Day Eight – Bring On The Bull

Today we had decided to head into the biggest city in the area – Torino (better known as Turin outside of Italy). We got up and had a relatively quick breakfast, again getting excellent directions and advice from B&B host Tim before setting out in trusty Francesca.

We drove for what seemed like ages before finding the Autostrada, however it was fairly quick from there. The people that were at the B&B mentioned this morning that they’d been through Torino the night before but hadn’t stopped as they didn’t really get a good feeling about it, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We did manage to get lost a few times despite the directions as we drove it, but found the large underground parking complex at Piazza Vittorio Veneto without too much trouble (given that we get lost wherever we go). Driving into town, Torino seemed pretty average – a bit industrial on the outskirts, a bit convoluted and busy as we got closer to the interesting bits.

We dropped off the car at the parking complex and headed out on foot. We were immediately entranced by the covered porticos leading up the road – apparently Torino is known for them. The architecture reminded us quite a bit of Bordeaux, which in turn reminded us of Paris, for some reason. All of the shops along Via Po from the parking lot to Piazza Castello where absolutely beautiful – ornate farmacias and shops that evidently used to be much more grand than they currently are.

There was some sort of event going on in Torino for the weekend, and much preparation was underway as we arrived. The police were out in full force, all three branches as far as we could tell (there are two federal branches apparently, and the Torino force themselves). Despite that, we found our way to the beginning of a walking tour in a guidebook provided by Tim.

Torino is a beautiful city. We had a great time wandering around before finding a place for lunch in the medieval twisty windy part of town (no idea where it was now). We found on the menu a sort of Caprese salad that consisted of a sliced tomato and a 250 gram ball of real buffalo mozzarella. The pizza and bruschetta seemed somewhat secondary to that to be honest.

We continued the walking tour after lunch, but it was starting to get quite hot. Not long after, we stopped at the Piazza Della Consolata and went into the Santuarino Della Consolata chuch to cool off and look at the spectacular interior. It is definitely worth a visit in – ornate doesn’t even begin to describe it – easily one of the most beautiful churches we’ve ever been in (and we’ve seen a few).

After the church, we felt a quick drink was in order. Conveniently located directly across the Piazza was Al Bicerin, a famous local coffee shop. Jamie had a glass of local bubbly and I had the drink named after the shop (or vice versa, I’m not sure which) – coffee, chocolate, and cream – very tasty.

The temperature was pushing 32°C again, and it was really quite humid in the city. Both Jamie and I were pretty much done with the walking and sightseeing, so we headed back to the car and it’s beautiful air conditioning – how did people live before that sweet invention?
Jamie wanted to drive up to Superga – a church on a hill just across from Torino, from which apparently you can get the most amazing views of the city and all the way to the Alps. The drive up was entertaining (if you like driving – loads of switchbacks up a very steep hill), although the haze over Piedmont prevented us from actually seeing the Alps. I can imagine that if it was a really clear day, the view would be amazing. On the other hand, I saw loads of clearly insane cyclists riding up the mountain, and loads of REALLY nice motorcycles at the top.

We took the back roads route on our trip back to Asti, avoiding the Autostrada. Not the most scenic drive through many of the little towns on route, but entertaining nonetheless. It turns out that Italian rural local radio is every bit as bad as rural French local radio, however we can’t understand as much of it. Oddly, this is the first trip to Italy in the last 7 years that we haven’t heard that damn song by “Evanescence” – we tend to hear that almost incessantly every time we’re away from home.

We stopped for a take-away pizza at Riostorante Villa Fernando, just up the road from Ville Sampagiuta. Evidently they don’t get a lot of tourists stopping in (it is way out of the way from anything) and were very excited that they had actual real live Canadians in the shop. We ordered our two takeaway pizzas and a bottle of wine, and were given a few postcards from Asti as a memento – they only requested that we send a postcard back from Canada to them (we didn’t have the heart or level of Italian to explain that we don’t actually live in Canada anymore – we’re going to get our parents to sent a post card from Canada on our behalf).

We sat on the patio of the B&B to eat our pizza and enjoy the late afternoon/early evening sun. The pizza was really quite tasty, and the view over the trees and surrounding hills was amazing. We spent quite a bit of time sitting and relaxing, before heading inside (we’d run out of wine, and needed to open another bottle).

We sat in the communal sitting room and enjoyed a good portion of the bottle of wine from Rivetto before another new couple staying at Villa Sampaguita joined us. Both are in I.T., so we of course got on quite well (Jamie may have felt a little out of place). Tim provided us with yet another bottle, this time of wine which he had made from his own vineyard. We may have stayed up a bit too late, however we had an excellent time. I can’t think of a better way to end a day – a very tasty bottle of wine in Italy, having a conversation with new friends.