Tourin’ in Turin, Italy!

Having left Verona, we made our way to Divonne-les-Bains, France, for our next house-sitting assignment.  We were not looking forward to 6 hours of driving, so checked our route to see what we could find that was more-or-less between the two cities, and discovered Torino – also known as Turin, Italy.

Torino is a lovely city of just under 1 million people.  Host to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, the city is clean and vibrant.  We have noticed a lot of similarities in the architecture among the different Italian cities we have visited, but the one thing that jumped out at me about Torino was the number of very large, open piazzas, and the long, straight streetscapes.

View across the Po River to the Piazza Vittorio Veneto

Via Guiseppe Garibaldi – extremely long pedestrian street

View down the Via Po to the Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio

Piazza Castello outside the Palazzo Reale di Torino (Torino Royal Palace)

We were also able to find the Duomo where the Holy Shroud of Turin is kept.  The shroud is said to be the linen used to wrap the body of Jesus Christ after he was placed in the tomb after his death.  The shroud is imprinted with his face and body and seems to show the wounds.

The Shroud is only displayed at certain times of the year, and unfortunately we were not in Torino for the 2014 display.  The next opportunity will be from April 19 – June 24, 2015.  A photograph of the face currently hangs where the shroud is normally on display, however I was not able to take a photo.  The above photos come from an article I found online from The Telegraph – here.

Just 20 minutes outside of the city we found a fantastic B&B that turned out to be a real gem.  I found it quite by accident on Air BnB, and we were happy we decided to stay here.

Full kitchen

This B&B is not what you might expect – we had an apartment with a full kitchen, complete with fridge and stove.  Out hosts, Luca and Laerte, were extremely hospitable and have done a wonderful job renovating the farm house into small apartments.  Their dogs, Blue and Laurie, were extremely friendly and found some good friends in our girls.  As part of their B&B “service” they provided us with a fully stocked fridge including farm-fresh eggs, milk, a variety of meats and cheeses, apples, walnuts, and croissants…some filled with chocolate!

There were also these white gourds that we’ve never seen before. Luca said they called them UFOs, so we’re not sure of the real name.  He said to eat it, the Italians cut it up like french fries, dip them in flour and then fry them up.  If anyone knows the name of this gourd – please let us know!

Once Luca found out that I am a coffee addict…and had never made my own Italian coffee…he proceeded to teach me how coffee is really made!  And I have to admit, this coffee was FANTASTIC!  Coffee in a small espresso cup which was not as strong-tasting as espresso is, with a small amount of honey, was so delicious.

And where did the honey come from?  Well, it turns out they make two different varieties of their own honey as well!  The first was a dark honey made when the chestnuts were in bloom.  The second was a lighter, sweeter honey which was made from acacia flowers.  We really enjoyed both flavours of honey!  The hives have now been moved up into the mountains, and yet another honey variety will be the end result. When we left, our hosts gave us honey to take on the road which was so kind of them.

This was truly a unique B&B experience and was the perfect stop for us on our journey.

After a lovely stay in Torino, it was time to say “Arrivederci!” and make our way back to France.