Europe has been battered by storm after storm this winter, and January saw two in quick succession : storms Isha swept across the whole of the UK over the weekend of 20 – 21 January creating the first ever British Isles-wide amber warning of winds up to 100mph, followed almost immediately by Jocelyn on Tuesday 23 January, the day before our flight. 

Planes had been diverted to Cologne and Paris (from Edinburgh and Belfast respectively – hard on those not carrying passports!) so our on-time and smooth BA flight at 07.30 seemed very fortunate. Such an early start meant the night before was spent in Gatwick where David enjoyed Chelsea’s 6-1 win against Middlesborough in the Hilton’s Sports bar, and so on Wednesday 24 January we were able to join the check-in queue at 05.30 without too much discomfort.

The flight left on time and landed in Turin early at 10.15. We learned that the no. 268 bus (€7.50) runs every fifteen minutes from a stop just to the right of the Arrivals exit and delivers to either Porta Susa or Porta Nuova stations. The metro stops at both, and so for €2 each we then travelled the seven stops from Porta Susa to Lingotto, to check-in to the NH Lingotto Hotel, embedded in the huge iconic FIAT building, once the heart of Fiat production since 1923. This building is awesome! 

“Uno degli spettacoli più impressionanti forniti dal mondo dell’industria”.  
(‘One of the most impressive spectacles provided by the world of industry’): Le Corbusier

 I quote from Wikipaedia: ‘Construction of the building started in 1916 and it was inaugurated in 1923. The design by the young architect Giacomo Matté-Trucco, was unusual in that it had five floors, with raw materials going in at the ground floor, and cars built on a line that went up through the building. Finished cars emerged at rooftop level to go onto the 1.5km long test track. It was the largest car factory in the world at that time’ 

As the original FIAT car factory, opened in 1923, it employed thousands over the years and was in use until the early seventies, when it was superseded by an out-of-town factory, and stood empty and neglected until the massive restoration and repurposing in 1989 by architect Renzo Piano.  It is a huge building. The spiral ramp which still runs up the height of five floors to the very top of the building is breath-taking. The testing track remains on the roof, open to the sky, encircling the gallery designed for the family’s fabulous collection of twentieth century art. 

Our room was ready, so we unpacked before having lunch in the very competent, busy and improbably-named hotel restaurant Torpedo. When we came to choose from the menu del giorno we realised the various names of each meal referred to makes of Fiat cars; so no doubt Torpedo has a place alongside Giulietta, and Topolino and Fluvia. Indeed in the foyer of the hotel stands a very handsome 1952 vintage 500C Trasformabile (convertible – very sweet indeed) 

The building is vast and has been repurposed as shopping mall, cinemas, concert hall, congress centre and a hotel. The mature tropical plants now crowd inside the huge rectangular courtyard. 

David’s knee which he ‘turned’ a couple of months ago has been literally limiting our movements, and coupled with gathering nerves over the presentation we opted for a quiet afternoon, David practising his presentation while I caught up on sleep, followed by a very modest walk through the building and around the shopping area.  

We ate once again in the hotel, and to our surprise slept well, despite the nerves! 

Thursday 25 January 2024

After breakfast David rehearsed his presentation once more while I spent the morning planning a possible Easter family holiday in Tuscany. 

Despite being only ten minutes walk from the Palazzo Regione Piemonte, we opted for a taxi as David’s knee injury is genuinely disabling. The taxi driver joked about the quality of the building – only completed last year. He hoped it wouldn’t fall down today. So did I!   I fear its design takes some inspiration from London’s Shard, my least favourite London eyesore. 

We ate in a well-placed piedini café which was doing great business, sited almost opposite the Palazzo piazza, where electrical workers were demonstrating, almost outnumbered by carabinieri. The choices were regionally described – as the photo of the menu shows:

At 14.00 we headed for the Sala Trasparenza, which to my relief was on the ground floor, going though the security (screening as if at an airport but with much less conviction and even slower speed) whose staff were disappointed and a little reproachful by our lack of ID documents (our passports were of course resting in the hotel safe)

The session began at 14.30 with a series of speakers running through the data for 2023: climate, production, sales, trends…. Two and a half continuous hours of detailed information. No loo stops or leg stretching. Finally, David ! Da da!

Speaking in Italian was applauded, as was my choice of Piemonte for the book… David spoke clearly and well, despite a minor technical hitch (when is there not?) which ditched several key slides. Sadly Stefano Ricagno was unwell and therefore absent; Francesco Monchiero was warm, but distracted, and we missed Lucrezia’s enthusiasm and attention. She was a casa…

Afterwards we spoke with Gianpiero Gerbi, and he and another keen woman winemaker (Monica)  both bought a book from us before we headed back to the Lingotto hotel by underground, and thence to the Eataly complex for supper, with its disappointingly modest wine list despite the proximity of a fabulous cellar. Eataly was founded in 2004 in Alba by Oscar Farinetti, an entrepreneur formerly involved in the consumer electronics business, and collaborates with Slow Food, which unsurprisingly, was founded in nearby Brà. The Gastronomic University lies between Alba and Bra at Pollenza. 

This is another repurposed building! Formerly the Benedetto Carparno Vermouth factory, built in 1786 to produce Vermouth, or Vermut as it was known, this is now the Torino branch of the Eataly chain of large format/footprint Italian marketplaces comprising a variety of restaurants, food and beverage counters, bakery, retail items, and a cooking school. The building is beautifully restored and re-used to great effect…

Friday 26 January 2024

We left on a beautifully sunny morning to collect a car from Hertz to attempt a restful weekend before returning to Turin on Sunday evening for Grandi Langhe…. Read on … see Piemonte 22 !