TurinDay for Petrol Heads and Foodies

Good afternoon from the Southern Tyrol town of Bolzano. On Wednesday, we spent another full day in Turin. We walked along the Po River which winds through the city heads east and eventually spills out into the Adriatic near Venice. We visited the National Automobile Museum which features an extensive collection cars from the first Fiat prototype with 4 hp, developed in the late 1800s, through to a recently designed hydrogen-fuel concept car. Turin was the original home to the economically important Italian automobile industry including the largest and earliest company, Fiat. We went to visit the massive Fiat plant which closed in 1982 and now houses an equally massive indoor mall. Fiats are now made at other plants in Italy by a large, multinational firm called Stellantis that includes many recognizable brands like Chrysler, Peugeot, Citroen. Our goal was to see the “test track” that circles the top of the former factory. Cars came off the line and were taken to the roof by a long winding ramp. Unfortunately the test track was closed. So no pictures.
The Piedmont Region sits at the foot of the Alps. We’ve only seen brief glimpses of the mountains due to cloud cover but when they reveal themselves, they are a beautiful backdrop to the city which hosted the Olympics in 2006. Rice is grown in the region and so rissotto is very popular. We had some for dinner on Tuesday. The nebbiolo grape grows here and is turned into world famous Barolo wines. Interestingly, anchovies and fish like tuna are very popular here. The anchovy love affair dates back to the ancient trade routes into France. To avoid paying salt taxes, the salt barrels were filled with relatively cheap fish like anchovies and then extracted . So lots of anchovies on the menu. Not everyone’s first choice, but great if you like salt.
We had a light lunch at an Italian market called Eataly. Helen tried the anchovies with green garlic and parsley sauce. Mike thought he was ordering pasta with vegetables but instead got pasta made from vegetables. Eataly has a large wine shop filled with wines from all over Italy. Given the heat, we chose not to stop for a tasting as we were already flagging but it was fun to look at so many varietals that we never see in Canada.
Last night we celebrated Helen’s recent retirement by treating her to a Michelin star restaurant called Scannabue. We had a fabulous tasting menu of regional dishes including veal in a variety of forms, cod and potatoes, agnolotti which are small pasta pockets stuffed with a delicious mix of rabbit, pork and veal, and finally a decadent chocolate/ hazelnut dessert. Right out of a Stanley Tucci episode and we acted suitable impressed with each dish. We did not order a Barolo, Mac, although I had a glass of Nebbiolo ( a less expensive version than Barolo) before dinner. ( Nancy, Mike had a negroni and we thought of you)
Today was a travel day. We left Turin early and trained our way through Milan, Verona and then we left the relatively flat terrain of the Po river valley and climbed towards the Alps to the city of Bolzano. It’s a real gem with an old town where no cars are allowed, beautiful buildings, views towards the snow capped mountains and an unusual number of excellent she stores. After enjoying a cold drink and bratwurst we took a visit to the museum dedicated to Otzi - the iceman. Or as our guide translated to English - gelato man! Fascinating story of his discovery in the 1990s not too far from here and all that has been learned about life 5300 years ago. Our biking starts tomorrow after we are transported 80 kms or so to the Brenner Pass at the border with Austria. It’s going to be another scorcher. Looking forward to getting on the bikes. We return to Bolzano in 2 days on our way south and will have a chance to see this town a bit more.
Until then, Love Heather/Mom/GrandmaRead more