Visit to the "Shroud of Turin" or "Santa Sindone 2010" di Torino

 Ever since I ever had any recollection of Turin or Torino (as is known in Italian, Turin is the local Piemontese dialect name, pronounce Tour- reen) I've always associated it with the Shroud. Over the years I have read the differing opinions on why it is or is not authentic.  All quite plausible, but the fact of the matter is that whether it is medieval or prior to that it, is fairly difficult to be definitive about, but it is indeed old and quite a fascinating relic, at least to me. To have a simple stained piece of cloth survive hundreds of years is in deed quite astounding.  Wikipedia claims "The Shroud of Turin is one of, if not the, most studied artifacts in human history."  This site makes the case for the Shroud's authenticity. A compelling mystery indeed. 

The House of Savoy, Italy's former royal family whose kingdom stretched from France through Piedmont and Valle d''Aosta, acquired the shroud in the 15th century, and brought it to eventually reside in Torino since that time.  In 1983, upon the death of Umberto II,  owner of  the shroud, bequeathed it to the Pope and his successors, with the proviso that it stay in Turin.

Living in the province of Torino I have been quite fascinated by this relic and naturally wanted to see the real one as I have seen the copy numerous times when friends and relatives have come to visit. The Duomo (or cathedral) is rather modest by Italian standards, even overshadowed by the many grand cathedrals scattered though out the core of downtown Torino.  I am always struck by the somewhat casual atmoshpere of this particular church, whenever I have visited. There is a permanent display on one of the side chapels although it is still in the main part of the church and they have people stationed there to help you with information and to help you to remember to keep a respectful silence when you are visiting the shroud, although I have also visited when there has been weddings taking place along side all of the visitors milling about. It's just not so reverential as one might expect.

This visit was quite different. I rolled up to Piazza Reale about 9am noting all along my stroll under the covered porticos from Porta Susa train station how clean town seemed and definitely with a bit of a buzz.  The round about in front of the train station had numerous buses spinning around mostly sporting Italian plates, with some Austrian and German plates as well. Hadn't really seen this much activity since the 206 Olympics. It was rather exciting.  As I made my way toward the Duomo, I noticed  groups of tourists scattered about taking in all the different angles and sites in of the heart of downtown Torino. It warmed my heart, especially as it was so early and the high street stores hadn't even opened yet.

Rocking up to the front of the Duomo I was surprised at how low key it was as far as people and no checking tickets, just lots of emergency vehicles, a few Carabiniere(police), and Alpini military guys(the mountain edition) to keep the peace on a beautiful spring day.  I sauntered on through the front door, no one even asking about a ticket, to find myself in central part of the softly lit church facing the Shroud, front and center, elevated up high enough for all to see. I made my way forward and only then realized that there was a moving line wrapping around the perimeter of the church and across the center affording much closer viewing, but not accessible from this part of the church. Ah ha, there is a different line for the closer viewing. There quite a few people around me, but not crowded. Most were respectfully observing and a good portion were earnestly praying. It did not have the feel of seekers for miracle just perhaps seeking some connection to the divine. I'm not really quite sure. I could have easily finish my journey there, but felt compelled to get a closer look. I had my free ticket, which I booked the night before on the well organized, multi-language site that was quick and easy. I was quite surprised it was completely free, as were other friends and family members who had paid to visit it on other occasions when it has been on display.

 So off I set in search of the line to make my passage closer to this object of great interest. It was a bit of a stroll around the back of the palace gardens to find the serpentine line snaking around through the back gardens. As bus after bus pulled up to deposit or pick their passengers, I realized it was set up to accommodate great throngs of people that have come on a pilgrimage. The people that had been missing from the front were all here in the line snaking around the grounds and through the old Roman ruins before you made your way into the church.  The day was nice, the ground were lovely the views pleasant and canopied walkways made the time spent making your way into the church pass quickly in a line that steadily continued along. The atmosphere was calm with quiet conversations going on between teachers and their pupils and priests and their parishioners, small groups of family and friends and a few solitary individuals like myself moving along the path. I wanted to query people about where and why they had come, but it just didn't seem like the thing to do.  People were in good spirits,  quietly reflective it seemed, not necessarily speaking about the usual mundane things we often find ourselves chattering on about. There was just a pleasant reverential mood.

There were a variety of posters  of religious art depicting Jesus at various times surrounding his Crucifixion , that helped to set the mood as well. We passed though some underground passageway, where there were back lit busts on display and Gregorian chanting, creating a mood so peaceful and lovely, it begged for you to linger, but we continued on our steady progress. Pellegrini. Pilgrims progress. 

Next, 300 hundred of us at a time were given a brief slide show pointing out the markings on the shroud, accompanied by titles in 8 languages with sacred background music. It definitely helped you absorb what you were actually seeing when you finally arrived at your brief moment of contemplation in front of the Shroud. After the slide show you were asked to proceed in silence. What was before a quiet murmur, now became a reverential silence. The hundred or so, 10 year old children in front of me were completely quiet. Everyone was. It was quite amazing, only broken a little later by a few of the volunteers chatting about going to lunch and seeing each other tomorrow.  I think they were a little hard of hearing. Then when we finally entered the hushed atmosphere of the Duomo I was surprised to see women covering their heads, like I remembered from so many years ago, but had forgotten that it was ever done, as it is seldom the case anymore. Then we were grouped into three lines that made their way in front of the Shroud on three levels so there is excellent viewing on each level. If you make sure you are on the far left, you will find yourself closest to the shroud. 

Once you are there, there is someone softly telling you all of the points of the cloth. the face, the shoulders, the hands, the nail wound, the chest wound and so on. I don't know if it is all the preparation, the atmosphere, the energy of the people, or the face and the obvious imprint of a person, but I did feel tears roll down my face. Because for me, no matter what the truth may be about this ancient cloth, there is a distinct human imprint on the cloth and it does look like that person suffered and in that moment I felt an empathy for all of our human suffering focused there looking for release. It was a touching moment that I appreciate having had the opportunity to experience. Perhaps you would find it different, one can never know, as we make our individual journeys together. 

I would say, if you are going to be in the Torino area before the 23 May, you might want to consider booking in to see the Shroud. It took about an hour and a bit more to get through the whole line and viewing, before enjoying the rest of what Torino has on offer.
This exhibition runs from 10 April-23 May 2010 . 7 am -22:15 daily
It is a free event and open to everyone.
You can find the Shroud official site here and the online ticket booking site here.
Here is a short clip about the Shroud going on display

Anise Orange Biscotti

I always try to have a stash of cookies lurking in my assorted cookie tins for that unexpected drop in visitor that makes it seem that we were just waiting for them to visit. Home made cookies always seem to delight everyone, elevating the shared drink from pleasant to memorable.  I often have friends asking me to bring those cookies around again that they had at our house or that I brought round for Christmas, you remember them don't you? Oftentimes I don't as I like to cycle through a variety of cookies and by the time someone is reminding me about them, I am on to the next round of new favorites, or wading through some of the old favorites scribble on the various scraps of paper tucked in to my various notebooks. These anise orange cantucci, if you will, is still one, my neighbors, ask for longingly. Cantucci is what the twice baked cookies that we generically call biscotti in America, are actually called in Italy. They are most well known in Tuscany as basic almond variety that are usually served with  a sweet vin santo (blessed wine) at the end of a meal, for a light ending to a meal. Biscotti to Italians, just means what American s call cookies and the Brits call biscuits. I just call them delicious and think you will as well.

These biscotti are just the right sweet fix you might want to  indulge in after all the Easter excess of chocolate bunnies and eggs.  Simple and satisfying, cut into tiny dippers for your espresso or large batons suitable for dunking in your caffe latte or milky tea and you will probably find they are so irresistible you might need to hide the cookie tin somewhere to make it difficult to polish off the whole batch at one sitting. Flavorful and yet, not too sweet or rich that dunking them into your favorite hot beverage will have you heating up the kettle at all hours of the day and night just to dunk these delicately flavored numbers again and again. I don't go over board on the the anise flavor as I prefer a more subtle note that leaves you tasting the various flavors and not hidden by just one. Do feel free to add more to suit your taste if you will. If you remember to form them into 4 narrow logs instead of two fat ones, you will be rewarded with small bites that fit well in an espresso cup or a platter of various other bites. You could also dip one half in white or dark melted chocolate to up the decadence, but I preferred to have them as their humble self, suitable even for breakfast in the traditional Italian way. What ever way you prefer, I think you'll be adding this to your treasure trove of cookie recipes.

Anise Orange Biscotti
yields about 48  or so small bite size
or about 30 large batons

Ingredients:

150g (2/3c) butter, room temperature
325g (1 1/2c) sugar, I used a blond cane sugar, but regular sugar is fine
3 eggs
5g (2 tsp) anise seeds
2 tsp anise extract
12g (2 T) orange zest
pinch salt 
11g (3 tsp) baking powder
630g-650g (4 1/2c) flour, plain/all purpose


Method:
Cream butter and sugar together in a medium large mixing bowl.
I use a flat whisk by hand but an electric mixer is fine. Just don't mix too long.
You want it light, but not whipped like a frosting.
Add the eggs and blend well.
Add the anise seeds, orange zest, anise extract, pinch salt and blend.
Add the flour and baking powder.
Stir to form a dough.
Dust your table surface with flour.
Turn the dough onto the table.
Dust your hands with flour and divide dough into 2 or 4 even portions.
Form the portions into long even logs the length of your baking dish.
You can either lightly butter and flour a baking sheet or use baking paper to cover the tray.
Place two logs on each tray.
Pat them to be fairly smooth on top and even widths.
Make another tray the same way so you have two trays and 4 logs.
Bake the logs in a preheated moderate oven 325*  for 20 minutes or so until the logs are a light golden brown.
Remove from the oven and cool slightly. If you press the top middle log and it seems not cooked all the way through, return then to the oven and continue to cook till completely cooked all the way through.
Remove and cool slightly to be able to handle.
With a serrated knife cut each log on a 45* angle into 1/2" slices. The more angle the longer the finished cookie will be.
When you have them all cut, turn the slices on their side and return to the oven to bake a second time to bake completely through and light golden brown.
Cool before storing or dipping in melted tempered chocolate if desired.

Cooks notes*
Do cut the biscotti while they are warm for the best results. Too cool and they will crumble when you try and cut them if over baked.
Better to under bake the biscotti slightly the first time baking them, so they are easier to cut.
Too under cooked and the center of the cookie will be hard when you bake them the second time.
Still delious, but not ideal.

Dreamy Chocolate Easter Eggs

I sure hope the Easter Bunny finds his way here with one of these!

It's that time of the year again where not only are the spring flowers and buds starting to spring up, but  Italy has been hit and blanketed by a tidal wave of chocolate eggs of every persuasion. This area is known for its chocolate and this time of year chocolatiers are still hard at it. The eggs you find here are quite an art form and almost a shame to eat.

 

But most people manage to soldier on...

 

 It really is quite a sight.

 

Almost to beautiful to eat.....

well almost...

Then we have the colorful wrapped ones. They come in every size with trinkets for all, to amuse for a day or two till they fade into another memory of an Easter egg treasure from yet another year.

Star Gazing along the Via Lattea

Recently we hosted some very keen astronomers. Folks that work at the planetarium, Parco Astronomico, INFINI-T0 in Pino Torinese, just above Torino.  As I always like to point out,  we have a lot of interesting people arrive at Bella Baita for a variety of reasons and what they all seem to have in  common is that they are all fascinating with quite a range of unusual lives, livelihoods, hobbies and stories. Makes for varied and lively conversations.  This group was no exception to the rule. They arrived to stay up most of one of the darkest nights of the year, searching and photographing stars, planets and nebula. Hmm, I wonder what the plural for nebula is, nebuli, nebulas?  Anyway, stay up they did, till about 4 am, after they had dismantled the command post and sent many photos directly back to the planetarium whilst they hung out gazing at the dark endless sky above us.  We only stayed till about 1 am and got to see some amazing views of fiery Mars and Saturn with its rings. It really was memorable. They had all the equipment too. I figured they would have a large telescope, and they did, no surprise there, but what I wasn't expecting was all the other gear as well. They had biggg binoculars and several computers that when lined up and hooked up to the bigggg telescope, complete with blinking lights and whirring sounds in the dark, it looked like something straight out of the mother ship Enterprise.

 

My camera doesn't really take fabulous night photos so you'll just have to take my word for it, but it was an impressive set up. I was waiting to post this as they were going to send me some night photos, but I'm sure they just got busy and haven't gotten to it yet. I thought I would just go ahead and post this. Why you ask?, ok you didn't but I'm going to tell you anyway. It's because all that snow that they were standing on is gone and spring is underway in our yard, although there are still a few snow piles dotted around the yard, but they are on their way out.

Their visit has whetted our appetite to visit the planetarium one of these days when we can get over to the hills above Torino and take in the museum and one of the shows. A five euro entrance fee makes it quite affordable. It will be quite interesting to see exactly where all of those photos went to that night.

In the meantime they told us about the very cool site Stellarium, which is an open source planetarium for your computer. There is a free download here for a variety of computer operating systems where you can put your coordinates in and see the sky right on your computer. You can navigate around something like google earth and they will show you the constellations  and excellent illustrations too. Very worth checking out. Their visit has inspired us eagerly look forward to a visit the Torino planetarium as we enjoy our very own twinkly sky every night here at Bella Baita.

Raffaele, il barbiere ..the barber of Pinerolo

 It seems that I have stepped back in time whenever Fabrizio gets his hair cut in Pinerolo.  We always go to Fabrizio's barber, Raffaele, who has been cutting the hair of the men of Pinerolo and surrounding area for over 30 years. Fabrizio has been getting his haircut here since he was as a little boy and his Nonno Angelo brought him with him on the train and he could squirm around in one of the same three chairs this old world barber shop sports. Located in the central part of town under the grand porticos that shelters the entrance to some wonderful shops in Pinerolo, that's where you'll find this charming barber plying his trade. Always a pleasure to stop in for that feeling of nostalgia and friendly welcome and Fabrizio looks sharp afterwards, so a double treat.

 Not much has changed in all of that time. Raffaele has gone gray, and and Fabrizio still gets the same cut as his barber and the price has only slightly increased to €8 up from € 5 when I first came in with him about 8 years ago. He has new flooring in installed a couple of years back, which shows signs that he has spent a lot of time shuffling around in a semi circle as he clips, snips and trims his way through the steady line up of men  that usually crowd the shop. I always feel a certain coming home quality. One of my uncles had a barber shop not so very different from this one. His didn't have such dark lustrous wood but there was a certain mystery and fascination to this mens' gathering spot. the barber pole, the combs in glass jars, all rather intriguing. My Uncle Bob had a very dry sense of humor and was always cracking a joke. I loved visiting there. It just had a feel to it, comforting and yet foreign to me. When one of sons, my cousin Ron came to visit I took him there and he completely agreed with me about it reminding him if his dad's place. My cousin took several photos as well. Raffaele seemed rather amused, but proud too I think.
Upon entering Raffaele's place I am struck by it's low key quiet charm, that  makes me feel like I have entered a holy place. Usually, there is a clutch of men chatting or reading the paper or gossip magazines, yep, not all that different from a woman's hair salon. Today it is quiet, no waiting, just a trim and a chat. Catch up on what's going on in Pinerolo. He talks about retiring and heading back to the south from whence he came and I feel sad that this place might not be here anymore. He's tried to sell, but there's no one interested so far, in taking over the trade. What a shame if it goes away.  Another small treasure slipping away, but that is how it is sometimes. It is the small pleasures in life and the people along the way that you meet that keeps life interesting and varied. I'm glad Raffaele is still snipping away and hope he will be for many years to come.

 

Do you have any place like this that evokes some nostalgia, memory or tradition that you would just hate to see slip away? Tell me about it if you do, or just enjoy it while it's there to enjoy.