Tuesday, April 27, 2010

A Turin Walking Tour

After lunch we had some time to kill before our time slot to see the Holy Shroud.  We decided to walk around and enjoy the beautiful spring day.

We started out at the very center, the Piazza Castello, with its elegant and grand palazzi buildings. 


On one side is Palazzo Madama, which also houses the Museo Civica d'Arte Antica.  So if this is the Piazza Castello, then where is the castle you say?


We walked around the Palazzo Madama and saw the castle facade.  It's actually connected to the Palazzo Madama.  I'm not sure how that came about but it is rather interesting.   


We walked along Via Po towards the Po River.  Via Po is one of the most beautiful streets in the ciy, flanked with beautiful baroque style palazzis, and connected with portico walkways.

We made a left turn off of Via Po and to find the Mole Antonelliana, an impressive landmark building that towers over the city of Turin.  It was originally built as a Jewish synagogue when construction started in 1863.  It now houses the National Museum of Cinema and is said to be the tallest museum in the world.  On a side note, Stef says 'mole' means 'big thing'.  Oh.


We came across this interesting looking artwork while wandering around.


Finally we arrived at the huge PiazzaVittorio Veneto, just next to the river.  Across the River Po, we could see the Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio, which resembles the Pantheon in Rome.


On our way back to Piazza Castello on the other side of Via Po, we spotted another beautiful church that we had missed before while passing on the walkway underneath.


We took a peek inside.  It was beautiful for just another 'normal' church.



We stumbled into not one but two galleria style buildings.  They reminded me of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milano with the glass dome arcade that lets in lots of light.


I imagine there must be many more gallerias in this city.  These were just the ones we found by accident.


And that was our walk around Turin on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  So far, we had really enjoyed the culinary and the architecture side of the city.  Next up, the Holy Shroud of Turin.




2 comments:

Valerie Chong said...

hello babe! guess who? :))
though I'd drop a little comment, really informative blogposts u have here! you're so dedicated! don't know how you do it with all the names of the buildings and history for your posts, sounds like a lot of work.. coz i can never remember things like that. haha.

love your adventures, la dolce vita indeed! alrighty, ciao! ;)

lsheryl said...

Hi! Glad you stopped by. Well, sometimes (ok, most times) it's a real pain to post, but it's a real satisfaction when I finally get it done. Plus my memory is so bad so this actually helps me record my memories. And I get to practice my English. I'm afraid of losing it being surrounded by all things Italian!

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