Italy 84 The Mole, the Shroud and the Italian Job . I don't like Mondays , never smile at a crocodile

---

The church bells woke us up early again clanging and banging away like a demented rooster. We did not have a shower on site so started to feel a little hot, sticky and bothered and had to resort to washing as best we could before we watched the morning train trundle into Susa station. We didn’t have to hurry we knew exactly what time it would go out and it gave us plenty of time to walk over, climb aboard and go upstairs on the double decker train.

The journey took us just a little over an hour and a quarter. Fast train – I hate to think what the slow train would have been like. We stopped at every station, at every small town and village to pick up and set down the passengers. Torino station was a delight . Smaller than Milan but with a good number of cafes, excellent signage which meant you knew exactly which platform to go to for your train and at what time it left. We passed a plaque on the way out to George and Robert Stevenson train engineers and designers born in Chesterfield . It seemed strangely out of place in a station in a corner of Northern Italy. George was born in 1781 and was an engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830. He moved later to Tapton House in Chesterfield , built the Clay Cross tunnel and opened the Clay Cross company and was buried in Chesterfield. Small world indeed.

Torino is a small walking city with open squares , cafes spilling out into the streets , good shops including high quality Prada – no I cant afford to go in and window shop even. Closed arcades to keep out the sun and the rain, an impressive but Baroque Duomo, a castle and a Roman arch and gateway. Trams run down the wider street making it feel very cosmopolitan. We stopped for an espresso before heading off to see the Mole Antionielliano. The Mole Antoneli Antonelliana is a major landmark in Turin. It is named for the architect who built it and is of monumental proportions . Construction began in 1863, soon after Italian unifications when Turin was the capital of Italy - not many people know that - it moved to Florence before its permanent home in Rome and was completed in 1889, after the architect's death.

Against the background of the mountains it was a lovely building soaring skywards. Inside is a museum of cinema and a lift to the top where there are breathtaking views of the city and the surrounding mountains. We did not go in the museum nor did we go upwards . The driver of the trip is suffering from vertigo so it was perhaps not a good idea. We walked to the castle – closed . It’s Monday and Italy closes on a Monday. That means the Egyptian museum will close too . I don’t like Mondays …………………………….

On our way past the closed castle and palace I was handed a newspaper. You know the sort of thing . The young guy or girl picks you out, heads for you as if you were a magnet. He or she has something in his or her hand. It might be a clipboard – My God better revert to Welsh we don’t want to be accosted for an opinion or money. Or they carry newspapers – this was the case today and for once I took it and put it in my bag. Normally it would end up in the nearest bin unloved and unread. Forgotten about we walked to see the Roman Porta – not dissimilar to the one at Susa and very impressive set in the grounds of a park which had the remains of Roman foundations.

We decided not to do the Duomo. Too many crowds and what would we have seen had we paid our money. A box with something in it . Something we couldn’t see and had to believe was the shroud that Christ was dressed in after his crucifixtion . Not our cup of tea.



More espresso called so we sat down in one of the lovely squares, in the sunshine and got out the newspaper. We were greeted off handedly and ordered our drinks . Next to us was a priest all robed in black carrying his Bible , he swatted a beggar off with a curt telling off and ordered his drink. Perhaps the staff revered the priest to us. Perhaps they worried for their mortal souls if they served him after us but he ordered his drink after us and got it before us. Sitting in the sun we still marvelled at how religion still plays a big part in Italian society.

I skipped through page after page of the newspaper which luckily was in both Italian and English. There were events , music in the streets, exhibitions and the Egyptian Museum was open until 2 pm .



I like Mondays



We rushed off paid our £20 entrance fee and joined the rabble. My God the place was heaving. I thought the British Museum was full when we visited a couple of years ago but this was like Piccadilly Station on a bad day. The museum had recently been refurbished and the new displays were drawing the crowds in. The first floor you visit is on the ground floor and it had wall to wall papyrus messages to the gods setting out how the deceased had lived and died and what he needed to do to get a safe passage to the after life. Stunning hieroglyphics so unbelievably fresh, painfully beautiful and new after thousands of years. Even not understanding a word that was up there the drawings and pictures were simple, beautifully crafted and priceless . How on earth have they survived was a question that continually came to my mind?

After these wonderful creations we were guided by signs – visitor route which took us to the first long escalator to the first floor. Expecting to alight and take in more Egyptian wonders we were surprised to find the visitor route took us to a second long escalator. This one ended on the second floor – our route took us to the third escalator and we felt as if we were going to the Gods. A final fourth escalator brought us out on the top floor and our journey through Egypt began. Sarcofogi by the dozen, all colourfully decorated .Eyes looked out on us from the sarcofogi . . Inner sarcofogi by the score, outer plain wooden ones which defied belief. How were they carried ? They were just too heavy and large. Mummies wrapped up like a swaddled child, the bandages brown with age. Adults , children, one child had burst out of its bandages, its brown limbs desicatted but still with dried skin, toes and toe nails. Cats, dogs, a crocodile all mummified and bandaged. The Egyptians wanted immortality and in a strange way I felt that they got it as we looked on them and marvelled at the skill of the embalmer and the bodies that remained locked elusively to life were still within the bandaging. I dont think I will ever smile at a crocodile again .

There were sacred objects by the hundreds. Small rush boats with oarsmen waiting to ferry the dead to eternal life. Wicker beds, wooden furniture some plain some highly decorated. Food laid out for the deceased to eat in the afterlife all preserved for eternity. Koptic jars full of their internal organs. The displays went on and on with each case containing two mummies usually a man and his wife their two internal sarcophagi , two outer and their clothes . Shirts of brown cotton still easily identified and could be worn today. One of the cases contained one of the architects of the pyramids and his wife . Highly thought of and honoured he had his own tomb which was worthy of a man of his high stature There was also a fully decorated burial chamber . British museum eat your heart out .

The final floor was the cours de resistance . A room entirely blacked out with spotlights forming the only source of light. Sphynx arranged along one all, statues of the pharoes themselves, their god in aprons, their gods holding jars, pot bellied monkey gods, A display that made you draw breathe and think wow with a capital W.

Is there one memory we have of Torino that stands heads and shoulders above all else . It has to be the Egyptian Museum. Was it worth 20 euros – I would have paid double that for the priviledge of seeing such wonderful objects . Should they have been left in Egypt . Now that leads to debate . If they were would they still have been preserved? Of late we have seen priceless irreplaceable Buddist icons destroyed by waring factions. Recently we have seen the so called Islamic state destroying museum pieces and priceless statuary. Then thinking of this no although the pieces are out of context and would look wonderful back in the Valley of the Kings or in the country they came from at least this way we get to see them and hopefully so will future generations. Safe from fanatics and idiots . Other lasting memories – too many to mention but I shall never look a crocodile in the eye again after seeing the mummified one today . Never smile at a crocodile – I don’t like the way he looked at me!

To finish off espresso coffees,arrabiata with tomatoes sitting in the sun on quiet Torino afternoon .

Our journey back to Susa was uneventful. Another train journey on a clean and tidy on time Italian train . We sat in the comfortable leather seats. The weather warmer now than over the last few days. The sun shining on us . We have been on the road 4 days .



Are there still more things to see - most definately yes but nevertheless a lovely introduction to a fantastic city.

---