A sense of faded grandeur once cast a pall over Turin

torino
A sense of faded grandeur once cast a pall
over Turin, but after a facelift and an infusion
of creativity the former Italian capital exudes
dynamism, writes John Irving, and could just
be the country’s best-kept secret.
PHOTOGRAPHY ALICIA TAYLOR
KNIGHT WATCH
The Palazzo Reale, with
gilded wooden ceilings
and intarsia floors, was
the Royal Palace of Turin.
Opposite: the Church
of Santa Maria on the
Monte dei Cappuccini
overlooking the River Po.
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L
Like many other Torinesi, the late Carlo
Fruttero, a novelist and journalist, had a selfdeprecating sense of humour. “Why come to
Turin?” he would ask me, tongue-in-cheek.
“There’s no Colosseum or Uffizi for you here!
No Grand Canal or Pompeii!” He liked to belittle
what he perceived as his native city’s lack of
attractions and exalt those of “the real Italy”
but, deep down, he was proud of its diversity.
For, artistically, architecturally and culturally,
Turin really is unlike anywhere else in the country.
CITY OF KINGS
View of Turin. Clockwise
from top: the town of
Venaria Reale; Matteo
Baronetto, chef at
Ristorante del Cambio;
carne cruda con
salsiccia e midollo
from del Cambio.
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To begin with, it was virtually untouched by the
Renaissance. Until 1562, when Emanuele Filiberto,
Duke of Savoy, moved his court here from Chambéry,
Turin had been a provincial fortified town. A series of
urban-planning schemes was undertaken to add lustre
to the place. In 1682, Duke Carlo Emanuele II embarked
on the equivalent of a modern-day marketing campaign
when he commissioned the Theatrum Sabaudiae,
a catalogue of illustrations of the architectural marvels
of his small duchy, for circulation among the courts of
Europe. Two decades later, the Treaty of The Hague
handed the Savoys the piecemeal kingdom of
Piedmont-Savoy-Nice and Sardinia on a plate.
More building mania followed as the new royal
family called in some of the greatest architects, artists
and gardeners in Europe to turn Turin into a great
cosmopolitan capital. In 1861, in the wake of the
confused events of the Risorgimento, an all-Italian
parliament was summoned to Turin and voted for
the creation of the Kingdom of Italy with the city as
national capital. And so it remained until 1865, when
the baton was passed first to Florence, then to Rome.
An inventory at the time listed 22 royal palaces
in Turin and environs. Beyond all human need, one
might say. Visiting in 1856, the English traveller Bayle
St John noted: “Turin has been swelled out to suit
the convenience of a new royalty. It disappoints the
stranger… because of its audacious air of pretension.”
What he perceived as overblown display evokes wonder
for today’s tourist. For Turin is a city of long, tree-lined
avenues and Baroque magnificence – a city fit for kings.
When I first came to live here in the late 1970s,
Turin gave off a sense of lost grandeur. A new dynasty
reigned – the Agnellis, rulers of the Fiat empire – and
the place was living up to its reputation as the “Detroit
of Italy”. Those were years of political terrorism and
industrial unrest. The art and architectural heritage
was either indifferently managed or neglected – if
Turin could be likened to a Cinquecento, its treasures
definitely took a back seat.
Since then heavy industry has given way to
creativity and design; today the city exudes dynamism.
The hosting of events such as the 1990 FIFA World
Cup, the 2006 Winter Olympics and celebrations for
the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy in 2011
made it get its act together. Buildings and roads were
given a facelift and many of the riches that were long
locked away are back on display.
Most of the royal palaces in the city centre stand
on or around the scenographic Piazza Castello. On the
north side, Palazzo Reale di Torino has an austere
white 16th-century façade, designed by Amedeo di
Castellamonte, but inside it is ablaze with decoration:
gilded wooden ceilings, intarsia floors, tapestries,
paintings, carpets, weapons, porcelain and ornamental
clocks. It was at once the main court residence and the
hub of Savoy power. Adjoining it are the chapel in
which the Holy Shroud is kept, the Royal Armoury
and the Royal Library, which houses Leonardo da
Vinci’s famous self-portrait in red chalk. The gardens
to the rear were the handiwork of André Le Nôtre of
Versailles fame. Versailles also provided the influence
for the façade of Palazzo Madama, designed by the
court architect, the Sicilian Filippo Juvarra. Slap-bang
in the middle of Piazza Castello, this bizarre building
synthesises two thousand years of history: erected on
the site of a gateway to the original Roman castrum,
it is part medieval castle and part Baroque residence.
It now houses the Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, where
the collection includes Portrait of a Man, a late
masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, another Sicilian.
A short distance away, Palazzo Carignano, which
now houses the Museo del Risorgimento, was the seat
of Italy’s first parliament. Prime minister Camillo
Cavour used to dine at the Ristorante del Cambio just
opposite. A bronze plaque surmounts his favourite table
where, more often than not, he would order roast veal
with cubes of fried semolina. He also gave his name to a
risotto made with Barolo that is still on the menu.
Through the royal court Turin developed a taste for
refined cooking and food presentation. At Ristorante
del Cambio, chef Matteo Baronetto keeps tradition alive
with classics such as agnolotti alla Piemontese, and
finanziera, a concoction of calf’s sweetbreads, brains,
bone marrow, cock’s combs and pickled mushrooms,
an old-fashioned dish that’s now making a comeback.
About a kilometre away, the sedate Castello del
Valentino stands amid the greenery on the banks of
the Po. It was refurbished in the early 17th century
as a maison de plaisance by Christine Marie, wife of
Vittorio Amedeo I of Savoy and daughter of Henry IV
of France, and looks more like a château on the Loire.
On the hillside over the river, with its fountains and
cascades, Villa della Regina is reminiscent of the
18th-century villas of Tivoli and Frascati near Rome.
All within walking distance of each another, the city
palaces have wonderful charm and variety. But even
more spectacular are the jewels in the so-called “corona
delle delizie”, or “crown of delights”, a circle of royal
residences in the countryside round Turin that was
declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. Most
are easily reachable in half an hour or so by car thanks
to a radial network of straight boulevards, originally
designed as part of the 17th-century master plan.
One such leads southwards to the monumental
Palazzina di Caccia of Stupinigi, again designed by
Juvarra. The sight of the palace’s sweeping white façade
as it comes into view among the trees is unforgettable.
I remember the astonishment on my sister’s face when
she first came to visit. “I never imagined!” she gasped.
Floating in the air atop the central cupola and visible for
miles around, the statue of a huge bronze stag by the
sculptor Francesco Ladatte (actually a copy, the original
being on display at the ticket office) reminds one of
the palace’s original function as a hunting lodge. The
Savoys loved the chase and the myth of Diana the
huntress is a leitmotif of tapestries, frescoes and
paintings throughout. Occasionally the palace stages
exhibitions and, such is the size of place from one end
to the other, you might need a hunter to visit them.
Inaugurated in 1731, the palace was the royal family’s
favourite summer residence until the 1930s. It used to
host balls, concerts, banquets and parties to salute the>
HUNTING
GROUND
Above, from left: the
Palazzina di Caccia of
Stupinigi, the royal
hunting lodge, adorned
with a bronze stag; the
River Po; Ristorante del
Cambio, a favourite of
Camillo Cavour, Italy’s
first prime minister.
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PALACE
REVOLUTION
Clockwise, from above:
Piazza dell’Annunziata,
Venaria Reale; Houseball
(1985) by Claes Oldenburg
and Coosje van Bruggen
in Rivoli Castle’s Museum
of Contemporary Art;
Basilica of Superga;
Castello del Valentino;
armoury detail in Palazzo
Reale; street life in Turin;
the Reggia di Venaria.
Buildings and roads have been given a facelift and many
riches that were long locked away are back on display.
king before and after the hunt. Napoleon used Stupinigi
as a country house when he came to Piedmont and his
carriage is one of the exhibits in the adjoining Furniture
Museum. His sister Paolina briefly lived in the palace,
too, and King Vittorio Emanuele II was married here in
1842. It is a fairytale place and in 2012 it provided the
perfect setting for an Italian TV adaptation of Rossini’s
Cenerentola. At the front, it is preceded by a semicircle
of 18th-century royal farmhouses and stables; to the
rear are fine gardens and the Stupinigi Natural Park,
which you can visit by bike.
Westwards, the imposing Rivoli Castle looms over
the eponymous town at the mouth of the Susa Valley.
Further down the valley good skiing is to be had at
resorts such as Sauze d’Oulx and Bardonecchia, venues
at the 2006 Winter Olympics. The castle dates from the
11th century and was ransacked by invading French
soldiers in 1693. It was largely restored by royal
engineer Michelangelo Garove, who also designed
a broad avenue – the present-day Corso Francia,
at 24 kilometres the longest in Turin – to connect it
physically, visually and symbolically to Palazzo Reale in
the city and the Basilica of Superga in the hills beyond,
which houses the Savoy family mausoleum. The view
from one end of the avenue to the other is stunning.
In 1984, following an overhaul, Rivoli Castle began
a new life as a Museum of Contemporary Art. The
contrast between the permanent collection, dominated
by the Italian Arte Povera and Transavanguardia
experimental movements, and the old setting is
striking. On the walls in some rooms you can still see
scrawls by French soldiers. A few years ago I witnessed
another piece of vandalism when my wife furtively
shifted one of the stones in Romulus Circle, an
installation by the British artist Richard Long, with
her foot. Contemporary art is lost on some people.
Not on Michelin-starred chef Davide Scabin,
though, who runs Combal Zero, attached to the
museum, 51st in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants
list. Scabin creates combinations of colour and flavour
that are masterpieces for the eye and palate alike. It is
no coincidence that he teaches food design at Turin
Polytechnic. He owes part of his fame to experimental
dishes such as zuppizza, a deconstructed pizza
Napoletana consisting of a confit tomato and an
anchovy on a croûton served with a mozzarella cream
soup; cyber-eggs, egg yolk and caviar wrapped in
edible film; and Combal space lasagne, specially
designed for a NASA mission. But he also offers his
own take on tradition with delicious quail and tripe
soup and veal cutlet breaded with crushed grissini,
Turin’s answer to the cotoletta alla Milanese. Combal
Zero’s sleek 110-metre dining room has parquet floors,
Le Corbusier armchairs and panoramic windows.
Dining there with the lights of the city twinkling in
the distance is an experience to treasure. The last time
I went, I had a Michelin-star snack in the kitchen with
Scabin and we watched football on the television. That
was a memorable experience too.
You’ll meet Scabin again at the Reggia di Venaria,
another royal pleasure palace-cum-hunting lodge, just
a few miles north-east of Rivoli. Not in the flesh but in
Peopling the Palaces, a series of film installations by
Peter Greenaway. These are vignettes in which, in
lieu of the customary portrait paintings, bewigged
Italian actors in period costume take the part of court
characters – marquises and doctors, handmaidens and
pages, secretaries and servants – and talk to you directly
from the walls. Scabin, naturally enough, is a cook in
the kitchen. The films were produced as part of an
eight-year restoration project that concluded in 2007,
when the palace reopened its doors. The Reggia is a
unique example of 17th- and 18th-century international
Baroque and all the usual suspects – Amedeo di
Castellamonte, Michelangelo Garove, Filippo Juvarra
– worked on it. Halls, reception rooms, chapels, stables
courtyards – the scale of the place is breathtaking. The
most important feature is the Galleria di Diana, a huge
hall flooded by light and a pervasive sense of serenity.
There were brilliant occasions here – parties, balls>
SUPREME
COURT
Clockwise, from left:
strolling Turin’s piazzas;
the Galleria di Diana in
the Reggia di Venaria,
the setting for balls
and court ceremonies;
the Rivoli Castle.
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LA DOLCE VITA
Top left: a staircase in
Palazzo Madama,
designed by Filippo
Juvarra. Right: chef
Alfredo Russo of the
Dolce Stil Novo, and
his tortino di melanzane
e pomodoro (above
left). Above right:
The American Bar at
Hotel Sitea. Opposite:
Venaria Castle.
152
and court ceremonies that would spill over into the
gardens from which, on a clear day, you can see
the peaks of at least half the Alpine chain, from
Liguria to Lombardy.
Overlooking the gardens from a terrace on the first
floor of the palace’s eastern tower is another Michelinstarred restaurant, the Dolce Stil Novo. Chef Alfredo
Russo describes his style as “new Italian”; his signature
dishes are vitel tonné with caramelised citrus fruits and
pasta in bianco, layers of egg pasta interspersed with a
mousse of parmesan at three different degrees of ageing.
The palace stands at the centre of a larger stage
that embraces the old town of Venaria Reale itself, a
labyrinth in which one courtyard leads to another via
arcades and lanes, and the immense Parco Naturale
La Mandria, now a park, once a stud farm for the
Savoy cavalry. I used to go to the park every Sunday
at dawn to jog and look out for wildlife. I often met the
same sounder of wild boar. The leader was an ugly,
hulking brute. I nicknamed him Craxi after the head of
the Italian Socialist Party, implicated during the “Clean
Hands” corruption investigation that rocked Italian
politics in the 1990s. There was a distinct resemblance.
Inside La Mandria is Borgo Castello, a royal
holiday residence. It was here that Vittorio Emanuele
II began his affair with Rosa Vercellana, nicknamed
“la Bela Rosin”, later to become his morganatic wife.
Other holiday homes were acquired towards the
end of the 18th century, but they are further afield.
The castle at Aglié, 48 kilometres north-west of Turin,
is like Venaria in miniature; the one at Casotto, in the
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mountains 112 kilometres to the south-west, is
currently closed for restoration work. In the 19th
century, Govone castle, 96 kilometres away in the wine
hills near Asti, was used by King Carlo Felice to host
other European crowned heads in the summer months.
In its converted stables is a fine restaurant. The chef,
Pier Bussetti, is, like Davide Scabin, a devotee of food
design. A dish of his is a permanent exhibit at the
Milan Triennale Design Museum. Outlandishly named
Spoon Shock Notorious’ Spark, it consists of a cube
of raw tuna on fresh tomato with a slice of ginger and
a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, followed by a capsule of
Asian spices, white wine and dry vermouth.
As a teenager Jean-Jacques Rousseau worked in
Turin as a footman. He was no fan of the hereditary
monarchy. “The disadvantages of regency have been
put in place of those of election,” he wrote, “apparent
tranquillity has been preferred to wise administration,
and men have chosen rather to risk having children,
monstrosities, or imbeciles as rulers to having disputes
over the choice of good kings.”
The scenically extravagant castle of Racconigi,
a small town 80 kilometres due south of Turin, was
acquired by the House of Savoy in the 16th century and
used as a country retreat in the summer months. It had
diplomatic functions, too. The Galleria del Cardinale
was a corridor of apartments for visiting cardinals, each
with its own key as in a modern hotel. The Chinese
Apartment, so-called for its oriental décor, was where
Czar Nicholas II stayed when he came to discuss the
Balkan question with Vittorio Emanuele III in October
1909. A small hut similar to a Russian dacha was built
in the vast palace grounds to commemorate the event.
Then as now, political violence was rife – the Italian
king’s father, Umberto I, had been assassinated in 1900
and we all know what happened to the czar eight years
later – so security was tight.
The news travelled as far as Australia. On 27
October 1909, the Bendigo Advertiser wrote: “A further
example of the remarkable measures of precaution
observed at Racconigi to ensure the safety of the Czar
and his host the King of Italy is reported in connection
with a court concert held during the Czar’s brief visit.
An order was raised compelling all ladies attending
the concert to arrive at the building without cloaks,
mantles, or reticules, thus obviating the possibility
of their bringing bombs or other weapons.”
Three days earlier the two heads of state had
travelled to another royal castle, Pollenzo, near Alba,
for a shooting party in its reserve. The architectural
complex there is now home to the Slow Food-inspired
University of Gastronomic Sciences and a four-star
hotel, the Albergo dell’Agenzia. If you want to sleep in
a Savoy residence, this could be a good base for your
holiday. Or stay in Turin and branch outwards, but be
sure to leave yourself plenty of time to cover the whole
circuit – 10 days, say, maybe more. A whistle-stop
motoring tour would, as Italians say, be like going to
Rome without seeing the Pope. #
THE FIN E
PR IN T
GETTING THERE
There are flights to Turin
from major European cities
such as London, Barcelona,
Madrid, Munich, Frankfurt,
Brussels, Düsseldorf and
Amsterdam, and domestic
flights from Rome, Naples,
Bari and Palermo. The city
can also by easily reached
by car and train. The
palaces and castles
mentioned are best visited
by car. For opening times,
admission details and more
information, see the
websites of the individual
venues, all with English
versions.
STAY
Grand Hotel Sitea Elegant
four-star hotel
in the centre of town.
Via Carlo Alberto 35,
+39 011 51 70171,
grandhotelsitea.it
NH Torino Lingotto Tech
four-star hotel in a former
Fiat factory, converted into
an exhibition centre by
architect Renzo Piano.
Via Nizza, 262, 10126, Turin,
+39 011 66 42000,
nh-hotels.it
VITAMINA M Cool design
B&B in a semi-central
bohemian neighbourhood.
Via Belfiore 18,
+39 347 1526 130,
vitaminam.com
Carlo Alberto Smart B&B,
a stone’s throw from Piazza
Castello. Via Carlo Alberto
41, +39 011 86 00056,
carloalberto-torino.it
STAY OUT OF TOWN
Albergo dell’Agenzia
Grand four-star hotel in
a former Savoy residence.
Via Fossano 21, 12042
Pollenzo (Cuneo) - Bra,
+39 0172 45 8600,
albergoagenzia.it
EAT
Ristorante del Cambio
Piazza Carignano 2, Turin,
+39 011 54 6690,
delcambio.it
Combal Zero
Piazzale Mafalda di Savoia,
Rivoli, Turin, +39 011 95
65225, combal.org
Dolce Stil Novo
Piazza della Repubblica, 4,
Venaria Reale, Turin,
+39 011 49 92343,
dolcestilnovo.com
Ristorante Le Scuderie
del Castello di Govone
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II
17, Govone, Cuneo,
+39 0173 32 8096,
castellodigovone.it
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