By Gayle Keck
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, May 15, 2005
You might think of Turin as a one-relic town, known only for the Shroud of Turin, that singed, mended, priceless piece of cloth that may or may not -- depending on whom you believe -- bear the image of Jesus.
But look out. Scenes of Turin will soon spill forth from your TV. Jay Leno will start cracking shroud jokes. You're going to get up close and personal with Turin, because it's hosting the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
Known as Torino in Italian, this city of about 860,000 people lies 86 miles west of Milan, though it's decidedly less glitzy than its fashionable neighbor. At the moment, it's considered a tourism backwater, even by Italians -- and that's actually not so bad. You'll find nary a postcard or tacky souvenir. Taxi drivers shyly ask for help with their English. In fact, you won't encounter many English speakers at all; French is the more common second language.
Next February, though, 1.5 million spectators, 10,000 members of the media, more than 5,000 officials, coaches, judges and staff, and 20,000 volunteers will descend on Turin. And don't forget the 2,500 athletes. All ice events except curling will take place in the city, while the other events -- from bobsled racing to slalom skiing to the biathlon -- will whoosh, schuss and bang in three mountain sites outside of town.
After all the Greek drama leading up to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Turin is determined to be different. No will they/won't they speculation about whether the venues will be ready. Those in charge want everything finished well in advance of the opening ceremony on Feb. 10. And, to up the degree of difficulty, officials have decided to build a subway system, move the regular railroad underground and install some subterranean parking garages.
Today, there are as many construction sites as tourist sights. Here's what's going on, and why you just might want to visit anyway.
Bob (or Roberto) the Builder types can sign up for a hard-hat tour of Turin's Olympic building sites, offered by Turin Tourism. I set off on the tour with multilingual guide Michela Maggiora, joined by another American and a pack of Italian businessmen.
Tough times descended on Turin in the 1960s, Maggiora told us, and many factories on the city's south side lie vacant. No surprise, then, that much of the Olympic renaissance is based in that area.
The Lingotto complex, an old Fiat factory transformed into a convention center by architect Renzo Piano, is the hub of Olympic activity. It will house major media outlets and the Olympic Committee, and it has a dramatic arched bridge spanning a wasteland of railroad tracks to connect it with the Olympic Village. The indoor speed skating venue will also be nearby.
The Lingotto already holds two Meridian hotels, a shopping mall and a minuscule museum, the Giovanni and Marella Agnelli Picture Gallery. But with works by Tiepolo, Canaletto, Manet, Renoir, Matisse, Modigliani and others, collected by Fiat heirs (the car company is headquartered in Turin), the place packs a punch. Atop the building, you can see the Fiat factory's banked test track, placed there because cars would rise upward in the production process, emerging on the roof to zoom a few trial ovals. The fabulously unnecessary danger of it all is exhilarating.
The opening and closing ceremonies will unfold in a different venue, a renovated Mussolini-era stadium. When I visited the site, workers were busily attempting to transform Il Duce's hulking concrete mass.
Next door, a vast Hockey Palace is under construction, and this new building is a tribute to modern Italian design. The rink will be 25 feet below ground level, to keep it from dwarfing the nearby stadium -- and to make it a shorter climb into the stands, which are half above ground and half below. Plans call for the 12,332-seat arena to be sheathed in stainless steel embossed with bubbles, giving the facade a "vibrating" effect, according to the designers. Turin is laced with streetcar tracks, and the orange cars seem to careen out of nowhere, contributing to the video-game thrill of driving on the city's construction-clogged thoroughfares. Now Turin's building a subway nearly six miles long with 15 stations, 13 of which are intended to be open by November.
Maggiora led us down a rickety construction stairway into the 75-foot-deep maw of the Vinzaglio station site, where we picked our way around debris to have a chat with the foreman. The Italian businessmen asked technical questions (Maggiora gave me a running commentary in English), but I was more curious about buried treasures.
I imagine that every Italian city rests on an exquisite landfill of ancient amphora and marble columns, so I asked if anything good had surfaced during the tunneling. Turns out there were enough archaeological finds to fill a small museum based at the Collegno station.
The Olympic events most likely besieged by fans will take place at the Palavela, where figure skaters will hit the ice. The existing 1960s-era structure was groovy, baby, but its interior has been completely gutted and rebuilt, leaving intact the original soaring wings that serve as a roof.
Before the remodeling began, Maggiora told us, cameramen assessed the best vantage points for shooting skaters' feet, and camera locations were designed accordingly. Workers labored 24/7 to have the retrofit completed for the European Figure Skating Championships in January. They made it -- a good sign for the rest of the construction, which includes eight sports facilities, two additional Olympic villages for mountain events and seven "media villages."
The most ambitious project has come to symbolize the city's will to move beyond its grubby industrial past. Turin is undergrounding the railroad lines that sliced the town in half. When the job is finished in 2011, Maggiora said, the resulting boulevard will become the "cultural center of the city," with major contemporary sculptures, a library and a university extension. So what about that Shroud? You can see photos of the famous relic at the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, but the real thing is rarely revealed. True believers can learn more at the Museum of the Shroud, where the cloth is stashed -- away from the public -- until its next appearance at the chapel. Maggiora said negotiations were underway with the Vatican for the relic to be displayed during the Olympics. "It's difficult, very difficult," she sighed, conjuring images of much prayer, many cigarettes and unknown quantities of espresso that would no doubt be involved in the discussions.
Otherwise, Turin offers plenty of worthy sights that tend to be overshadowed by the publicity-hogging religious relic.
The city's past reaches back to the Roman Empire, and bits of towers and city walls pop up here and there. But at its heart, Turin clutches some baroque masterpieces, linked by arcaded sidewalks that line nearly 10 miles of city-center streets. Most of the porticos, joined together by arches and elegant stone columns, are from the early 17th century, but some date as far back as the Middle Ages. Those along one side of Via Po even cover street crossings, built to protect the Savoy royal family, rulers of the Piedmont area in times past, on their strolls to the Po River.
Turin's grandest arcades also happen to lead you to some of the city's grandest cafes. When Italy was reunified in 1861, Turin was named the capital. But when the court decamped to Florence shortly thereafter, the bourgeois class rose to rule finance and industry -- as well as some of the swankiest cafes you'll ever see. Many of the best are tucked around the Piazza San Carlo (though, alas, the piazza itself is currently a construction zone).
Torinese love their chocolate, and you'll find gianduia -- the blend of chocolate and hazelnuts that was invented here -- in an array of intoxicating incarnations, from candies to gelato to specialty coffee drinks. Hot chocolate is a specialty, too. There's no better place to indulge than the opulent Caffe Torino or under the dazzling Murano-glass chandelier at the Caffe San Carlo. But stick your head into any cafe or confectioner that catches your fancy. You'll discover elaborate hand-painted walls, ornate ceilings and lavish crystal.
While you're in the area, stroll over to the Piazza Castello and take in the Palazzo Madama, which Maggiora claimed contains "the whole history of Turin." The palace incorporates portions of a Roman gate and a medieval castle, plus a wedding-cake baroque facade designed by 18th-century superstar Filippo Juvarra. And -- you guessed it -- the whole thing is under renovation, which is scheduled to be completed in December. Turin is known for its Egyptian museum, which claims the largest collection outside of Cairo. I didn't count mummies or total up tomb loot, but I'd guess London's British Museum can't be far behind. Most of the exhibits could use restaging, and a few labels would help, but for creepy-good unwrapped dead people from thousands of years ago, this place is hard to beat. And then there are the naughty paintings I discovered on one of the papyri . . .
Turin's Olympic logo supposedly echoes the city's tallest building, the 548-foot-tall, pointy-topped Mole Antonelliana. This architectural oddity, completed in 1863, was originally intended to be a synagogue. I suspect it was considered wildly futuristic at the time; now it just seems looming and quirky. The Mole houses the National Museum of Cinema, along with an observation platform perfect for surveying the mountains where Olympic ski events will take place, or grabbing a bird's-eye view of where construction has Turin's traffic snarled.
Will Turin get all that work completed in time for the Games? Somehow, you've got to believe a town that can perch a test track on a rooftop will figure out how to be ready for the Olympics.
Gayle Keck last wrote for Travel about San Francisco.
Details: Turin and the Winter Games
GETTNG THERE: The cheapest access to Turin is to fly into Milan's Malpensa airport. From there, you can rent a car, take an intercity bus from the airport or transfer into Milan and take an intercity train. British Airways, Continental, United and Delta offer round-trip connecting service from D.C. to Malpensa from $903, with restrictions.
Turin's airport is undergoing expansion prior to the Olympics, so expect more flights and easier access as the Games approach. United, Delta, Lufthansa and Air France fly from D.C. to Turin with one stop, starting at $1,697 round trip.
THE 2006 WINTER GAMES: The Games run Feb. 10-26. The opening and closing ceremonies and all ice sports, except for curling, will take place in Turin. The remaining venues are in mountain valleys to the north and west; trains connecting to free shuttle buses will move spectators between Turin's two stations and the mountain locations. Details: http://www.torino2006.org/ .
The official U.S. ticket seller for Olympics events is CoSport (877-457-4647, http://www.cosport.com/ ), which also offers three- to five-night packages, including lodging, some meals and event tickets. Prices range from $4,549 to $10,949 per person. Individual tickets to less popular events, like curling, start at $34, but you'll pay at least $118 to see figure skating -- and many of the cheap tickets are sold out. You can still snag a premium seat to the opening ceremonies, if you're willing to pay $1,260, which makes the $560 closing ceremonies seats look like a bargain.
WHERE TO STAY: Lodging for the Olympics is going to be scarce, according to tourism officials, particularly in the mountain areas. A Web site -- http://www.jumbograndieventi.it/ -- is available (but only in Italian so far) with info and an application that you fill out and fax to request a booking. At press time, the site wasn't offering rooms in Turin proper; rooms in the surrounding cities of Torino Province ranged from $114 per night double at a two-star in Scarmagno to $198 for a three-star in Cavanese.
If you book your hotel a la carte, be sure you can connect with public transportation to reach the event venues. CoSport also offers lodging at two hotels in Savigliano (45 minutes to one hour from Turin by train) in blocks of three to five nights for $608 to $630 per night double. To stay in the mountains, contact Montagnedoc ( http://www.montagnedoc.it/ ), the tourism association of the Olympic mountain region; a spokesman says it may have lodging available once all official needs have been met.
WHERE TO EAT: Two good options are Caffe Torino (204 Piazza San Carlo), where sandwiches, salads and pastas start at $10, and the similarly priced Caffe San Carlo (156 Piazza San Carlo).
Regional favorites are bollito, an assortment of boiled meats, including tongue; bagna cauda, a garlicky dip for vegetables; dishes showcasing the local truffles; and gianduia, the combination of chocolate and hazlenuts that appears in everything from drinks to candies to gelato. Some of Italy's most legendary red wines, such as Barolo and Barbaresco, also come from the region.
SEEING THE CITY: Turin Tourism (Piazza Solferino and other locations) has a number of guided tours, including a visit to Olympics venues; most are about $6.50. Book well in advance, as tours tend to sell out; you can book via the organization's Web site. It also offers TurismoBus Torino ($6.50 for 24 hours), a hop-on, hop-off bus that visits city tourist sites, and Torino Card (about $19 for 48 hours or $22 for 72 hours), which includes the bus pass and admission to more than 130 museums and attractions. Details: 011-39-011-8185011, http://www.turismotorino.org/ .
Other points of interest:
· The Shroud of Turin makes its rare appearances at the Capella della Santa Sindone, inside the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista (Piazza San Giovanni, 011-39-011-436-15; free).
· The Giovanni and Marella Agnelli Picture Gallery (230 Via Nizza, 011-39-011- 0062713, http://www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it/ ; about $3.85) is a small museum with some big artists, including Manet, Renoir and Matisse.
· The Egyptian Museum or Museo delle Antichità Egizie (6 Via Accademia delle Scienze, 011-39-011-561-7776, http://www.museoegizio.org/ ; about $8.30) has, unfortunately, more mummies than labels, but it provides a bounty of fascinating artifacts.
· Get a view of the mountains on a visit to the National Museum of Cinema at Mole Antonelliana (20 Via Montebello, 011-39-011-812-5658, http://www.museonazionaledelcinema.org/ ). A combo ticket to the museum and the observation platform is about $8.75.
INFORMATION: Italian Government Tourist Board, 212-245-5618, http://www.italiantourism.com/ . Besides Turin Tourism (see above), the City of Turin Web site offers general info in English at http://www.comune.torino.it/canaleturismo/en/index.html .
-- Gayle Keck