of history layered in front of (and below) you, every corner is different and unique. Turin, on the other hand, looks all the same. I'm serious.
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| Turin city layout. Notice any regular pattern? |
The whole town, with very few exceptions, is laid out in a perfect grid of parallel and perpendicular streets, which at least to me all look exactly the same. I admit that this is still driving me slightly crazy: I permanently have the matrix-virtual-reality feeling of "I've just been here". Most of my attempts at orientation fail disastrously.
You'd think it was the work of some 19th century maniacal urban planner, who was trying to make a whole city like Barcelona's Eixample. In reality, the maniacs behind the rigid regularity of Turin's streets were the ancient Romans (again!). The origin of Turin was a Roman fortified military encampment, Augusta Taurinorum, established in 28 B.C. - and the Roman military planners clearly had a thing for order. Their camps, called castrum, were built with a geometric precision - and the structure has been preserved up to now. How about that for leaving your mark.
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| Porta Palatina - or the Porta Principalis dextera, one of the four main gates of the Roman Augusta Taurinorum |
Apart from its insanity-inducing layout, Turin is a very pleasant town, with wide boulevards shaded by trees, and with a feel of something between Paris and Vienna.
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| Mole Antonelliana - might not sound too convincing in English, but it actually means a "building of monumental proportions", named after its architect Alessandro Antonelli - a major landmark of Torino, featured on the Italian version of the 2 cent coin. |
A strong point in Turin's favour, it's completely bicycle-able (and if you don't have a bike, it has a bike sharing system).
But especially, there are the mountains.
Turin is just surrounded by mountains. Amazing. On a clear day, you can even see them from your window. Add to that the town has a not-too-big, not-too-small size; a good amount of things going on; people of different origins and colours; and you might get an idea why Turin was one of our two top choices in Italy. It's definitely one of the most livable places I've seen.
And so over the last two months, we've gradually been exploring it.
Considering that from down-in-town Turin is all sort of the same, you are likely to be looking for a view from above, and the most obvious place for that is the terrace in front of Monte dei Cappuccini. When the weather is clear, you can see the mountains just behind (though often you can't see anything - Turin sits at the end of the Po valley, or Padan plain, famous for its grey fog).
If in your search of a panorama you venture a little bit further, you will probably end up on the hill of Superga (its confusing name is not an augmentative of "Ga"), which also has a basilica and royal tombs.
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| Mountains, and Mole Antonelliana, dominating the town |
Turin is just surrounded by mountains. Amazing. On a clear day, you can even see them from your window. Add to that the town has a not-too-big, not-too-small size; a good amount of things going on; people of different origins and colours; and you might get an idea why Turin was one of our two top choices in Italy. It's definitely one of the most livable places I've seen.
And so over the last two months, we've gradually been exploring it.
Considering that from down-in-town Turin is all sort of the same, you are likely to be looking for a view from above, and the most obvious place for that is the terrace in front of Monte dei Cappuccini. When the weather is clear, you can see the mountains just behind (though often you can't see anything - Turin sits at the end of the Po valley, or Padan plain, famous for its grey fog).
If in your search of a panorama you venture a little bit further, you will probably end up on the hill of Superga (its confusing name is not an augmentative of "Ga"), which also has a basilica and royal tombs.
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| Basilica di Superga |
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| Turin from the basilica rooftop |
After Superga, your next viewpoint is likely to be Sacra di San Michele - a hilltop monastery at the entrance of the Susa valley, which apparently partly inspired Umberto Eco 's Name of the Rose.
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| Sacra di San Michele - in the yellow circle - from Turin |
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| Sacra S. Michele |
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| I can definitely see Sean Connery in a monk's cape walking around this place |
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| Val di Susa, from Sacra S. Michele |
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| Sacra S. Michele in the top right corner |
... or climbing. After my first trial last year, I'm now continuing my very awkward attempts on the rock - I haven't really noticed any improvement, but in those moments when I'm not panicking I'm really enjoying it.
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