The city of Turin = the beauty on the river Po

I have to confess. I fell in love with Turin. It wasn't about squares, palaces, castels or famous Mole Antonelliana, the city of Turin has very different spirit inside. I didn't see more street performers at one square than that day in Turin so that I decided to show you one of them...

The train connection from Pavia to Turin isn't so good. We had to change our train once, one way cost about 10 Euros and took more than 2 and half hour. Our train arrived to Turin station called Porta Nuova and we started to walk.



First of all, we came to Piazzo San Carlo (square) which wasn't so special. However, really nice square is nearby. It's called Piazza Castello and there are impressive palaces on it - Pallazo Reale and Palazzo Madama.





There were many street artist, in fact, I have never seen such competition between them (because there were like 5 groups of artists in the same time) on Piazza Castello. Have a look on this funny group!

After watching street artists we continued to walk near the Pallazo Reale. The Cathedral of St John the Baptist is very close to this palace. I like the cities in which everything is near so that you can see the most in the short time. There is famous Shroud of Turin inside the cathedral. However, I liked the Palatine Towers more and really enjoyed Archaeological Park. I have some kind of obsession about city parks so it was nothing unusual for me :)





After staying enough time in Archaeological Park we went to visit the museum of cinema which is inside Mole Antonelliana so that it was not so hard to find. Mole Antonelliana has the highest tower in the centre and it is the main landmark of Turin.



I wasn't disappointed with the museum of cinema, however, I expected more international cinema than italian. However, there was the expedition of Roman Polanski which was very interesting. In the middle of the museum there is amazing lift which goes up to the tower and from which you can see the most of the city. Unfortunately, we came to the museum quite late so that we didn't have enough time for both. We stayed inside until the closing of the building and were very tired after it.





Finally, we were walking in the streets of Turin towards the river Po. When I was there and saw stone bridge with the church Gran Madre on the other side, I couldn't help myself and imagined being in Prague. I don't think these cities are so similar, however, the view from that part of the riverside on Gran Madre has something in common with Prague.





Although it is not so easy to get to Turin from Pavia, I hope I will have time to go there again. I haven't tried Torino Chocolate yet!

The song from Via Garibaldi (Strada Nuova) in Genoa

I spent saturday afternoon in Genoa with my friends. I haven't seen much of Italy yet but from the cities I've seen I like Genova the most. The city is hilly, streets are narrow, you can feel the wind of the sea. In the street Via Garibaldi (Strada Nuova) we heard italian street singer...

Just a few minutes after arrival to Genoa we discovered statue of Christopher Columbus :) Then we took bus into the centre of the city and got off Piazza De Ferrari. We went inside Ducal Palace and then up to its tower. Student tickets cost only 3 Euro but there was nothing to see. Tower used to be a prison in the past and famous people were imprisoned there, however, all you can see there today are 4 walls.

Travel tip: Don't waste you time with tower of Ducal Palace.

We went to see the cathedral of Genoa afterwards which is near Ducal Palace. When we were inside the priest was doing divine service. It was quite interesting.





It was only 10 minutes walking from the cathedral to harbour. There is Aquario of Genoa which is one of the biggest in Europe but we came to Genoa late so that we didn't have time to visit it. We found one crazy statue in the harbour, I had to put the picture here.





After the walk in the harbour we found medieval gates of Genoa (Porta Soprana) and the house where Christopher Columbus might lived.



We went back to Piazza De Ferrari and crossed it and started to look for Via Garibaldi (Strada Nuova) which is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. It was tricky to find it in the narrow streets of Genoa.





And the song by street singer for you at the end:

I didn't have enough time to see all things I wanted to see in Genoa. I haven't seen the Genoese lighthouse La Lanterna nor visited Aquario of Genoa. I hope I will visit Genoa another time and see the rest.

The covered bridge of Pavia (Ponte Coperto)

I live now 3 weeks in Pavia (Lombardy), 35 km south of Milan. It would be a mistake to write another post about different city. People travel a lot, because they are curious about other places. However, they find later on that they don't know much about place they live. My journey starts on Ponte Coperto (Covered Bridge) and ends in the streets of Pavia.

I live near Ticino river, Ponte Coperto (covered bridge) is about 10 minutes walking. Some people call this bridge also Ponte Vecchio which means old bridge, but this bridge isn't so old. It was built in 1951 and has replaced the older bridge (1354) which was damaged in 1945. Ponte Coperto is symbol of the Pavia, and from the other side of the Ticino there is a nice view on the bridge and old town.

After crossing the bridge I was walking on Strada Nuova. There is the most important building at the end of this street - University of Pavia. Pavia has only 70,000 inhabitants but 20,000 students. Great reputation of this university was emphasized by famous scientists such as Girolamo Cardano, Alessandro Volta, Camillo Golgi, Ugo Foscolo.





Three of mediaval towers are next to university and shapes the skyline of Pavia.



After walking around the university I got back on Strada Nuova to see the Theater Fraschini. The theater named after famous tenor of Pavia was founded in 1773 so it is even older than well known theater La Scala in Milan.



I continued with walking and crossed the crossroad. Afterwards I was staring at the big castle with strong walls surrounded by beautiful park - Visconti Castle. I had a rest in the park because I felt really tired after going through the whole town by foot.

Travel tip: Have a rest in park near the Visconti Castle and then walk again. You can see the most of Pavia by foot.



I decided to go back home. On my way I go through Piazza della Vittoria and took the street near Pavia Cathedral (Pavia - Il Duomo).





Although my legs are tired, I have nice feelings. I know that there are still a lot of things to discover in Pavia. Maybe next time!

On the roofs of Duomo (Milan cathedral)

I saw the city of Milan. I enjoyed many strange things there. Big rabbits in the street, woman singing in the underground using her tape-recorder, big spaghetti growing from the road = Milan was like a fairy tale. However, I loved the view from Milan cathedral (Duomo) the most.

The journey started with hitch-hiking from the town where I live - Pavia. My italian friend told me before that only a few people hitch-hiked in Italy. I had to try it. Me and my turkish friend Emir were trying to catch a car but we had a bad luck that day. After 2 hours we decided to go to Milan by train (as a losers). We will have more luck next time.

Travel tip: If you want to travel by train in Italy, use trains called "treno regionale" because they are much cheaper.





We used the underground after arriving to get to the center of Milan. On the third stop get in a woman with strange machine on her back. She had there tape-recorder, microphone in hand and was singing some song. Nice ride in Milan's underground, nice start of journey. When we came upstairs, we saw spaghetti growing from the road.







There was Milan castel (Castello Sforzesco) near the street with spaghetti. Afterwards, we went more into the centre and were looking for Duomo (Milan cathedral). All we could find were two big rabbits in the Milan street which were staring at us. Finally we saw Duomo.









Milan cathedral is the 3. highest in the world and about 40 thousand people could be there for the same time. We were also inside and one sculpture I liked the most. However, the best thing from the whole journey was the roof of Milan cathedral. It cost 5 Euro to go up by foot and was really worth seeing.







Milan, the second largest city in Italy was a great choice for my first journey.