Touring Torino

After a night at work, back into Torino

The MC4 bus takes my colleague Sean McKinnon & I into the downtown area, near Medals Plaza.

It's still kinda foggy this morning, but looking across the traffic is the fenced-in Piazza Castello,
redubbed Medals Plaza during the games. There are nightly Medals ceremonies here, and a music concert.

Next stop is the Cafe al Bicerin, in Piazza Della Consolata.
The cafe was founded in 1763, and still has its original counter and tables, all 8 of them.

Bicerin is a secret blend of coffee & chocolate, topped with cream.

I had mine with Chocolate Toast.

Sean took this picture, below, inside the cafe on a visit a few days ago.

Across the street from the cafe is this church, the Santuario della Consolata.

Just around the corner from the church is an excavation. A historical marker nearby explained what it is.

Torino was once the colony of Augusta Taurinorum,
founded in 25 BC, as an outpost of the Roman empire on the frontier with Gaul (present-day France).
The city was roughly square, bounded by stone walls 2875 meters long, and 20 or more feet high. At each corner was a defensive tower.
This is the foundation, square on the outside, a polygon on the inside, of one of those towers.

The TODAY show is here in Torino, just a three blocks away from Medals Plaza, in Piazza San Carlo.
That's Sean's hand in the photo above at the lower right.
I was here and took some pictures for the wesite in December before TODAY arrived, without Sean's hand...

The bronze statue is of Duke Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, victor in the 1557 Battle of San Quintino, and dates from 1833.
The folks aren't looking at Katie, Al or Matt, but at the TODAY show bubble, but at a giant TV with the Olympics on it.

The 2 churches above are the so-called 'twin' churches of San Carlo (left) and Santa Cristina (right).
They are on the south side of the Piazza San Carlo.

In the open area just south of the Piazza San Carlo is the Piazza CLN, named after the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale
(Committee for National Liberation), representing the resistance active during the Second World War.
The square contains these 2 large marble fountains to the rear of the 'twin' churches. They are Fontana Dora and Fontana Po,
and represent Torino's 2 rivers, the Po and the Dora.

Sean's in the picture on purpose this time to show scale.

Below, another visit to something I saw in December, the Torino 2006 sign in Piazza Carlo Felice.

Time to head home now, as the caffeine effect of the bicerin wears off.
Some pictures below show the walk along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, on the way to catch the #10 tram back to the Media Village.

Above is a statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Italy from 1820-1878.