Touring The Italian Job in Turin

Zagan the motorhome is parked up in the Ciao Mario Camper Sosta in Turin (or Torino as it’s known locally) about 6 kilometres or a 30 minute tram ride south from the city centre (N45.02851, E7.64053).

We made an effort to get up and off earlyish this morning, and managed to get out of the sosta at Ivrea by 9.30am. Satnav gave us a mild panic as she turned us onto the motorway, a fumble through the key of our map and a double check told us she wasn’t going mad – the motorway around Turin is toll-free.

We cruised up to the edge of the city, the end of the motorway marking the edge of chaos. Jay has decided to retract anything nice he said about Italian drivers yesterday. Today they swarmed around Zagan like a pack of hyenas; nipping at him on every side, darting in front of him to put him off his stride and trying everything they could to take him down. The bus lane was used by pretty much everyone who didn’t want to wait in a queue or go as slow as everyone else. Drivers who had sped up to within an inch of a parked vehicle (which they obviously hadn’t seen) seemingly have the right to pull straight out into the next lane. Jay stood his ground though like a star, even going native and cutting a taxi up on a mad free-for-all whacky races type turning.

With frayed nerves we finally got to breathe a sigh of relief 30 minutes later as we turned into the parking. Having seen many Italian motorhomes parked up by the roadside as we drove in, I wasn’t surprised to find only one other motorhome paying €18 a night for the privilege of parking in this city. A quick trip into the office and some ‘Englitan’ spoken got us maps of the city and a two day pass for all buses, trams and underground (€7.50 each).

Charlie was fed and walked as he’s not a fan of big cities so he could snooze while we looked around. Checking the weather forecast, it looks like rain tomorrow so we’ve saved a museum and spent the day wandering around the city taking in the sights, or to be more precise – The Italian Job sights.

After being bewildered by cars parked in the middle of the road, literally on the white line, we were glad to leave Zagan and test our understanding of the transport system by catching a rattling old bus over to the Lingotto building; the former Fiat factory. We’d heard that parts went in on the ground floor and the cars were built as they went up the building, eventually appearing on the roof ready to be tested on the circuit built up there.

From the ground you can hardly tell it’s there – just a bump at the end of a huge building

The factory is now a vast leisure complex of shops, hotels, exhibition space etc, and the top floor has an art gallery which overlooks the track. Finding the entrance to the gallery through a posh bookshop we caught the glass-sided lift up to the fourth floor.  The doors opened into high ceilinged room with a woman sat behind the entrance desk talking on the phone, ahead of us a wall of glass looked out onto the track.

Not too keen to stump up €8 each knowing we would be looking past the exhibits and out at the track, we decided to be a bit cheeky and walked past the woman, took some photos through the window and headed back towards the lift. She continued her conversation without acknowledging us until Jay took it a step too far and nipped out of the fire exit onto the track – at which point a finger was wagged in our direction and we slunk back into the elevator.

Back down at ground level we headed underground to take a ride of Turin’s driver-less metro system, built for the winter Olympics which started here 10 years ago this tomorrow. The city is building up to celebrate the anniversary, with a stage being set up in the main square and flag and banners all over the place.  Getting off the metro at the train station, we walked up Via Roma tutting up the stupid prices in the designer shops, until a couple stepped out of the Louis Vuitton shop loaded with bags and walked along beside us.

These statues greet you as you walk up Via Roma, they represent the two rivers in Turin

The duomo (Cathedral) was still closed for lunch so the Turin Shroud – or rather a copy/photo of it – will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead we made our way along some of the 40km of colonnaded arches that make this city so beautiful towards the river Po. Nipping into an open door to see inside one of the buildings we realised that we discovered we were in part of the university, which means students, which means good value restaurants in the area – winner!

We found a suitable establishment and dived in. I ordered the Tris, which turned out to be some starter (pasta and cherry tomatoes), main (honey and onion quiche) and side dish (herby potatoes) all on one plate. I was in good company as pretty much everyone else was having it too, at €7.50 it was a bargain. Jay went for the Tourismo menu, a full three courses with water and a coffee for just €14, which filled him up with agnolotti (pasta filled with meat), ham and mushroom frittata with green beans and a dark chocolate and rum desert which had him exclaiming it was the best desert he’s ever had (surely that doesn’t include my cooking!).

Fully stuffed we rolled out of the restaurant and carried on to the river, nipping down a side street to see the Mole Antonelliana, home of the National Museum of Theatre and an iconic building which has been adopted as the symbol of Turin. Finally reaching the River Po we looked down over the weir and tried to fathom out how on earth they got the minis on and off it so they could drive across it.

Lookie Lookie man selling replicas of the Mole Antonelliana

Just across the bridge is the one scene I remember from the film – its years since I’ve seen it – the minis driving down the steps outside the church and upsetting a wedding. Again we have no idea how they got up there, or how they bypassed the railings and concrete bollards at the bottom of the steps.

Flagging a bit now we headed back towards Piazza Castello, taking a couple of side trips into gallerias driven through by the minis and Palazzo Carignano, the building where they loaded the gold into the minis.

Holy ground to Jay – the locals are somewhat bemused!

In Piazza Castello sits Palazzo Madama, home to what was once described as the most beautiful staircase in the world. Guess what drove down those stairs? We walked up to the entrance and as the security guard talked to a fellow tourist we nipped through the door. To our amazement the stairs were just inside, so we had a quick walk up and down them.

Done in we caught a packed tram back to Zagan. Charlie awoke to greet us, danced around a bit for a treat then went back to sleep. We’ve had a fantastic day and tonight we’re planning what to see tomorrow, holding our still full stomachs and trying to stop ‘we’re the self-preservation society’ from singing in our heads.

Ju x

PS – it’s a month since I had my head shaved for charity and it’s now about 1cm long all over. I have to admit I’m not a big fan of it right now and don’t like looking in the mirror, but I just keep thinking of all the money it raised for charity which makes it worth it.

PPS – a few other pics from Turin