Turin & the Alps - Italy - page 434

The Torino Card
A € 15 Torino Card (sold at the tourist office) will, for 48 hours, grant you plus
one child under 12 discounts on concerts and the like, free admission to 82 muse-
ums (including all those mentioned here), discounts on cultural events, and free
public transport within Turin. For € 17, your card is valid for 72 hours.

given over to the far-reaching collections of the Museo Civico di Arte Antica. The
holdings focus on the medieval and Renaissance periods, shown off against the
castle's unaltered, stony medieval interior. One of Italy's largest collections of
ceramics is here, as well as some stunning canvases, including Antonello da
Messina's Portrait of a Man. I can't say much more about the museum or palazzo
because it was closed for years to undergo extensive restorations and is scheduled
to reopen after this topic goes to press, in the fall of 2006.
The Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace)

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(Piazzetta Reale/Piazza Castello;
% 011-4361455; www.ambienteto.arti.beniculturali.it; € 6.50; Tues-Sun 8:30am-
7:30pm) is the former royal residence of the House of Savoy. Begun in 1645 and
designed by the Francophile count of Castellamonte, it reflects the ornately
baroque tastes of European ruling families of the time—a fact that will not be lost
on you as you pass from one opulently decorated, heavily gilded room to the next.
(The Savoys had a keener eye for painting than for decor, and most of the can-
vases they collected are in the nearby Galleria Sabauda.)
What's most notable here are some of the tapestries, including those depicting
the life of Don Quixote, in the Sala delle Virtu (Hall of Virtues) by the finest
workshop in baroque-era Europe, the royal French manufacturer Gobelins; and
the collection of Chinese and Japanese vases in the Sala dell'Alcova. One of the
quirkier architectural innovations, an antidote to several monumental staircases,
is a manually driven elevator from the 18th century.
One wing houses the Armeria Reale

(Piazza Castello, 191; % 011-543889;
www.artito.arti.beniculturali.it; € 4; Tues-Sat 1-7pm, Sun 10am-7pm), one of the
most important arms and armor collections in Europe, especially of weapons from
the 16th and 17th centuries. This sight was closed when I researched this guide,
but was set to reopen by the time you arrive.
Behind the palace, and offering a refreshing change from its frippery, are the
Giardini Reali (Royal Gardens), laid out by Le Nôtre, more famous for the
Tuileries and the gardens at Versailles.
Just north of the Piazza Castello and the Royal Palace sits the bland facade of
the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista

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(Piazza San Giovanni; % 011-
5661540 or 011-4361540; daily 8am-12:30pm and 3-7pm). Far more interesting
is the single chapel inside the cathedral's pompous, 15th-century interior—the
baroque Cappella della Santa Sindone, occasional home to the controversial
Santissima Sindone ( Shroud of Turin; see below). Even without the presence of
one of Christendom's most precious relics—only rarely on view in a silver casket
elevated on the altar in the center of the room—the chapel is still well worth a
visit. Restored after a 1997 fire (one of many the shroud has miraculously sur-
vived, with occasional singeing, over the centuries), the chapel is somberly clad in

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