Markets, Madama and Mik

We had 2 attractions to tick off today. The Mercato Centrale was earmarked for the morning and the Palazzo Madama would be our afternoon activity. 

The Mercato Centrale was a building with artisan restaurants and cafes inside along with seating areas. Surrounding it on the outside was the more traditional market stalls selling fresh produce of all sorts. It was fun browsing through the stalls but probably not worth the visit if you were short on time. We bought some morning to enjoy and the coffee was good! However it just a touch too early for lunch even by our standards. The kids voted to go back to RaviolHouse because they loved it so much...and upsized their order this time around to XL servings. It was good that they got their ravioli fix because now suddenly they didn't want to eat any more ravioli ever. 

Porta Palatina. 1st century BC gate to Turin. Right next to Mercato Centrale. 

Fruits & veges outside

Meats and deli inside

Ultra popular fish monger!

Mercato Centrale of Turin

Our favourite type of purchases

We could have bought more but didn't want to spoil our lunch. Everything was demolished in seconds

Different ravioli fillings and different sauces to try

Palazzo Madama is a former palace and takes its traditional name from the embellishments it received under two queens (madama) of the House of Savoy (Savoia). A very simplified history of the Savoia in a few sentences...akin to Piedmont what the Medicis were to Florence. They were the house that contributed to Italian unification and became the Royal ruling house of Italy until the republic was formed in 1946. The Palazzo Madama is now a museum of ancient art. The building and the site itself has an interesting and complicated history starting from 1st century BC as a roman wall, and evolving to become a palace and the centre of Turin. Definitely worth visiting when in Turin.

When we arrived, a lovely security guide told us make sure we say we want to see"tutto". "Everything!" she said. So we dutifully repeated it. We later realised that there was a special exhibition on Queen Margherita of Savoy, the Queen who gave her name to the pizza! 

Like many old European structures, the building had been built upon and remodelled several times over the centuries. Parts of the Roman structure can still be seen

Church art from the 1200s

Margherita of Savoy

Some of the opulent rooms in the Palace

Her collection of clothes were on display

As were her furniture

And the crib for her children!

Monumental staircase

Last but not least, there was Mik. The best sushi in Turin a local said. The children just wanted to eat in the hexagon. It was an interesting system of all you can eat sushi. You can order 7 dishes every 10 minutes. Being the FOMO people that we were, we dutifully ordered 7 dishes every 10 minutes on the dot. The initial small dishes fooled us into ordering bigger trays and sushi rolls and by dish 14, we dreaded the arrival of the waiter with more food. This was a lesson of beware what you order!! Between a generous breakfast, doughnut morning tea, heavy carb loaded ravioli lunch and all you can eat sushi for dinner, we struggled to walk home...until we saw Grom, the gelato shop! The diet can start tomorrow!

Let's sit in a hexagon and have all you can eat sushi

Ordering was through an ipad

The first dish. So small, we need more

Um...ok this will take us a little longer

Elliot what did you order?!?! Sushi with cheese...um not so yum

Yes we were struggling by the end!

But apparently not struggling that much as we had space to try Grom, a Turin based gelato chain