ITALY/SWITZERLAND - Food Glorious Food

I thought for this post we would look at some of the food I have found on this trip

Pizza - In Bergamo I found a place that sold pizza by the kilo - You chose what pizza you wanted and gave the shop assistant an idea of the size of piece you wanted. They then cut a piece off and weighed it just like a butchers, you paid by the kilo, they cooked it for you and you sat down and ate. Just look at how much cheese you are expected to eat - now i like Mozzarella and Burrata but really?

Afternoon tea in Luzern does not involve scones, jam or cream but cake - proper cake, really expensive cake

This stall at the Como Christmas Market wouldn't get past the Vegan Animal Activists in the UK - yes that is a pigs head on the left - but the Pork Pannini were lovely.

I have found heaven in Milan - I am not going to reveal how many times I have been to the "Pick and Mix" counter in the Lindt shop but it is more than once! Oh and as you can see - it's open late.

As this is the last post of the trip by the time you read this I should be at home. I really do hope that the 1928 trams keep going for a few more years as it would be lovely to return to Milan for their centenary - I'm sure the transport authority will have some sort of special event to mark the year.

In the meantime the final Christmas tree is another from Milan - Merry Christmas!

 

ITALY - "You're Only Supposed to Blow the Bloody Doors Off"

I have now started my return journey to the UK, but I have not gone far having relocated to Turin but it is considerably colder here. Turin is of course the setting for my favourite film "The Italian Job"

Transport in Turin is in the form of a fully automatic, rubber tyred, VAL metro system. The best seats are at the front where you can pretend to drive the train!

Lingotto, to the south of the city centre is the site of the former FIAT factory (if you didn't know the T in FIAT stands for Torino). The factory is still there and has been repurposed as a shopping, hotel and cinema venue, with offices and of course the now obligatory Covid vaccination centre! Fans of The Italian Job will know that there was a test track on the roof of the factory and this featured in the film. That test track has recently had a roof top garden installed and is open to the public.

The factory from the outside

This ramp allowed cars to access the different floors and the roof

All that's missing is a Mini Cooper

In winter the garden doesn't look much but it must be a nice open space in the built up area in the summer

Back in the city centre - remember the bit in the film when the Mini's came down some steps at a church interrupting a wedding? That was filmed here, the railings must be a later addition.

And the Mini's crossed the River Po on this weir.

Just like when I visited the site of The Great Escape in Poland, don't expect any references to the film in Turin. It was a British film for a British audience and basically took the Mickey out of the Italians, so no merchandising here I'm afraid.

Moving on from the film, before the formation of the Italian state, Turin was in the Duchy of Savoy, the royal palace in the city centre is the big ticket site to see. It is the usual sequence of over decorated rooms but the real stand out  one for me is the Duke's armoury that has the armour displayed on mannequins and old wooden horses covered with proper horse hair.

Grand staircase ceiling

The chapel of the Royal Palace forms a link between the palace and the cathedral which is part of the same building. It was originally the place where the Turin Shroud was kept in a casket above the altar. The shroud was moved to the cathedral proper so that the chapel could be restored and as part of that restoration the chapel suffered a devastating fire. The chapel was rebuilt but the shroud remains in the cathedral.

The altar that contained the shroud

When it comes to Christmas trees Turin has clearly decided one is not enough - that's just being greedy Turin! They also have a rather groovy Advent Calendar too

ITALY - Centrale Station

Milano Centrale station is one of the great railway stations of the world, it is also one of the few "Temples to Fascism" still in regular use today. Designed by architect Ulisee Stacchini it was opened in 1931 which of course was during Mussolini's tenure as head of state. The station is therefore in an overpowering style designed to reinforce the power of the state over the people and both intimidate and impress its users. If you look at the pictures below you will see what i mean. And let me now dispell one of the great railway myths of all time - Mussolini did NOT get the trains to run on time - he got the trains that he was travelling on to run on time!

However, like many buildings from that era, Milano Centrale has a dark side which has only recently been acknowledged with the opening of a memorial in its basement.

Many large railway stations, including those in the UK, had large areas under the platforms for processing mail. Milan's mail would be sorted at a nearby sorting office, the sacks of post were then brought to the station and loaded into mail vans at special platforms directly under the main concourse. A traverser (think turntable but operating in straight lines to move rolling stock between parallel tracks) would then move the mail vans so they could be shunted into a large lift. The lift would raise the vans, one at a time up to the tracks above so they could be shunted into trains and sent to their destination. Processing mail on the railways has always been very efficiently done.

In 1943 this part of the station was repurposed for the processing of Jews on their way to the death camps including Auschwitz. It was an ideal place for the regime to do this, out of sight of the Milanese commuters walking on the platforms above and the basic operation of the site from a railway point of view was almost the same as it was with the mail. After the war it reverted to processing post and then fell into disuse but has recently been restored and opened to the public as a memorial.

Obviously moving but also interesting in equal measure and it was good to see that most of the visitors were part of several school or youth groups - education after all is the most important part of memorials like this. There is always something that really stands out and lodges in your memory. For me it was a large sign on the wall of the wagon lift that said in Italian that the lift was not to be used for people.

Milano Centrale still has other secrets to give up. On Platform 21 (I think behind the doors in the photo below) there is an area, rarely open to the public, that was, in the original plans, the Royal Waiting Room for the Italian royal family. Also repurposed, this time for state visitors from Germany during the Second World War, it apparently has swastikas inlaid in the parquet flooring.

Today's post has been more sombre than usual, but it is a place that should be visited and a story that should be told, especially for someone like me who is interested in trains and railways.

However to finish on a lighter note, it is still Christmas and the station is decorated accordingly so today's Christmas tree comes from Milano Centrale station.

ITALY - A Lighthouse in the Mountains

I want to start this post by reassuring you that although I am in Italy, where of course they all speak Italian, it is Christmas. I can therefore confirm that George Michael is - even here - still worrying about what he did last year, Aled Jones is walking in the air and Mariah Carey is telling us what she wants for Christmas - over and over and over again.

Today it's Como, the nearest main lakeside town to Milan, another town of quaint narrow streets filled with twinkling lights.

And of course no town in this part of the world is going to be without a funicular, so once again let's head up.

This one has a glass wall at the top so you can see the workings

The funicular links Como with the hill top settlement of Brunate and from the top station it is a 30 minute walk along well signposted paths to what I had come to see - a lighthouse. I would point out at this point that the walk is one of those where it takes 30 minutes to go up but only 15 to come back, it is in places quite steep.

The purpose of this lighthouse is not to guide shipping on Lake Como below but to act as a beacon. I was opened in 1927 to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of local boy made good Alessandro Volta, who invented the battery and of course his name was used for the electrical term Volt. It sends out beams of red, white and green light (the Italian flag) and can be seen for around 40km.

This is looking up - I would never take a pic like this looking down!

One of the great unanswered questions of my life is why one of my interests involves, usually tall buildings when I am really not good at heights. I am supremely comfortable at South Foreland but put me in a similar building elsewhere and my legs turn to jelly.  Anyway as you know I do where possible force myself and I have some pictures taken from the top but it really was a case of climb, take pics, come straight down. As much as I would have like to stopped to admire the view properly, my body was having none of it.

As for todays Christmas tree, Como has gone for an artificial yellow and white light number with a side projection of lights on the cathedral wall.

ITALY - Funiculi Funicula

This morning Milan was shrouded in thick fog. It has not been particularly cold - at least not below freezing - but it has been a bit damp, my first day in Milan was really wet. Today we are going to explore Bergamo. Some of you may have heard of Bergamo because the city's airport is used by some of the low cost airlines who call it "Milan". The city lies around 50km north east of Milan and it takes 50 minutes by train. 

Bergamo consists of a medieval hill top town with cobbled narrow streets (wear comfy shoes) and a newer more modern lower town where the railway and bus stations are. The two parts of the city are linked by a funicular - you will have guessed from the title of this post that funiculars are going to be a theme of this trip.

Unless you are planning to ride up walk down I would suggest you buy a 4 euro day ticket, as once you have walked through to the opposite end of the old town there is yet another funicular to take you up to a view point at a castle that's perched above. It also means that if there is a massive queue for the funicular back down to the lower town you can hop on a bus.

Once I arrived the fog had lifted and it was a bright sunny day, however, I have been here in winter before and I do feel that as atmospheric as it is, the narrow streets and tall buildings mean that the sun never really penetrates so Bergamo does tend to feel chilly.

My first stop was at a stately pile - the Palazzo Moroni - which is the home of the Moroni family and administered by the Italian version of the National Trust (if you are Trust members you can get free entry by showing your card).

As you can see it is typical National Trust fare but the frescos on the ceilings are particularly impressive - there is also a suntrap garden which is a nice place to sit for a while.

Bergamo became part of the Venetian Republic in 1428 and consequently you will see several images of lions - the symbol of Venice - around the town.

As with all Italian towns there are churches everywhere and it is easy to get church fatigue particularly give the ornate decoration inside compared to the rather austere Protestant churches we are used to in the UK. I really would though, recommend the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and the adjacent Colleoni Chapel commissioned in 1470 by local big wig Bartolomeo Colleoni as his mausoleum. Both buildings are amazingly ornate inside and the church is currently going through a massive restoration programme.

The Colleoni Chapel

Once at the other end of the old town the second funicular takes you up for - on a clear day - a wonderful view. 

Alas shortly after the pictures below were taken the mist enveloped the town again and I took that as my cue to return to Milan.

Today's Christmas tree is of course from Bergamo - when i saw it during the day it didn't look anything special but lit up it redeemed itself.