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| View of Piazza Castello from our room |
It was time to start our journey across the north of Italy. First stop Torino.
Davide picked us up for our nearly 2 hour drive to Turin. We arrived at our accommodation at Piazza Castello just when the car entry restrictions eased, dumped our bags and headed off to explore the city. First order of the day was to buy the
Torina & Piedmonte Card, the second task was to maximise the value of the card that we had just purchased which covered entry to most of the major museums and attractions in Turin as well as public transport. The children were pumped.
The Egyptian Museum in Turin is considered to house one of the most important collections on everything Egypt outside of Cairo. With a reputation like that, how could we not go?! After having visited Greece with the British housing a chunk of the Parthenon, it felt almost wrong to be seeing all these ancient Egyptian artefacts outside of Egypt. We have to admit though, that the museum was well done. It was also a lot bigger than we had anticipated. We had to have a brief afternoon rest back at our hotel before tackling museum #2.
Our next stop was the
Palazzo Reale, the Palace or residence of the Savoys. High on the list was the Royal Armory. We were treated to intricately ornate rooms along the way marvelling at art, the chandeliers and the opulence. The armory itself was fascinating, managing to engage the children's interest along the whole length of the room with its phenomenal collection of weaponry.
An Albany blog would not be complete without a mention of a Chinese meal. And so we fulfilled our obligation by entering a Chinese eatery because our Australian stomachs could not handle waiting until Italian eating time. The Chinese owners did not speak English and our Italian was not good enough and so we had to converse in Mandarin. Go me and my primary school mandarin! My father would have been proud.
We ended the day trying bicerin, a drink famous in Turin consisting of espresso, chocolate and milk. We were too cheap and tired to go to the original store and settled for the cafe just below our hotel. Our verdict, it was ok. But not so good that we'd the extra for it! It was essentially a mocha with a fancy name. What we did discover though, was the concept of gelato mixed with alcohol! Forget the spiders with ice-cream and soft drink...hello gelato with moscato! Ours was a trio of cream, hazelnut and stracciatella (sort of like choc-chip, or the viennetta) topped with whipped cream and drowned in moscato. Delicious!
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| In the central courtyard of the Palazzo Reale. Let's go look at some weapons! |
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| Impressive entry... |
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| Throne room |
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| The chandeliers were set so low and Elliot so tall that he could touch it with his head if he jumped a little... |
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| The Armory |
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| Each armour on display was unique and intricate |
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| You are my sunshine... |
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| I mean, do hilts really need to be this ornate? Who's going to look on the battlefield?!? |
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| Um...Perfect helmet the husband says. Like a Mandalorian. Sheesh |
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| Yeah give me a dining room like this one! |
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| The amazing ballroom. What's hard to appreciate are the plentiful mirrors making everything brighter |
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| The Chapel which used to house the Shroud of Turin |
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| Departing with style because we're Albanys |
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| Enjoying some Christmas lights |
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| Chinese dinner because it was open and we were hungry |
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| Turin's famous bicerin |
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| OMG where have you been all my life?! Gelato with moscato |
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