After spending a few hours in Briançon, on Wednesday morning, we set off for Turin. Just as we  began the long climb, over the pass into Italy, it started to rain and that soon set in as the weather for the rest of our journey.

N94, Montgenèvre, Hautes Alpes, France

The mountain road from Briançon is an incredible switchback and the road crews were out in force again in what must be a constant fight against rockfall and frost erosion.

Leaving Briançon, Hautes Alpes, France

We crossed the border into Italy without fanfare, not even a uniform to wave at!

Once in Italy I felt completely lost as I had no understanding of the Italian language. Whilst there were a few words that looked like the french, trying to understand most of the roadsigns was impossible. As we entered Turin the rain became torrential, the traffic frantic and the drivers even more insane.

The campsite we’d chosen was right in the heart of the city and the only one in central Turin. The last kilometre was a climb up a very narrow windy road and we breathed a sigh of relief as we approached the “finish line” flag on the SatNav. Our relief was short lived as what we’d arrived at was a couple of very official looking documents stuck to a locked gate. Whilst we couldn’t read the Italian we got the idea that this was closed by some order of the local municipality but couldn’t be sure.

There was a guy inside the gate who spoke no English or French but rattled off alot of Italian and thrust a “flyer” in my hand. This contained some info regarding a campsite called AviglianoLacs and I got the impression from all the handwaving that this was the closest alternative campsite. We quickly programmed the SatNav and returned through the madness of central Turin. After another hour and a small diversion (I’d stuffed up the SatNav programming!) we finally reached the campsite. Ironically this was only a few kms from where we had been when we first approached Turin about 3 hours earlier.

Camping AviglianoLacs, Avigliano, Italy

The campsite was again very quiet and set beside a large lake, although more people here than in previous sites.

I spoke to the young guy managing the site and was pleased to discover that, although he was Italian, he had studied French at Uni and loved the language and culture. I ended up speaking more French with him, over the next two days, than I had over the past week in France. The next day we left early on our bikes to cycle the 4km to Avigliano station to catch the train to Turin.

Avigliano Train Station Café, Italy

Even at that time in the morning the little cafe next to the station was full on with lots of hand waving, shouting and running around. This had a very different feel to France and it was remarkable to note the contrast after what was a relatively short hop over the border.

Public transport must be heavily subsidised here as the train fare was only 12.20 Euros return for both of us for a journey that took about half an hour. In fact most things in Italy seemed alot cheaper than France with fuel and campsite fees being two notable exceptions.

Turin is a beautiful city and today, in contrast to the day before, it was fine and warm.

Turin, Italy

It’s similar to Rome, but not on such a grand scale. We had only given ourselves a day so first visited the tourist office and got the only English speaker to draw us out a good walking tour for a day in the city.

Church of San Carlo, Turin, Italy

There were very few people who could speak either English or French. I mentioned this to the guy at the campsite later and he said it was because the Italians were a bit lazy and had the attitude that they didn’t need to bother as they could communicate with all the people of the world simply by using their hands!

Piazza San Carlo, Turin, Italy

We spent 6 hours just wandering through the city on foot. Suffice to say it was insufficient time to delve into it in any detail but we were left with the overwhelming impression it was a magnificient Italian city full of life and style. The following pictures are a summary of our first impressions and hopefully speak for themselves. 

Turin a été construite il y a 2000 ans, un camp pour les soldats qu’il envoyait à protéger les frontières nords de l’État romain. Il devient la première capitale de l’Italie unifié en 1861. C’ est la maison de l’équipe de football Juventus et du fabricant de la voiture FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana Automobile Torino). Il est situé sur les rives de la rivière Po et en 2006 a été l’hôte des Jeux olympiques d’hiver.