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evidence of the culture
photos BY (clockwise from top left) stock halia/alamy, doug young travel/alamy, m. tomasinelli/gigia marchiori photo and 1stop Images/alamy
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Turin, Turin, Turin
To everything there is a season. Now it’s the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. By Roger Toll
ontemplate an Italian holiday, and Torino is probably not the first place that leaps to mind. But with the Olympic Winter Games arriving in town next month, the capital of Italy’s prosperous Piedmont region is hoping to leverage the world’s attention to change prevailing perceptions that, as the home of Fiat and its founding family, it is little more than a musty Italian Detroit. In fact, much of the town’s former industry has moved elsewhere, and Torino is transforming itself into its postindustrial incarnation, with design, arts and culture leading the way. Reading European history through a 2,000-year slice of Torino’s architecture, like reading geological clockwise from Top left: Torino’s cafe society gathering for coffee or chocolate, olympic glory blowing in the wind, the Mole Antonelliana time in the strata of the Grand Canyon, is a good way hot towering over town, and directions to the milky way—or Via Lattea to spend time between visits to an ice hockey game, figure skating or the evening awards ceremony on the Piazza into one nation. Castello. The Madama Palace, at the center of the piazza, is itThis ordered and ornate style dictated in detail by the Saself a voyage through time, incorporating into one building a voy kings and carried out by the city’s aristocracy gives the first-century tower of the Roman Porta Pretoria, a 15th-cencity a classical flair, a little like Paris, which is not surprising tury stone castle and an 18th-century Baroque marble façade. given that the millennium-old Savoy dynasty began in ChamFor centuries, Torino was home to Europe’s oldest dynasty, béry, in the Savoie region of France. Through a 12th-century the House of Savoy, which gave the city its indelible stamp. El- marriage, the Savoys took possession of Italy’s Piedmont reegant arcades line its streets, allowing citizens to amble along gion, but began ruling it only in 1563, when the Duke of Savoy sidewalks protected from the sun or rain. The 17th-century moved his capital to Torino, an ancient city that had served as Royal Palace at the center of town was the official residence of a Roman garrison and gateway to Gaul during Julius Caesar’s transalpine wars. The duke hired the best architects and artthe Dukes of Savoy, who later became Kings of Sicily and Sardinia, and then of all Italy in 1861, after Vittorio Emanuele II, ists of his time to rebuild the city as an exalted reflection of the head of the Savoy dynasty, helped unite all the Italian states majesty of the ruling house. Wine lovers will recognize Torino as home to Italy’s premier Barolo, Barbaresco and Dolcetto wines, as well as some of Italy’s best cheeses. Piedmont cuisine is famous throughout Italy, especially for its
Elegant arcades line its streets, allowing citizens to amble along sidewalks protected from the sun or rain.
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evidence of the culture most treasured local ingredient, the white truffle. Equally delightful are the city’s charming, centuries-old coffeehouses, with their rich wood paneling, crystal chandeliers, elegant bars and attentive service from a wait staff that has worked in them for years. Torino’s doyennes meet at two such institutions: the Caffè al Bicerin, which serves the city’s most representative drink, the Bicerin, a 200-year-old secret mixture of chocolate, coffee and cream; and the romantic Baratti & Milano, a bit of Belle Époque Paris, for coffee, local chocolates and exquisite ice creams—staples since the cafe was launched 150 years ago. But this being modern Italy, the past coexists harmoniously with the present and the future, and contemporary flourishes—sculpture here and there, futuristic lighting by current artists throughout the city—wink flirtatiously at passersby. In the soaring tower of the Mole Antonelliana, the National Museum of Cinema offers an astonishing architectural play of vast and intimate spaces reminiscent of the dream worlds that cinema creates. In the cavernous void of the tower, visitors sit in comfortable chairs and watch classic scenes from the history of Italian movies dance on wallmounted screens, while in the encircling spectacle of space a glass elevator carrying visitors to the top of the tower seems to float up and down through air. From the observation deck, it’s easy to spot the city’s palaces and Baroque churches and watch the River Po flow quietly past the city’s foothills. In the distance, the line of snowcapped Alps seems to cradle the province in a perfect crescent, a 150degree span from the vantage of the observation deck, as though drawn by an architect. Looking south from the Mole Antonelliana, it is also easy to spot the city’s most distinguishing landmark, the former Fiat Lingotto factory, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, a gem of mod-
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ern architecture that Swiss architect Le Corbusier called a “cathedral of technology.� Completed in 1923, it was the largest factory in Europe, half a kilometer long, and became the emblem of the Italian automotive industry, with its futuristic test track on the roof. When the Fiat factory was closed in 1982, Lingotto was converted by innovative architect Renzo Piano into a cultural center with auditoriums, shops and restaurants; the city’s only five-star hotel; and the extraordinary art collection of the late Fiat magnate and his wife, Giovanni and Marella Agnelli, exhibited in a space lifted above the vast rooftop like an offering to heaven. The final work was completed in 1989. Across the city’s main railway line from Lingotto and connected to it by an ultramodern bridge that looks like it’s flying is the Athletes’ Village, which, like other Olympic projects, is a model of urban renovation. When the Olympic Winter Games are over, the units will serve as affordable housing. Avoiding contentious questions of cost that have stirred citizens’ wrath in other Olympic cities, the city was smart to create almost no new buildings—only the hockey palace was put up specially for the Games. Instead, it has converted older venues while investing in artistic and cultural installations that benefit the city overall. Palavela, built in 1961 for international conferences and now transformed into the figure and short-track skating venue, will be repurposed into a modern meeting hall at little cost. Likewise, the Municipal Stadium, an abandoned soccer field for the last 10 years, has been thoroughly modernized to host the opening and closing ceremonies. Afterward, it will be
“Evidence of all levels, and, the Culture� offers inwith more than triguing 30 private chaexamples of let-restaurants the cultural opportuniscattered over ties to be enjoyed at the terrain, the destinations served by classic Piedmon- Delta and its SkyTeam partners. To visit this tese cuisine sumonth’s featured destiperb. In true nation, Torino, Italy, European style, flights can be booked on SkyTeam Partner Alitalia. a long, wineFor more information braced lunch about the SkyTeam travel high on a mounnetwork, turn to page tain is the per102 or visit www.skyteam. fect complement to a busy morning of skiing. For those lucky enough to be in Torino during the Olympic Winter Games, it would be best to focus on events in the city, spend a day in the mountains, and explore some of the region’s palaces and vineyards. But don’t think you’ll get in much time on the slopes, unless you cross the border to France. Instead, get a taste of what’s in store, then come back another time for a winter holiday of extraordinary skiing and even better eating.
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he National Museum of Cinema offers an astonishing architectural play of vast and intimate spaces reminiscent of the dream worlds that cinema creates. given to the Torino Football Club. Arguably the Games’ most exciting events will be in the Alps, a 90-minute drive west of Torino. Looking for lodging in the Alpine villages tucked up against the French border may be hopeless without an intervention as miraculous as Torino’s famous Shroud of Turin, but getting back and forth between city and mountain may take twice the normal time despite shuttling trains and buses. With so many vehicles negotiating the mountainous, two-lane road that connects the various venues, the going may be slow. Sestriere is the principal city of the Via Lattea, or Milky Way, a ski region that unites six ski areas (including one across the border in France), more than 400 kilometers of trails and 88 lifts. It was built by—who else?—Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of Fiat, in the 1950s, in part as a place to test his cars on snow and ice. The mechanical innovations and avant-garde architectural styles were cutting-edge at the time, though today the tall, tubular hotels and raw concrete appear dated. Nevertheless, the skiing is excellent and vast, the slopes varied for
After next month’s Olympic Winter Games, Sky contributing editor Roger Toll will trade the ski runs of the Wasatch Range near his base in Park City, Utah, for the Via Lattea.
Torino Tour
photo by M.Tomasinelli/GM Photo
:
For general information about Torino, Italy, go to www.visitturin2006.com. For information on the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, visit www.torino2006.com. CAFFĂˆ AL BICERIN Piazza della Consolata, 5; 39-011-436-9325; www.bicerin.it BARATTI & MILANO Piazza Castello, 29; 39-011-440-7138 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CINEMA Via Montebello, 20; 39-011-812-5658, www.museonazionaledelcinema.org PINACOTECA GIOVANNI E MARELLA AGNELLI Lingotto, Via Nizza, 230; 39-011006-2008; www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it SKIING INFORMATION www.montagnedoc .it or www.vialattea.it
9/27/05
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