Turin Olympic

If I had liked Turin even on the several occasions I had been there before, during the Winter Olympic Games it was even more beautiful. I had already been to other editions of the Winter Olympics (Albertville in France and Lillehammer in Norway), and every city, even the normally less interesting one, takes on a wholly particular look and atmosphere. Turin's ordinary beauty only amplified this effect: a city invaded by athletes and tourists from all over the world, buildings new or renovated for the occasion, temporary exhibition spaces, extremely efficient services, better than those I experienced in Nordic Lillehammer. The events took place mainly in the province, but in the evening the central squares and streets of the capital lit up in celebration and were invaded by a joyful cosmopolitan crowd that ideally embraced its heroes during the medal ceremonies in Piazza Castello.

I arrived in Turin by train with a friend and, having bought the tickets previously booked online, we set off on a free train to Pinerolo, where we watched a curling match involving the Italian national team. From there, after eating in the marquee restaurant specially set up for the Games, we returned to the city to breathe a bit of the Olympic atmosphere. In the evening, having found no accommodation in Turin, we took the train to Asti to sleep in a hotel booked online. The following day, by train from Asti to Turin and from there with the free transport provided by the organisers, we went up the Val Tisone, passing through Villar Perosa (the village of origin of the Agnelli family), Perosa Argentina, stopping at Pragelato where we watched the Nordic combined event, first the ski-jumping trial and then the cross-country one.

We then continued on a free shuttle bus to the famous resort of Sestriere, where the Olympic alpine skiing events were held. Here we looked for and found a fellow villager working as a video technician for a well-known television network. He had an apartment available right in the centre, and from the terrace you could see the slalom slopes and the famous tower that is the symbol of the resort. Again by free bus we moved to nearby Cesana Pariol, where we took a cable car to see the bobsleigh and luge track. Coming back down on the brand-new cable car, we caught a free bus to Oulx and from there a train to Turin. Arriving in the city we headed to the Ice Palace to watch the final of the women's ice hockey tournament, after which we took the train to our hotel in Asti.

On waking we made a short visit to the town's historic centre before returning by train to Turin, where we would spend the whole day. In the morning a visit to the Olympic park created for the occasion, inside which there was even the chance to skate on ice or try your hand at curling. Here we bought a pass that allowed us to visit some important city sites. For reasons of time I skipped the Egyptian Museum and the Museum of the Risorgimento, which I already knew, focusing on the guided tour of the Royal Palace with sumptuous rooms rich in tapestries and Savoy furnishings, on the Royal Armoury, on the church that houses the Holy Shroud — of which, however, only a copy of the cloth that according to religious tradition wrapped the body of the Crucified is visible — and on the Mole Antonelliana, which houses the Cinema Museum already described in "Piedmont-Turin".

The pass also allowed us a tourist bus excursion to discover some of the city's less well-known corners. In the evening we went to the Ice Palace to watch the speed-skating race. At the end of the event we returned home by train.