An Italian gem

 

If we thought we had left Napoleon behind, we were wrong and he was still making his presence felt. 

 

 

As we slid back into mainland France, as two of the relatively few travellers on the Mega Express 5, the weather was becoming a little cooler and light rain was about. And driving through the hills behind Nice and heading towards Italy was an early reminder of Corsican winding roads, as if we needed that. With time on our side, we avoided the autoroutes and headed into the old Savoy areas, past towns we have never heard of, tucked away in the hills. Eventually we arrived in Saluzzo, our residence for the next four days. 

 

 

Hotel Antiche Mura is a very comfortable boutique place in a small city some kilometres south of Turin. Located in the foothills of the Po Valley and not far from the wine and produce areas around Asti and Alba. This small city is really quite a gem and much to our liking. With a strong historical background as a small principality before being forced into Savoy and then swallowed up by Napoleon for his few years of fame, Saluzzo is now blessed with a relaxed and quite graceful old city centre that is good for tourists like us to explore.

 

 

The high areas of the old town, once the domain of the church and military, are now the home of a couple of museums, a small art galley dedicated to artist Matteo Olivera and a very well presented old gaol covering the history of punishment. We enjoyed visiting these places and with great use of technology and video, we picked up a lot of interesting history. Although it was a little depressing to observe again and again, the realisation that humans tend to repeat experiences generation after generation without advancing very far. Exploitation of the masses, persecution of those who follow different ways, suppression of the underclasses, political hamfistedness and eventually a little progress for all.

So far, we have spent just one day in Turin, due to a train strike. We spent a few hours tracing history from pre Napoleon times through to just after WWI in the Risorgimento Italiano museum. An overwhelming collection of material with thankfully plenty of videos to explain events and artifacts. Giuseppe Garibaldi and others eventually appearing to claim victory for Italy and democracy.

From there we made our way to the Mole Antonelliana, a very striking building with a panoramic lift and a terrific museum on the history of cinema which we enjoyed for several hours also. For us, it was a fascinating comparison with the similarly themed museum in Melbourne which is much more gimmicky and game oriented in our opinion. More Hollywood in Melbourne, more drama and human experience in Italy, both reflecting the very different cultural experiences of each country

  

So having happily explored the gem of Saluzzo.... ..... Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Saluzzo is where the story of Giselda (or wife testing) emerged. A very interesting story in the history of the development of women as individuals in their own right. And as that story continues, we are preparing to move to Aosta and further into the Italian Alps. The weather is likely to be marginal at best, at least for the next few days. We are hoping to do some summer walking around Aosta but we will see what happens about that.