Discovering the Medieval Snail: A Day in Chieri

What do a 15th-century Piedmontese nobleman, an elegant 18th-century Dutch lady and a 19th-century Tuscan buttero have in common? Simple: they all wore clothes of blue fustian, a fabric created in Chieri. The town, located between the eastern part of the Turin hill and the last offshoots of the Monferrato, became famous from the Middle Ages for the production of fustian, made using woad, a plant grown locally, which gave the cloth a characteristic blue colour. The fabrics produced in Chieri reached, via the port of Genoa, all of Europe and even America. In 1482 the Università dell'Arte dei Fustagneri was also founded in the town. If we had arrived here in the Middle Ages, our walk would have been almost entirely with our noses in the air: at the time the place was known as "the town of a hundred towers", built by the noble families.

Only a few have survived, sometimes incorporated into buildings. Before the era of the towers we could instead have admired the walls and the Roman aqueduct that came down from the hill of Pino Torinese. What tells us about that era today are the archaeological finds, as well as the place name Carrea Potentia, which combined the Roman name and the ancient Ligurian word Carrea, of Celtic origin, meaning fortified village. Among the first stops on our walk is in fact the historic heart of the town, the place where a castrum once stood, on the hill of San Giorgio. It's right here that after 1011 Landolfo, bishop of Turin, decided to build a tower, a castle and a church, thus turning the country village into a very respectable little town.

The castle is no longer there, but we can admire the Landolfian tower, which in the past served both as a civic tower and as a bell tower, and the church, rebuilt in 1442 after a fire, and the "medieval snail", that is the old road layout, is still recognisable. The Arch of Piazza Umberto I, symbol of the town, erected in 1580, dates instead to more than a hundred years later. In Chieri's religious history there's even a miracle. Already in the 15th century the miraculous powers were known of a fresco depicting the Annunciation, which was in a chapel. In 1651 it happened that a young deaf-mute began to pray in front of that work. After quite a while of him murmuring his mute prayers there, all at once the people around heard his voice for the first time as he recited the Ave Maria: after this miraculous event the population decided to build the Santuario dell'Annunziata.

Our lovely tour of Chieri continues, towards evening, in the company of San Martino: not only because we happen to be here right in the period of the fair dedicated to the saint, but above all because the destination of our dinner is the Ristorante San Martino, on Strada Baldissero. It's autumn, but the beauty of the restaurant's location, immersed in nature, fascinates us a lot: in the warm season the outdoor area is a green oasis, while all year round there are the large rooms inside where you can organise lovely private parties for weddings, baptisms and other occasions. "We opened this place five years ago after long experience in the restaurant business: here we're in a family environment, with the chance to make our customers' wishes come true," Mr Antonio, who runs the restaurant together with Anna, tells us. We start with a warm seafood trio and scallops in saffron cream.

Our friends who prefer land dishes instead choose the very thin one with Raschera and Castelmagno and the vegetable flan. We sea-loving souls continue with the gnocchi with crab and scallops and the maltagliata with shellfish, while the rest of the group opts for the vegetable ravioli in walnut sauce and the maltagliati with gorgonzola and sausage. To follow, we certainly can't resist a lovely sea bream in a potato crust, nor the delicious sesame tuna tagliata. But the meat dishes are also hugely seductive: veal chop in a bread crust and fillet with raw Parma ham. We finish in great sweetness with the tasty homemade desserts, including the tarte tatin, the bunet, the panna cotta and the strawberry with ice cream.

After this very pleasant day we go home determined to celebrate our friend's son's communion here, and with the desire to discover all the beauties of Chieri that still await us.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Pizzeria San Martino Strada Baldissero, 66 Chieri (TO) Tel.: 011/9473962