Torino was one of the "highlights" of Italy according to Loney Planet, so I decided to make a day trip out of it since it was close to Milan. Also, I had to rearrange my entire Italian leg of the trip since I would be meeting one of my friends from back home in early December in Rome. Initially, I wanted to tour all of Italy from the north in Venice all the way down to Sicily, but I decided I would spend more time focusing on the Northern Half of Italy over the next couple of weeks.
Torino is known for its Fiat car factories, along with its baroque and renaissance architecture. I arrived before noon from a train from Milan and took a tourist map from the tourist office along with me to explore whatever there was to see here. The main Plazas were called Piazza Castello and Piazza San Carlo, both easily reached by heading directly north from the train station. It'd be hard to miss. There were palaces and museums and churches around both plazas, with huge open space for people to congregate.
Visiting the two most popular plazas only took about 15 minutes, and I headed further north to see what else I could run into. The next stop was the Duomo di San Giovanni Battista, which is considered to be Torino's main catherdral. Here, they say that the church houses the linen cloth that was used to wrap Christ when he was crucified. Adjacent to it was the Royal Palace along with the palace park grounds which were open to the public. It still looked like autumn in Torino where the leaves were still slowly falling to the ground, and turning from green to brown.
The last stop on my Torino tour was the Mole Antonelliana, which houses the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. The Mole Antonelliana is a huge architectural masterpiece that towers over the city at 167m, and is on the 2 cent Italian Euro piece. I took a lift to the top where I saw some views of an overcast city.
The Cinema museum was the highlight I must say. It was an interactive museum that first showed the initial development of the uses of light to create different scenes (shadow puppets) to the development of illusions with light and lenses, to the creation of early film and animation (Zoetropes), and all the way to what we have now with all the technological advancements in movie-making magic. You could easily spend hours just going through each of the rooms and learning about the evolution of cinema. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to this city.
By the time I got back to Milano, Giulio was ready to cook us some dinner! I decided I would help make some dessert - an Argentinian Pancake dessert that I tried when I was in Istanbul. The dinner was excellent, some chicken breasts with a wine and mushroom sauce and bread. The dessert....was burnt and almost inedible...I really have to learn how to cook better. One word of advice for anyone who is going to start couchsurfing....LEARN TO COOK! At least learn one simple recipe from your own culture so you have something to share with others around the world!
Torino is known for its Fiat car factories, along with its baroque and renaissance architecture. I arrived before noon from a train from Milan and took a tourist map from the tourist office along with me to explore whatever there was to see here. The main Plazas were called Piazza Castello and Piazza San Carlo, both easily reached by heading directly north from the train station. It'd be hard to miss. There were palaces and museums and churches around both plazas, with huge open space for people to congregate.
Visiting the two most popular plazas only took about 15 minutes, and I headed further north to see what else I could run into. The next stop was the Duomo di San Giovanni Battista, which is considered to be Torino's main catherdral. Here, they say that the church houses the linen cloth that was used to wrap Christ when he was crucified. Adjacent to it was the Royal Palace along with the palace park grounds which were open to the public. It still looked like autumn in Torino where the leaves were still slowly falling to the ground, and turning from green to brown.
The last stop on my Torino tour was the Mole Antonelliana, which houses the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. The Mole Antonelliana is a huge architectural masterpiece that towers over the city at 167m, and is on the 2 cent Italian Euro piece. I took a lift to the top where I saw some views of an overcast city.
The Cinema museum was the highlight I must say. It was an interactive museum that first showed the initial development of the uses of light to create different scenes (shadow puppets) to the development of illusions with light and lenses, to the creation of early film and animation (Zoetropes), and all the way to what we have now with all the technological advancements in movie-making magic. You could easily spend hours just going through each of the rooms and learning about the evolution of cinema. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to this city.
By the time I got back to Milano, Giulio was ready to cook us some dinner! I decided I would help make some dessert - an Argentinian Pancake dessert that I tried when I was in Istanbul. The dinner was excellent, some chicken breasts with a wine and mushroom sauce and bread. The dessert....was burnt and almost inedible...I really have to learn how to cook better. One word of advice for anyone who is going to start couchsurfing....LEARN TO COOK! At least learn one simple recipe from your own culture so you have something to share with others around the world!
View from the top of the Mole Antonelliana
Piazza San Carlo
Cathedral di San Giovanni Battista
Royal Palace Parkgrounds
Mole Antonelliana
Museo Nazionale del Cinema
Scrumptious Dinner
Destroyed Dessert
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