This car was on display at Turin’s National Automobile Museum and was interesting in itself to see how the air bags had deployed and how the car was damaged. It was also surprising (to me anyway) as the car, which had an open window, still had that new car smell.
There’s only airport lounge at Turin Airport which is used by lounge access companies such as Priority Pass, as well as by the national airlines for their customers. It’s also well signed and so isn’t difficult to find.
Views over the runway and the environment in the lounge is clean and pleasant.
I was initially pleased at just how many power points there were across the lounge. Until I realised that these really aren’t well designed for anyone who wants to use an adaptor, as it won’t fit because of that extruding element on the left. So my devices went uncharged because of a design which I must admit I’ve never seen before.
The lounge has picked up more than a few complaints about the quality of the food options, although that might be a little unfair. There was plenty of choice including pastries, pizza and fruit, with the quality all seeming reasonable. There were yoghurts with no spoons available, but otherwise the selection was well presented and looked appetising.
For reasons unknown, the lounge doesn’t have any self-pour drinks and customers have to ask even for glasses of water. I’m unsure of the logic behind not having soft drinks at least on self-pour rather than add this extra layer of complexity. I noticed many lounge visitors didn’t have a drink, either because they didn’t like to ask, or because they didn’t know that they had to.
I’m also not convinced that these signs on the toilets are sufficiently clear and I watched other people being just a little bemused by this. These are the male toilets for the avoidance of any doubt.
Overall, the lounge was clean, the staff were friendly and the food and drink options were adequate. The lack of access to power was more irritating than anything else given the effort they’d made in terms of the number of power points, and ideally I’d have been able to pour my own water and soft drinks. However, it’s a comfortable and quiet place to visit and the views over the tarmac are extensive.
I haven’t been very impressed with the public transport in Turin and the unnecessarily complex way that buying tickets works. However, I noted that I could get a €5 fare from the city centre to Turin airport if I used my Torino + Piemonte card.
I still don’t think having a ticket purchasing system which requires people to go to bars is ideal, but anyway, it’s signed at least.
But, those with the card can buy their ticket on the bus without a surcharge. This seemed quite advanced compared to the other forms of ticket purchasing I’ve seen in Turin, and I wondered how they knew my 72-hour card was still valid.
My wondering was solved when it transpired that I could have presented any card, the driver couldn’t tell if it was out of date or not. He was very helpful though, although he had to phone a colleague and then find some paper receipts in order to process my transaction as he said he didn’t know how to deal with the card. It seemed unduly fiddly, but the driver remained helpful, even though this caused a delay to the bus journey of five minutes which I was a little conscious of.
I have since discovered that until recently it was possible to buy tickets for this bus service on-line, but that facility has been withdrawn. I hope that they put it back soon, or just let people pay for the journey on the bus itself without this surcharge issue.
Anyway, the bus got to the airport on time and for the price that I had hoped to pay. The driver was friendly, the bus was clean and everything else ran smoothly, so other than the ticket purchasing everything went well. The usual rate for this bus journey is €6.50 and realistically, it’s necessary to use cash to get this as paying by card is challenging.
Part of the collection in Turin’s National Automobile Museum, this is a Brixia Zust, made in the Brescia region of Italy. It’s the 10 HP model made in 1908, with the manufacturer trading being 1906 and 1912 and eventually becoming part of Officine Meccaniche, which later became part of Iveco.
I’m not that engaged by cars and so visiting the national automobile museum didn’t overly excite me, and I had envisaged it being quite a brief visit. However, it’s a substantial museum and I was there for much longer than I had initially anticipated.
The start of the museum tour starts with a reminder of from where this all began, horse drawn carriages. The carriages evolved into having engines and then the carriage design changed over the decades into the modern day car.
I’ll post about individuals cars on another occasion, as there were so many historic vehicles in the collection. However, of note was the excellent way that information was displayed. There were panels by each car giving information about it, with the additional option of QR codes for visitors who wanted more detail. This worked smoothly and gave me all the information that I wanted without initially being overly complex.
Highlighting the need for cars to be more environmentally friendly.
The downside of cars, they end up like this.
There was a substantial collection of F1 cars and behind was a large video screen displaying an impressive animation.
An individual F1 car.
I know a driver like this.
Visitors could walk on this map of Turin, with automobile related sites pointed out.
As well as the restored cars, some of which I thought were perhaps over-restored and lost their originality, there were some car frames (or whatever they’re called) on the wall which showed the inner workings of the car.
Overall, I thought that this was a really well put together museum with plenty to interest those who aren’t necessarily that obsessed with automobile history. We can’t all be aware of when sunroofs were first placed into Skodas and I’m pleased that the museum aimed at a wider audience. Looking through some of the reviews, there were a not inconsiderable number of people saying the same, they had low expectations as they weren’t that engaged in cars, but left feeling that the museum had worked for them.
There was a strong focus on Fiat vehicles in the museum, but since Turin is their home, that’s not surprising. And I liked just how many early vehicles there were on display with some rare cars in the collection. I was also surprised at how many people kept stroking the cars, even though signs said not to touch them, which must be a constant irritation for the museum ensuring that they’re all cleaned regularly.
The museum was also well signposted and I only went the wrong way once, which is definitely on the low side for me. The staff were all helpful, but mostly looked a bit bored wandering around the museum looking at their phones, but they were visible if anyone wanted help. It wasn’t that busy during my visit which also made it a pleasant environment not having to wait to look at any individual item. Overall though, this is one of the best museums I’ve visited in terms of the visitor experience, so all rather lovely.
The Rock Cafe is likely inspired by the Hard Rock Cafe, but this is an independent outlet in Turin and it has a unique sort of vibe to it. I visited here as it was the city’s best rated burger restaurant, although it wasn’t open when it was meant to be and so I had to come back an hour later.
The interior is quirky and has a music theme to it, with rock music also playing, although fortunately at a quiet level. The restaurant has table service and the staff members were friendly and engaging, making an effort to check if I had visited before. This simple question is vastly under-asked by restaurants, it gives them the chance to either thank returning customers or an opportunity to explain the menu.
The restaurant doesn’t have any English menus at the moment, although they’re on order, but I found an English menu on their web-site which made choosing easier. The staff member had though offered to translate or assist me with any questions that I had, so the process was efficient and helpful.
An American beer, at the appropriate temperature and it tasted suitably refreshing.
The onion rings tasted fine and there were a decent number of them, although weren’t exceptional in terms of the coating.
The burger was though far better, the sesame seed laden bun contained bacon, boar burger, some salad stuff and the devil sauce. The meat was tender with a wonderfully rich taste, the bacon had a depth of flavour, the bun was fresh and it was served as a large portion with 200g of meat. No cutlery is supplied with the burgers, but fortunately it held its shape and didn’t collapse midway through my eating it….
Customers can choose between rare, medium and well done burgers, and with this menu option, they can also choose between the more mild angel sauce, the hot devil sauce or the very hot satan sauce. The devil sauce sufficed me and I requested a medium burger, which is how it arrived.
The central bar area and seating, the premises are relatively large and there’s a outside dining area as well. There was one stand out view from TripAdvisor though in my opinion:
“Wow, it was AWFUL!! Italians come to the USA and tell us our Italian food is not Italian, well let me return the favor. Your burger and fries (An American staple) is NOT even remotely close to how it should taste. The burger was under cooked. A burger should NOT be rare like that! The fries live up to the name. As hard as rocks. The coleslaw was also semi-crunchy! Wow….semi crunchy coleslaw.”
The restaurant responded appropriately, but I’ve seen no end of American restaurants offering rare and medium-rare burgers, fries should in my view be crispy and coleslaw is often semi-crunchy in the US. I can imagine how irate the restaurant must have been to receive such a bizarre review.
The prices here aren’t the cheapest, but given the friendliness of the service and the quality of the burger, I’m glad that I came here. There’s a welcoming vibe to the restaurant, although my biggest complaint would be that their opening hours on Facebook and their web-site don’t seem to entirely coincide with when they actually open.
And just because I could, I thought it only right to sample an Italian special item on the McDonald’s menu. Asiago PDO is cheese and Speck Alto Adige is lightly smoked and cured ham, and they’re merged together in a crispy coating. It’s an attempt to do something different and the flavours do work well together. In a country without Greggs, this will just have to do…..
Located in a beautiful, although slightly incongruous, building on top of the former Lingotto test track is this small art gallery. I had a Torino + Piedmonte Card so I could get into the art gallery free of charge, but admission also gives visitors the chance to walk around the test track.
The danger with merging these entirely different attractions together is that it has give the museum some challenging reviews. Here are my favourites:
“The racetrack on top of the building was unidentifiable as only an asphalt covered area.”
“I really wanted to go and see the track on the top of this iconic building. Having finally got there, i was told it was “Not possible” by a very stern looking Italian lady! We must to pay to go and look at an art gallery before we could go on to the roof – there were big glass doors and we could see out – so near and yet so far!”
I like the idea that it wasn’t possible to notice the track, it’s perhaps one of the most improbable things not to notice. The actual reason for the joint admission requirement is for insurance purposes. It’s also possible to visit the track for those guests staying in the hotel which is located in the same building.
There aren’t that many artworks in the gallery, around twenty different pieces of art. They did have two paintings by Canaletto, my favourite artist, which sufficed me, although there are also works by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
The museum is named after the art collector Marella Agnelli who was born in 1927 and was married to Gianni Agnelli, the main owner of Fiat and one of the richest men in the country. This explains the link between the racetrack and the gallery.
The entrance price, which I think is €10, is perhaps just a little rich given the number of artworks and the audio guide is extra, so the admission charge by this stage has made it expensive for anyone who isn’t bothered about seeing the track. The gallery has though put huge effort into making sure that visitors can find it, as the shopping centre has directional arrows nearly all the way around it.
Lingotto was once one of the largest car factories in the world and it was constructed by Fiat between 1916 and 1923. They had what was then a pretty revolutionary factory concept of moving the cars up from the ground floor to the top floor via ramps during the assembly process.
The factory closed in 1982 but it was later converted into a shopping centre and entertainment complex. The design work for this redevelopment was completed by Renzo Piano, who had been responsible for numerous buildings which I saw in Malta earlier this month.
These tracks are also where part of the Italian Job was filmed.
A view over towards the city and the mountains.
The former factory building, now a large shopping centre and offices.
More track photos. I thought that this might be busier than it actually was, but I meandered (in the walking sense) around the track mostly on my own. The track is in itself worth seeing, but the extensive views do add to the whole experience.
The city’s museum of human anatomy has been in operation (note the word play there….) since 1739 and it has been in its current location since 1898. There’s now a deliberate attempt to ensure that it maintains its period charm, so there haven’t been any recent efforts to update or modernise the displays. Given the nature of what’s inside the museum there’s also a ban on photography.
A few items from the eighteenth century collection remain, but the bulk of it dates to the nineteenth century. The staff member at the ticket desk was helpful and friendly, giving me an English map of the museum. Some of the highlights included the skeletons of a giant and a dwarf, the first Etruscan skull to be the subject of science, hundreds of brains, two South American mummies and a collection of wax medical models.
There is perhaps an opportunity to improve the lighting in the museum as some elements were dark, and a lot of the exhibits weren’t captioned at all, so they remained something of a mystery. But, an intriguing museum if nothing else….
