CALL IT TURIN, OR CALL IT TORINO…
The Italian city at the foot
of the Alps has more to offer to the tourist than coffee, chocolate and cars
If
cafés in Torino are around every corner, almost every café carries a brand name
many Indians are familiar with: Lavazza
Does a city build brand
names, or do brand names build a city?
That is the thought that
lingers in as we conclude a four-day visit to Italy’s third largest city,
Turin, lovingly called Torino.
Our cab driver proffers
us our first introduction. “This is the city of Fiat,” he says with pride,
referring to the car maker that launched the first “people’s car” in Europe,
around the time of the First World War. For Mumbaikars who grew up in the ’70s
and ’80s, Fiat is a special car; it was one of only two cars any Indian could
own. “The car built the city,” our driver continues. “It put Italy in the
league of industrialised nations, and at its peak, over 500,000 people worked
for Fiat. Now, just a couple of thousand of those employees remain.”
Our driver clicks his
tongue ruefully, like only Italians and Indians can. He is referring to the
American takeover of the popular Italian brand, which cost the city tens of
thousands of jobs. But, you notice, the Torinesi don’t hold grudges: a majority
of cars on the street are Fiat, including the new Jeep, which is not
inexpensive by any measure. Realising we’re Indian, our driver continues, “We
have a Mahindra manufacturing plant just north of Torino,” he says. “They offer
big SUV-like cars for un- der 20,000 euros, which is a steal...”
CARS
DRIVEN BY CHOCOLATE
Fiat isn’t the only brand
born in Torino. Nutella, a name that’ll find a quicker connect with today’s
youngsters than the Premier Padmini, was born here during Napolean’s reign,
when importing cocoa from South America became difficult. Chocolate makers
combatted this by mixing hazelnuts, available in abundance in the region, to
cocoa to create a paste originally called Pasta Gianduja, which we know as
Nutella.
The same company
manufactures the famous Ferrero Rocher, yet another brand name Turin owns with
pride.
STORM
IN A COFFEE CUP
At its very core, Torino
is a city of cafés, with its own unique spin. “This is where the well-heeled
gathered to discuss the goings on, where revolutions and takeovers were
planned, where all important decisions were made,” our tour guide, the
effervescent Betina, informs us, as she leads us into the famous Caffè Fiorio.
The coffee shop seems
straight out of an Amitabh Bachchan flick from the 1970s: wall-to-wall
carpeting, heavy drapes, patterned sofas, mirrored walls with ornate lamps,
artistic woodwork… and a large marble table in the centre with enough finger
foods to feed a small army! “Meet the aperitif,” Betina proclaims with a smile.
“It’s also invented here in Turin.”
As it turns out,
aperitifs or starte s are small eats traditionally laid out at cafés quite like
buffets are: you pay a small amount and eat as much as you like. “They’re
extremely famous amongst teenagers, who can eat a meal for 10 euros,” she says,
“And, of course, you wash it down with coffee!”
AH,
COFFEE!
If cafés in Torino are
around every corner, almost every café carries a brand name many Indians are
familiar with: Lavazza. The erstwhile Barista chain of coffee shops in India
almost became Lavazza a few years ago, until its Torino-based familyowned
company decided they didn’t want to be in the business of cafes; they just
wanted to supply the best coffee to every café in the world!
In the days that follow,
just across the river Po, we discover the Lavazza Museum, very newly opened
experience centre that can be every coffee lover’s delight. Celebrating the
100-year legacy of the coffee brand, the museum offers delight and surprise to
the creative mind: advertisements of Lavazza from the decades gone by, a visual
celebration of the places in the world that grow coffee beans (including
Bengaluru), computer-operated interactive screens that show you the process of
coffee roasting real time, and of course, lots
of coffee to drink. What
we found most innovative was the coffee cup we were handed at check in: we were
to place it at designated touchpoints whenever we found something of interest.
The “cup” was a storage device that’d keep our preferences in its memory, which
was then given to us at check out to take back home.
SAVOYS
OF THE PAST
Another name that will
remain quintessentially Torino is the House of Savoys. It is this royal family
that ruled over the region for over 300 years, and finally led the unification
of Italy. The monarch was deposed when Italy became a republic in 1946 (just a
few years before India did) and the surviving members of the family found
refuge in Switzerland. Recently, one of the descendents appeared in the Italian
version of a dance reality contest on TV, causing a stir and lots of talk.
Controversies aside, a
quick walk around Torino’s downtown will show you that the city was built for
royalty. Wide avenues, generoussized piazzas. Larger-than-life statues of its
leaders adorning roundabouts that could put modern ones to shame, church
facades with character and ornate bridges across the river Po… One such cobble-stoned
bridge remains distinct: apparently, the stones were laid by the French, who
ruled the city for just three years in the 18th century. Once the Savoys got
their city back, every French influence was wiped out, except this bridge. “Let
the people of Torino stamp over the French forever,” it was declared, or so the
story goes.
YOUR
WHAT-TODO LIST
Tourist guidebooks will
lead you to the Shroud of Turin, but that hasn’t been revealed in over a decade
now. The maps will lead you to the Egyptian museum, which houses the largest
collection of artifacts outside Egypt. We didn’t bother going.
Head up the mountain to
the Basilica de Superga, which will give you a bird’s-eye view of Torino and
its surrounds. The gardens of La Venaria Reale, on the outskirts, can be
compared to those at Versailles. Which ones are more beautiful is the true
traveller’s debate.
Those who enjoy books
should definitely head to Il Circolo dei Lettori, just around the corner from
Fiora Café in the city centre. The Reader’s Circle, as it is called in English,
is a cultural centre open to all, with daily events, talks, readings etc. Sure,
most of the programmes are in Italian. But I enjoyed a talk, had a cup of tea
and soaked in the atmosphere. And I speak no Italian at all!
AND WHAT
NOT TO DO…
One. Do not wait for the
last day to visit Ristorante È Cucina, or else, you will be kept waiting like I
was for two hours to finally be given a table for lunch at 3pm! It was worth
every minute of wait: no exaggerating!
And two. It wasn’t until
my last day that I woke up on the seventh floor of my hotel room at the Holiday
Inn to witness my first day of sunshine in Torino. And there outside the
window, in the direction of my feet, was the most majestic view of the Alps I
have ever seen.
·
By Kaushik Mahadeshwar
HTBR 8JUL18
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