Torino, day 1

October 17, 2007, Wednesday

Today is the destination is Torino. It’s about an hour’s drive on the autostrada, or two if you take the back roads leisurely. Not being in a hurry, I figured a nice drive through the countryside would be nice. More hills, vineyards, etc. Eventually I have to get onto the highway to get into Torino, which is one of the larger cities in Italy and home to the Savoy kings (so there are lots of palaces, etc.).

Since I had no clue where to go, I just got horribly lost. I finally saw a parking place on the street and got out of the car. I did have a paper map (Alwayslost was no help since I didn’t know where I wanted to go). I headed for the nearest café, had some coffee, and figured out where I was and likely where I wanted to go. Fortunately I was somewhat near one of the areas with palaces. After a 30 minute walk, I was there. The tourist information booth wasn’t where it was supposed to be. So I wandered around looking at architecture, shops, etc.

The palace, most recently occupied by Vittorio Emanuele II (1820-1878), was open for tours, but it was guided tours only. The next one left too late. Even so, you got to walk through a bit of the palace to get to the ticket office (no photos allowed, so sorry). I wandered toward a museum next door that had an exhibit of Afghan antiquities. I thought, okay, why not?

I’ve been reading Mary Renault’s books on Alexander the Great (356-323BC). It happens that he conquered Persia and parts of Afghanistan. There were a lot of articles in the exhibit from that period showing the Greek influence on the native jewelry, pots, plates, serving utensils, etc. It was an unexpected, and happy, conjunction to be able to see some of the things that might have been used in the story.

Back in Alba, I had dinner at Conte Rosso. Ravioli with tartuffo bianco; veal with Barolo sauce (this seems to be a habit, pasta and meat in Barolo).