Wednesday 8th June: Overcast/sunny and warm, 18°C to 30°
Superga Walk: 20.6k walk to the Basilica Superga plus 3.2k round trip to Donna and Milton at La Mole
Accommodation: Inn Vanchiglia Turin
Basilica Superga high above
Turin is clean, lets keep it this way
2 hrs and 600m climb to Superga
Hazy Turin with Alps in background
Adorned Grand Torino FC Memorial
31 victims died in plane crash 1949
Inside the Basilica Superga
Walking home by the River Po
Reminder of Italy decades ago
Dinner with Donna and Milton at Inn Vanchiglia
A long walk to the Superga Basilica high on a hill (679m) overlooking Turin. A small taste of bigger walks to come. The Superego was the tragic site of the 1949 Plane crash that claimed the lives of 31 people including the entire Torino Football tream.
Ian's awake at 6am, I sleep in until 7am. It’s supposed to rain today so we have a quick cup of tea and breakfast and we're out the door by 7.40am. The walk along the River Po is cool and 30 minutes later we're crossing the bridge where Madame Muslim was yesterday trying to snatch our camera thinking we had a photo of her! We follow signs to the Superga which we can see high above us atop the mountain. It's a pleasant walk up a not too steep hill and I've decided to do my part and pick up rubbish along the way. We're amazed at how clean Turin is, and the streets smell of disinfectant so one feels inclined to help them keep it that way. There's quite a bit of traffic up and down the zig zag road which follows the cog railway up the mountain, and the narrow overgrown footpath switches back and forward across the road.
In just over two hours we reach the Superga. There's only a handful of tourists plus a few runners and two cyclists who have challenged themselves up the mountain. The restaurant is closed on Wednesdays, and of course today is Wednesday, so we miss our cup of coffee. The view over Turin is very hazy and we can just make out the snow capped peaks of the Alps in the distance. But there's no sign of the forecast rain.
A short walk around to the back of the Superga reveals the memorial to the Grand Torino football team. All 31 members, officials and journalists aboard a Fiat plane died when the plane crashed into the back of the Superga in terrible weather on May 4th 1949. There's a pilgrimage of Torino supporters every year to the Superga. Its always sad when such young people die, but a whole football team was a catastrophe that Turin won't forget, as evidenced by the flowers, jerseys, photos, flags and team scarves adorning the huge photographic memorial.
The entrance to the Tombs of the Kings of Savoy is closed - probably wouldn't have gone anyway - and after snack of apple and nuts, we follow a path - No 29 - down the mountain back to the River Po. It's steeper than the road and slippery after the rain yesterday, but at least it’s away from the traffic. It's also a bit longer down, the track veering off and joining the River Po on the outskirts of Torino. From the bottom, the shaded River path is a welcome relief, with the track winding through trees along the bank, as the temperature has now reached 30°C. But still no sign of rain. There’s an old wheel-less bike chained to a rail, a reminder of how Italy was decades ago, very dirty and theft prone.
Soon, we're at the infamous bridge, but there's no sign of Madam Muslim. Probably still on the phone to ISIS! By 1pm, we've both decided its way past coffee time, and it’s now beer and lunch time so 30 minutes later we're glad to be back in our apartment having left over risotto, a cold beer and a glass of iced red wine.
We have a short nap before Donna and Milton contact us to say they've arrived in Turin after a chaotic day yesterday on the way to Briancon with more non-existent French trains and a Booking.com Hotel with no owner and no guests at 10pm. Today they've caught an Italian train with no problems to Turin and are staying at BnB La Mole about a 20 minute walk from us. So after organising a risotto dinner at our apartment, we meet them at La Mole for a celebratory drink before we walk back to Inn Vanchiglia for more drinks, Italian Carnaroli Mushroom Risotto cooked by yours truly and dessert of Aldi Chocolate with our bargain priced Cointreau. At 11pm we part company to meet in Alba tomorrow.