Travel tales
Adventures from here, there and everywhere.
Italy: Turin and Milan
Oct 30-Nov 14
Northern Italy in November was a terrible idea. Right as we were circling over the countryside on the plane we could see villages and farmland glossy with the reflection of grey water. Italy was experiencing bad weather and flooding.
We landed in Milan's international airport, which in keeping with the city's long tradition of design, didn't disappoint. Directly boarding a train to the city (the airport is 30 mins out of town), we arrived at the famous Milano Centrale train station. Grandiose as it was, we didn't have much time to explore since our train to Turin was supposed to be leaving in 30 minutes. However, the train was 30 minutes late and we had time for a traditional Roman pizza. This includes fresh dough (one person was constantly making new dough), olive oil, tomato paste without many spices and cheese Simplicity and very good quality ingredients are the key to this 5 Euro train station pizza! Oh, I forgot to mention it was cooked in a real wood-fired oven with a stack of logs beside it. I knew I was in Italy with the first bite.
Riding the fast train to Turin was a real pleasure. It takes only 45 min, going at 250-300 km an hour to zip through the countryside in style and comfort. I continue to dream that, one day, we will have fast speed trains in Canada.
Arriving in Turin, I felt quite at home. In November the streets were quiet, sunny and crisp with the autumn air. Old ladies were going in and out of shoe stores and bakeries, moms pushing strollers and the odd suited man or woman walked out of large, bureaucratic buildings with enormous and very expensive looking wooden doors. Makes you wonder what's behind those big doors...
The feeling of old money never really left me while in Turin. Our AirBnB was located on one of the major boulevards right beside a Metro exit. The large front gate with one way mirrored glass leads to a courtyard with sea-themed cobblestone work, a few cars parked and a ramp to an underground garage. The underwater sea-theme continued as we entered the front foyer which had paintings of sea creatures and mosaics of naked mermaids, fish, seaweed, and clamshells in various colored stones. In the middle of the foyer, beside the grand marble staircase was an elevator to the upper floors. I was really excited, thinking that our apartment will be either on the first or second floor of this impressive building. Sadly, our host led us away to the back exit and to the guest house. Not a little less impressive itself, the loft-style guesthouse was furnished with its own tasteful artwork clearly by the same artists of the foyer. The bathroom was small but fully marble, walls and floor. A huge painting of a man and a woman making love hung suggestively above our large and comfortable bed. Across the bed was a small balcony that opened up the surrounding old mansions. The only thing we weren't allowed to inside the apartment, told us Giovanni, our host, was to smoke inside. Giovanni seemed around my grandfather's age but had the swagger of a 25-year-old: the background image on his large white iPhone was a picture of himself, tanned and wearing sunglasses on a beach.
The next few days were mostly spent trying to avoid the rain while walking up and down Turin's city center. We found a cozy coffee shop to work out of and drank lots of delicious cappuccinos until 11 am and espresso after. It's a sin in Italy to have coffee with milk if it's past 11 am as coffee with milk is considered a breakfast drink. We made our way to several aperitivo bars in the hipster area of town and sampled some local cuisine such as raw beef tartar and stewed rabbit. Piedmont, the area of Italy in which Turin is located has lots of great red wines to pair with these meat dishes. I really enjoyed grapes like Nebbiolo and Barbera.
Besides wine and aperitivo, the other reason why we come to visit Turin was Club to Club festival. Widely known amongst electronic music aficionados, Club to Club has been the highlight of Turin's music scene in November for the last 20 years. Due to its size, it no longer involves, as the name suggests, going from "club to club." The festival is now held in what was once Fiat's car factory, which the city has transformed into a sports and events center. The big name for this year's show was Aphex Twin, a long-standing classic in the electronic music world. My personal favorite was Jamie XX, who in the midst of the terrible weather that had enveloped Northern Italy, brought out some funky disco and made it feel like summer. The crowd was also exceptionally well behaved, something we weren't expecting given our experience with Italian party goers abroad in places like Ibiza and Portugal.
After the festival, we made our way to the de facto capital of Northern Italy— Milan. Besides exceptionally well-dressed people and the large cathedral in the middle of the city, Milan wasn't terribly exciting, perhaps because of the gloomy weather. There is some interesting history and cool landmarks, like the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the Duomo, and lots of high-end shopping, if you can afford it. The party district, Navigli, is definitely a must see on a Friday and Saturday night!