Italian Cork

It’s with great pleasure that I saw open-air markets taking off here in Cork as I used to go for my shopping to different markets in Turin. In fact, we have 42 open-air markets and 6 covered ones… and if you like antiques, a good bargain or just looking at old stuff… we have il Balon every other Sunday.

Ok, let’s go for some shopping now… fancy some fresh, earthy and yummy food: andiamo a Porta Palazzo Europe’s largest open-air market. Porta Palazzo is open 6 days a week and it is located in one of the oldest part of the city. It is an amazing feeling to go there for some shopping and find yourself among Roman’s vestige: this the Porta Palatina which (Wikipedia says) is the Roman Age city gate. The gate provided access through the city walls of Julia Augusta Taurinorum (former name of Torino). La Porta Palatina represents the primary archaeological evidence of the city’s Roman phase, and is one of the best preserved 1st-century BC Roman gateways in the world. It’s always good unire l’utile al dilettevole (to get to do what is useful with what is amusing). 

La Basilica di Superga has a special place in my heart. From here we can appreciate a beautiful view and enjoy this majestic church built between 1717 and 1731, under Vittorio Amedeo II Duke of the Savoia family and designed by Juvarra, one of the most famous Italian architects. During the Spanish war of secession Torino was under French attack and in 1706 that Duke Vittorio Amedeo II went on the Collina di Superga and promised a church to Our Lady  if the Savoiardi were victorious…. as you can see they won and this is the ‘church’… but only tow loaves of bread a month for Pietro Micca’s widow…

La collina di Superga became also sadly famous as on the 4th of May in 1949 at 17:03 when the ‘Grande Torino’ football team had their fatal plane crash and they all lost their lives. Since then, the 4th of May was designated ‘world football day’ by FIFA. It was a tragedy and the Torino fans, including my father, still remember and talk about that great team who were so good they made up almost the entire national team at that time.

The funeral

Some of you may know that in Torino there are 2 football teams: Torino and Juventus. When I was a child my father used to tell me that the original people from Torino (I Torinesi such himself and his family) would support the Torino team, while people who migrated from the South in order to find a job in Fiat, would support Juventus. I don’t know if this is true, but Wikipedia says that Juventus Football club was bought by Edoardo Agnelli in 1923… so it might be.

Il Grande Torino

The Agnelli family founded Fiat in 1899. Fiat brought hundreds of thousands of people from the South of Italy up to the North. Turin was said to be ‘the third southern Italian town after Naples and Palermo’. The integration between these 2 different worlds, was not without difficulties. Initially, the people from the South suffered because of discrimination and homesickness while people from the North found the houses they rented to immigrants destroyed with goats camping in their front rooms and tomatoes in their tubs… we don’t know what came first (the goat or the discrimination), but nowadays it is very difficult to find a Torinese purosangue (thoroughbred). In fact, we all are fruit of the integration which finally won over prejudices, misunderstandings and real differences. I am myself a mix between a man from Piemonte and a woman from Sardegna. Grazie a Dio!

And now, let’s stay in the city centre, here we can really breath, feel and see the history, the art and the culture of this town… even if we don’t know exactly when, how and what happened… we will be able to enjoy that feeling… believe me.

If you love museums… you’ll be spoilt for choice!

Let’s walk through Piazza Castello, Piazza San Carlo, Via Roma and let’s go to the museo Egizio. One of the greatest in the world, second only to the museum in Cairo. Recently renovated, it hosts famous mummies, artefacts, books, enormous statues (I don’t know how they managed to transport them over… probably it wasn’t a Ryanair offer) and much more including great documentaries which help us to better understand the history of ancient Egypt.

Let’s keep strolling around the city centre… do you enjoy nature? Non c’é problema… ecco il ‘Museo Regionale delle Scienze Naturali’, I can’t wait to take my son Kevin there… you can see why! 

If  you’d like to know more about Italian history, something completely new or maybe a subject that’s already close to your heart, we have several museums such as the Museo Storico Nazionale Dell’Artiglieria (artillery), the most ancient museum in Torino with exhibits coming from throughout the world or the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano (Italian Resurgence) which is a true journey in Italian history from Italian unification to the 1st world war with artefacts, weapons, uniforms, documents and art on display.

Talking about museums… there is something new and very exciting in Torino or rather underneath Torino. In fact, quite recently, during the construction of the parking garage for the Porta Susa train station they discovered a tunnel system which is more than 15 km long and consists of deeper main tunnels and service tunnels closer to the surface.

Allora let’s go to the Museo Civico Pietro Micca and find out what happened to Pietro Micca in one of the tunnels. We can descend and discover the intricate underground labyrinth. I haven’t been there yet, but I read that it is cold regardless of the weather outside. The ceilings are so low that we can’t stand but we’ll have to hunch down to get through. Interestingly, there are bricks that stick out of the wall which helped tunnellers and soldiers to know where they were when lights had to be extinguished. These tunnels were built by duke Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia to protect la Cittadella. He wanted the Cittadella to be the most modern and effective fortification in the world when he decided to transfer the capital of his dukedom from Chamberry to Turin. It consisted of a pentagon with a strongholds at each of its five corners. All around was a wide moat… left empty as the ground was too porous. The Cittadella was started in 1564 and finished in 1577. Apparently, the duke didn’t hesitate to destroy a couple of churches in order to accomplish his project and legends say that the defensive walls were filled with the debris of monuments, headstones, antic Roman ruins and other antique treasures he tore down. 

During the famous Spanish war of succession the Cittadella  was attacked by Louis XIV and his more than forty thousand soldiers.The Torinesi were able to repel the attack thanks to the strategic tunnel system.  Extra holes had been dug and filled with explosive. The tunnellers used slow-burning fuses to time the explosions with incredible precision in order to destroy the cannons of their enemies from below.  And now we’ll finally find out what happened to Pietro Micca.

Margherita Restelli tells us that:

On the night between 29 and 30 August 1706, a battery of French grenadiers found the entrance to the service tunnel and entered it. Micca knew he had to stop them. If they reached the lower tunnel, they would have had easy access to the heart of the Citadel and could have taken it from inside.

He was alone, and therefore unable to stop the enemy with force. Micca decided to ignite a short fuse, causing an immediate explosion that destroyed the stairs leading to the lower tunnel. The explosion prevented the French soldiers from entering the Citadel, but also resulted in the death of Pietro Micca, who was hurled into the air by the strong blast wave and choked by fumes.

A few days later, the steps where Micca had exploded the bomb were quickly bricked over. Micca’s body was buried in a mass grave. A year later his wife asked the duke for a pension and she was granted two loaves of bread per day.

So now we know what happened to this brave tunneller and we can all go and visit this part of Turin.

Just don’t mention art… please… to give you just a little taste, I will just mention that we have  Leonardo Da Vinci’s self portrait…

I dare say that we might have enough of museums, our feet are sore and we are really thirsty… I have something in store for you, let’s go!