Zurers in Italy 2022: Wednesday: April 27
Day 2: Sesto Calende - Torino
We sleep through the night for the most part and hope that will take care of any jet lag. After breakfast, we pack up and leave Sesto Calende, which has become another one of our special Italian places. We decide to avoid the autostrada for our trip to Torino and, after an initial snafu and the long, dense commercial strip as you enter Piemonte from Lombardia, we are on pleasant country roads passing farms and occasional views of the snow-capped Alps in the distance. The route takes us through the centers of some attractive small towns on the way to Biella, where we decide to stop, do some sightseeing, and have lunch.
Biella is known as the center of the wool processing industry and seems quite prosperous as we drive into the center of the lower town. We stop at the tourist information office and a friendly woman gives us detailed instructions on how to access the historic area on foot or by car in very rapid Italian. We follow her directions to the free parking lot at the lower station of the free funicular to the upper town.
Leaving the station at the top, we walk through narrow porticoed streets and emerge into a very attractive, sunlit piazza--the Piazza Cisterna.
There is a trattoria in one corner with outside tables and it is hard to avoid sitting down for lunch. (This goes against our plan to have sandwiches or other light mid-day meals but "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.")
This is the Trattoria Cisterna after the lunch crowd has finished.
In any case, the menu is appealing, the waiter is charming, the weather is perfect, and the location in front of the ornate Palazzo Cisterna is irresistible. On top of all this, lunch is delicious. Diana chooses the daily special lunch--two courses, wine, water, and coffee for Euro 12.00. She has a risotto with radicchio followed by grilled smoked cheese and spinach. I have the local specialty...a risotto called panissa vercellese cooked with sausage which is also excellent.
After lunch, we walk across the piazza and into the old Jewish section of Biella to find the synagogue but there is no indication of the specific location. We identify the building and take pictures. We later learn that there are no signs and that the entrance to the sinagoga is through an interior courtyard so that the Jews of Biella could avoid the public streets on their way to prayer.
On the way back to the funicular, I am taken with some of the alleyways and courtyards, and the view from the upper station over the city and countryside is quite spectacular.
As much as we enjoyed the drive on local roads, the last part took us past a long string of commercial strips rather than the lovely countryside so we get on the autostrada for the remaining part of the trip to Torino. There was a fair amount of traffic into the center but the directions are good and we make it to the hotel with only one wrong turn. We are staying at the NH Collection Piazza Carlina, part of a Spanish chain of hotels. The check-in process is a bit tedious (we got a trainee) but the room looks attractive with views over the piazza. I park the car in their underground garage which is very tight...I hope to be able to get the car out without too many scratches.
We hang out in the room for the rest of the afternoon, resting, doing some research, and catching up on work. We do find that as attractive as the room is, there are definitely some quirks--no dresser or drawers anywhere for unpacking, the lights in the bathroom don't seem to work, no bath towels, outlets for electronics are poorly placed, the air conditioning doesn't work, etc. We do get the lights working, the air conditioning turned on, and bath towels delivered but we expect more from a not inexpensive hotel.
I have researched restaurants in the immediate area of the hotel and make a reservation at Le Vitel Etonne--a Slow Food restaurant just around the corner. Before dinner, I make a short reconnaissance stroll around the neighborhood...a very bustling area with many restaurants of all nationalities, bars, shops--even a laundromat.
Dinner at Le Vitel Etonne is excellent...the food is delicious and the staff very friendly. We share a carne cruda (Piemontese version of steak tartare) and Diana has a local version of small ravioli (plin) in a butter sauce. I have a dish called agnolotti tre gobbi (large ravioli with meat filling and meat sauce), and we share a plate of greens called barbe di frate in Piemonte (agretti in central Italy, non-existent in the US) --all excellent. Diana has a glass of a local white and I drink a simple local red (vinruss translated from the local dialect as red wine). There is a mixup about dessert; Diana gets a warm chocolate cake rather than a strawberry tartlet but it is fine. We will think about going back for another meal.
The walk back to the hotel through the Piazza Carlina is quiet.
Tomorrow we will explore the city.
Jim and Diana
