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The small-holders market at Porta Palazzo,
everything on sale is produced by the stall-holders
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Porta Palazzo Market, the
gastronomic heart and rumbling tum of Turin, lies to the north of the city
centre. It fills, the not inconsequential space, of Piazza della Repubblica, selling
clothes, shoes, household-goods, haberdashery, plants and every kind of food
imaginable. Every Saturday, just around the corner in Borgo Dora, there is also the Balon, an antiques market. On Sundays, twice a month, when there is no other
market, there is an even bigger bash, known as the Grand Balon. The reputation of
these markets is such, that they say in Turin, “if you are looking for
something, just go to Porta Palazzo.”
I had never stayed in the
market area and I wnted to see the city from that side. I booked
the art Albergo Restaurant San Giors.
www.albergoristorantesangiors.com-torino.com/en/
It looked like it had character; the restaurant sounded promising; and the
position was perfect.
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The Art Hotel and Restaurant San Giors
on Borgo Dora
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We arrived right in the
thick of it, on a sunny, Sunday morning in March. The streets were crammed with
stalls, and people were swarming like flies. The only hope of moving along, was
to go with the flow. Traffic and parking are strictly banned on flee market days
as there isn’t an inch of available space. Small restaurants and bars crowd along the curve of Via Borgo Dora. There is chatter and laughter around the tables, everyone wants a spot in the sun and if you are in the know, you can ear mark a
table for when it comes free. We ate indoors. Potatoes with squid and peas and
diminutive pasta purses filled with an aubergine stuffing. The food was simple, inexpensive, satisfying fare and came with plenty of people watching opportunities.
The daily market is said
to be the largest outdoor market in Europe. It is cut into four distinct
quarters, by two dissecting roads that bring buses and trams, delivering
shoppers from all sides of the city. A service road runs around the entire
square but it’s easy to lose your bearings as each quarter looks the same.
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| Young cavolo nero leaves and radish |
My destination is the
Mercato del Orologio, the covered Clock market, where a gastronomic Eden of
brightly lit, delicatessens, grocers and butchers beckon even the most
reluctant Adam. There are also stalls, stacked floor to sky with kitchen kit
and then there is the piece de resistance, the small-holders shelter, La Tettoia dei contadini, a grey,
unimpressive but pretty, cast iron construction. On entering, the scents and atmosphere
of the countryside fills your senses. It is like coming across a secret garden. This is
where growers from a radius of 30 miles around Turin, bring the fruit, vegetables
and herbs of their labour. The produce is picked at first light, driven in,
dropped at the gate, and set up here, ready for opening time at seven, every
morning, whatever the weather. Everything you see and buy here is grown
locally. The root vegetables in the crates look as if they have just been
pulled out of the ground with their long sheaths of green still attached. Blue
plastic packing cases are lined up edge to edge, creating a visual kaleidoscope
of springy salad leaves, greens and herbs.
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| Wild poppy shoots |
Mounds of seasonal produce inspire
what is going to be cooked today for lunch. No paper, no plastic, no packaging.
Men and women shoppers, vie for space around their favourite stalls with their
voluminous bags and shopping trolleys, chatting with the stall holder-growers. These
are the same people who plant and harvest and transport this green manna from
heaven. I look on and listen jealously, longing to follow any one of the
house-holders home to their kitchens to discover what it is that they will be
cooking today. I day-dream about joining them for lunch.
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| Celariac |
There are three more
quarters in the square to discover, over the road is the covered fish market
and the tightly regimented rows of red and yellow canopied stalls of the orto frutta market, selling fruit and
vegetables from up and down the peninsular and around the globe. It was June
the last time I was here, and the stalls then spilled over with summer fruits,
strawberries, cherries and peaches and the air was heavy with their sweet
perfume. Asparagus was in season, as were all the early summer vegetables,
peas, broad beans and courgettes. Today, the tang of citrus fruit fills the
air, there are piles of Sicilian blood oranges everywhere. It is spremuta, time. The first aubergines and
artichokes are on sale from the South. Competition is not seen as a problem
here, market-trader calls, attract attention but price and quality are key to
savvy shoppers. The walk-ways between
stalls are long, narrow and dead straight, and the overhanging canopies afford
shy glimpses of the bright winter sky and momentary shafts of sunlight.
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| Just one of many kitchen stalls at Porta Palazzo market |
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| The cathedral square of San Giovanni |
The remaining quarters of
Piazza della Repubblica are home to
the sprawling stalls of the Abbigliamento,
the clothing market and the Calzatura,
the shoe market. There is a strong ethnic presence around Porta Palazzo, there are Moroccan influenced bars, signs in Arabic script,
eateries and shops, selling Eastern clothing, food and bric-a-brac.
It’s a fun area to stay and
handy for much of the city centre, but like all tourist-crowded areas, you need
to keep your wits about you. The lovely Cathedral of San Giovanni, containing
the Turin Shroud is a stone’s throw away. You can walk to the Quadrilatero from
here to enjoy the contempory night-life scene.
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fun for the kids outside
the Egyptian museum
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An afternoon visit to Superga
After the rain! Time
for an aperitivo
in Piazza Vittorio
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A short walk away you can
enjoy the elegant Piazza Castello and the Royal Palace and castle, Via Roma and
Piazza San Carlo, Piazza Vittorio and the Via Roma with its elegant shops, but remember
the lunch time pausa when most shops
are closed. These places are all connected by the city’s convenient colonnades,
affording shelter from the heat in summer and from the wind and rain in winter.
Beyond the city scape,
the parks and green hills that surround Turin is the dome of the Superga Basilica. Should you fancy a
wild white-knuckle ride on a super bumpy bus as it speeds over the city’s tram
lines, followed by a sedate lift to the top of the leafy hill in a quaint
funicular railway, it’s a lovely afternoon’s outing. You can have ice cream or
refreshments at the top, but unless you are a devotee of the Savoia royals, I would suggest avoiding
the visit to the family tombs, once entered the cloister, the key is turned in
the gate and there is no escape until the bitter end. www.basilicadisuperga.com/en/
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The Molle Antonelliano, houses the
National Museum of cinema
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You can’t fail to spot
the Molle Antonneliano, Turin’s Tour d’Eiffel rising over every streetscape as
you take in the city. You can ride to the top in a vertiginous glass lift. It’s
not until you come up close that you observe the remarkable architectural
detail of the building. If you are a film buff, it houses the comprehensive and
fascinating, Museum of Cinema. www.museocinema.it/en Turin is also home to a world-famous
Egyptian museum, second only to Cairo. https://www.museoegizio.it/en Take your time, the collection is extensive and fascinating. The
motor museum is a delight www.museoauto.it/website/en and there are loads of art museums to visit.
Turin is probably the
most foody city you will ever visit. Capital of chocolate; it is where chocolate
was first turned to a solid; in other words, chocolate as we know it. Hot chocolate
drinks such as Bicerin https://bicerin.it are a must.
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Caffe' Mulassano is the perfect place
to rest a while for an aperitive
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Gianduia, that heavenly mix of hazelnut and chocolate, myriad sweetmeats and an endless seam
of colourful and luscious patisserie must all be sampled https://delcambio.it/it/farmacia-del-cambio/home.
The tramezzino or dainty sandwich is
said to have been invented in one of the Torino’s historic cafes in Piazza
Castello http://www.caffemulassano.com/. Grissini were first made here for an
ailing prince. Vermouth was concocted and then popularised by a young
herbalist, called Carpano. The aperitive was born here. www.brancadistillerie.com/en/product/antica-formula
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Try and hit this charming café at tea time
to enjoy a Bicerin, a special hot
chocolate and a few home made biscuit
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Torino’s restaurants are
legendary, www.turinitalyguide.com/where-to-eat-like-a-local-in-turin its
seasonal specialties include the mountain-fair of fondues and cheeses; on a
clear day, the snow-capped Alps drift into view like clouds around the city.
The rice is grown on the flatlands in the shadow of the mountains, on the plains
of the rivers Po and Dora, providing endless streams of creamy al dente risottos. The hills of Langhe
and Roero to the south are awash with a long list of noteworthy wines. In
autumn and winter the unmistakable aromas of white and black truffles and wild
mushrooms fill the air. Piemonte's cattle provide the tender lean veal, the
fassona, for the many raw meat signature dishes and the beef for the celebrated
Bollito.
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Organic bread from Aosta at the
Campagna Amica Market
in Piazza Cavour Gardens
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If all this wasn’t reason
enough to crown Torino a queen among foody cities. Torino is also the home to
the biannual Slow Food show. The Terra
Madre Salone del Gusto is a five-day food romp https://salonedelgusto.com that showcases an astonishing array of artisan food and its producers from Italy and around the world; much of it would
be endangered, were it not for Slow food.
The Torino I remember
in my twenties was always a beautiful well dressed and well-mannered city, at the height of its industrial past. Remember Michael Caine in The Italian
Job. Its royal palaces and gardens, its elegant Parisian style, tree line
avenues, the colonnaded squares and streets, the churches and elegant cafes
formed the perfect back drop for the city’s industrial royalty, captains of
industry and their customers and its hard-working people.
People still flock to
Torino from far and wide, for Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto and the many
international events held at Lingotto. The Winter Olympics did much to bring
the city to the attention of the world. Parks and piazzas are filled regularly
with people pulling events. There is always something special going on. I only
hope that some of the hundreds and thousands of business people and skiers who
pass through Torino Caselle airport on their way to Lingotto or the Alps might
return to see more of this cultured, culinary capital and even venture beyond
into the heart of Piedmont.
