Tomorrow is another day and another
adventure! I can't wait!
Well today was another fantastic day! (not
to brag or anything but I am so lucky! I must have
done something right along the way to deserve this!)
We started off
the day by strolling through some of the famous Piazzas in
town to the Royal Palace. We attempted to stop along the
way at one of the famous churches but it was closed for
renovation. Actually, much of the city is undergoing renovation
and much of the scenery is marred by pretty ugly
scaffolding.
When we finally
got the the Palace, we were told that it was full. In
reality it was almost time for them to close for their
three hour lunch break. It is amazing how the entire
Italian culture seems to take this enormous break in the
afternoon. Absolutely everything closes. We even attempted
to go to the Cathedral of Turin (with the shroud) but that
too was closed.
So instead we went to the Egyptian
museum which was absolutely amazing. We read in the
guidebook that this museum is second only to the Egyptian
Museum in Cairo but nothing could have prepared us
for what was in the museum here in Turin. There was an
enormous collection of actual writing papyri
(spelling?) that was all pieced together because they
were in mere fragments. Also worth mentioning
was the enormous collection of statues dedicated to
the Egyptian gods and goddesses. The condition of these giant
statues was absolutely amazing. They looked like they were
brand new! My favorite part of the museum was definitely
the mummy exposition of course (creepy I know) They had a large
collection of mummies and their burial chambers, along
with a vast collection of mummified animals. They even had
mummified alligators!
We then went to an English pub for
lunch because they had jacket potatoes.
Afterwards we went to the Cathedral that
houses the Holy Shroud of Turin. The outside of the church
was rather beat up and not too exciting but the inside was
absolutely exquisite
Of course we
did not get to actually
see the shroud because it has only been on display about 5
times in a hundred years. But being in the church and
reading the literature about the shroud was awe inspiring.
The shroud is housed in a log coffin looking tomb in a
glass room. You are able to get about 3 feet from the
coffin but it is not possible to see inside of it. Above
the coffin is a large stage in which the family who owned
the shroud before it
was donated to the church sat during church services. All
I can say is that some people really lived quite the life.
Afterwards we headed to the museum of
the Holy Shroud and received the most personalized
attention I have ever received at a museum. (We were the
only ones there and there were about 6 museum guides. We
were definitely outnumbered but everything was explain in
great detail and all of our questions were answered.) We
first watched a movie that went through each part of the
shroud (i.e. the water stains, the imprints, the blood and
the burn marks). Then we went into the actual museum which
was located under a church that originally housed the
Brotherhood of the Shroud
and the actual shroud. (It is now closed and just art of
the museum) The museum contained a collection of objects
that dealt with the shroud. For example, there were
the two boxes that once were used to move the
shroud. Also, there was a fascinating exhibition on the
different samples of pollen, human cells and dust
recovered from the shroud and their possible origins. Did
you know that Jesus had type AB
blood and was 5 foot 7?
We then headed to a small restaurant near our hotel for
dinner and sampled wild boar. All I can say is that it was
very salty and very interesting. It sort of tasted like
jerky.
Today was a big museum day but not as
good as yesterday. The museums we hit today weren't bad
or anything it's just that the museums we hit
yesterday were more impressionable and memorable.
We started
off the day at the Royal Armory. It is housed in part of
the Royal palace and as you might have guess housed the
royal armory. It was disappointingly small, only 1 room.
Nonetheless the collection was pretty interesting. The
had everything from
mini (operational) cannons, to guns and swords and knives.
My favorite was definite the suits of armor they had for
humans and the horses. They had actual stuffed horses
with full on armor on ridden by mannequins in suits of
armor. I loved the different styles and characteristics
of them all. The most surprising
thing they had was a full suit of armor for a child
about Morgan's size
(6 years old) I guess they started them off young back
then.
We then
headed over to the Museum of Antiquities. This was quite
a large museum with a vast assortment of objects but it
was all in Italian and they had no audio guides or
English guides. I found this
particularly disappointing because I think the main
point of going to a museum is to learn something and we
definitely did not learn anything from this place. Out
in front of the museum was an unearthed Roman
coliseum (or a
partial one) which was very cool.
After lunch
we headed to the Royal Palace. I tried to get the
reduced rate because I am under 25 but for some reason
the museum does not grant student discounts to people
from the United States. The guides even pulled out some
executive looking book that has letters from diplomats
but the US was not in there.
It was required to take a guided
tour of the Palace but the tour was in Italian. But the rooms were decorated to a tee. I have
never seen such royalty before. It was really amazing.
My favorite rooms were the throne room and the
dining room. I was taken aback by how many glasses each
setting had, 8! There were glasses for everything from
red wine to white wine, whiskey, champagne
and water. You could tell the diners were definitely not
the ones doing the dishes!
We were
disappointed that the
royal place tour was only through select rooms on the
first floor. We further read the brochure and it would
have cost a total of €20 a piece to see the rest.
Since it was in Italian we did not bother because it was
so expensive!
Tonight we
went and had frogs legs for dinner. Scary I know! We are
having fun sampling a new food everywhere we go. We are
being adventurous. As for the frogs legs they really did
not have much taste. They were pretty tricky to eat
though. There were so many little bones.
Elizabeth 
