Greetings from Torino (Turin, to all you Yanks)! Carol and Roger finally made it back to Italy.
We're exploring a new (to us) part of the country.
Torino is Italy's version of Motown.
It's the home of Fiat...which now owns Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep in the US and Lancia, AlfaRomeo (sob!) and Maserati (sob! again) in Italy.
It's also the home of Iveco, Italy's largest manufacturer of trucks and busses.
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| photo courtesy of the New Yorker |
You may know Torino as the home of Juventus, Italy's dominant soccer team.
Or as the host city for the 2010 winter Olympics.
But one thousand years before these Torino institutions existed, the city was ruled by the House of Savoy.
At the time of Italian unification, 1861, the Savoy kingdom stretched from the French border to Sardinia and east almost to Switzerland.
Vittorio Emanuele II the first king of a united Italy traced his royal ancestry back to 1003. The last Savoy king lost the Italian throne when Italy became a republic after WWII.
This makes the Savoys the longest-ruling dynasty in Europe.
This is the Savoy coat of arms.
While it looks like a patchwork quilt, each symbol represents a different duchy in their kingdom.
The Savoys were ambitious but not hasty. In the 1700's, one Savoy king famously said, "Italy is like an artichoke...to be consumed one leaf at a time."
This little shack in the heart of Torino, Palazzo Reale, was the home of the Savoy clan.
They made sure guests entering the palace got the right impression.
As part their claim to the Italian throne, the Savoys believed they could trace their lineage all the way back to the Battle of Zama, where the Romans defeated Hannibal in 202 BC.
In the mid-1800's, King Carlo Alberto decided the Palazzo Reale needed little redecorating to bring it up to a standard befitting a royal dynasty.
He expanded the "salon" where guests waited to see the king.
He upgraded his "office,"
...and he hired Carol to tend to the horse and carriage used to transport Vittorio Emanuele II's bride to her royal wedding.
Just a short bus ride from the Palace Reale...and quite close to Juventus' stadium...the Savoys built a summer cottage, sometimes referred to as Italy's Versailles.
This little portico connects two parts of the building. We took this picture because it's the most famous spot in the palazzo.
The Savoys also were patrons of the arts, but like all benefactors sometimes a commission falls flat.
Can you guess the subject of this painting?
It's Pharaoh's daughter finding Moses in the bullrushes...
re-interpreted in a "modern" 17th century setting.
Carol wants readers to note Torino also has:
- an Egyptian Museum...with the largest collection of ancient artifacts outside Egypt,
- the official Risorgimento Museum (Italian Unification),
- and a museum dedicated to the WWII resistance movement and deportation of Jews, filled with very compelling stories of tragedy and survival.
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