Category: italy

Postcard from Saluzzo, Italy: Meals from last summer

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My apologies to the restaurants of Saluzzo. Although they delivered a rich sampling of the foods of the Piedmont region of Italy, the “postcards” are so slow to be delivered everything is now a jumble.

Le Quattro Stagioni d’Italia is a surprisingly large restaurant with a spacious patio always packed with locals. We found ourselves drawn to both food and patio several times. Taverna San Martino is small, cozy and intimate and regarded by many as the best in town. Osteria Nuovi Mondagli is completely unpretentious, with its magnetic draw a shaded patio perched above one of Saluzzo’s picturesque petit plazas.

Taverna San Martino
Le Quattro Stagioni d’Italia white corn tagliolini pasta with vegetables
Le Quattro Stagioni d’Italia grilled vegetables
Le Quattro Stagioni d’Italia fried vegetables
Le Quattro Stagioni d’Italia seafood risotto
Osteria Nuovi Mondagli Saluzzo insalatina di roquefort valeriana e noci
Le Quattro Stagioni d’Italia pizza

Obviously, the town kept us well-fed.

Postcard from Turin, Italy: Leaving Turin behind with a rare token selfie

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Not sure what it says about my self-esteem, but selfies rarely creep into my camera lens. The most frequent exceptions arise from an obsession with reflections.*

Much like the Slow Food movement of Turin, delivery of “postcards” from our 2018 trip to Italy make snail mail appear efficient.

But here are the final random shots leftover from our sojourn in Turin:

reflection of the Mole Antonelliana
Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino
The Mister in Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino.
CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia
Maurizio Nannucci at Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino

*Please note: In the featured photo, my selfie is the shadowy figure on the left. Not the skull.

Postcard from Turin, Italy: A royal villa with a Chinese accent

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The tastes of the royals of the House of Savoy required numerous elegant residences for retreats and entertaining around the outskirts of Turin. Vigna, a villa and vineyard, was built on a rise on the other side of the River Po for a cardinal who was the brother of Victor Emanuele I (1587-1637).

In 1684, the estate was inherited by Anne Marie d’Orleans (1669-1728), a niece of King Louis XIV (1638-1715) of France. Eager to maintain and strengthen the French influence over the House of Savoy, Louis XIV earlier had arranged for his 14-year-old niece to marry the young duke, Victor Amadeus II (1666-1732). Victor Amadeus II already was struggling to wrench control from the French-born acting regent, his mother, Maria Christina (1606-1663). While the marriage proved lasting, the King of France sometimes found the Duke of Savoy allying himself with the opposing side on the battlefields of Europe.

After Anne Marie and Victor Amadeus II became the Queen and King of Sardinia, the palace became known as Villa della Regina. The royals’ favored architect, Filippo Juvarra (1678-1736), undertook the conversion of the villa into a more palatial retreat for the queen. The Chinoiserie decorations in vogue following King Louis XIV’s incorporation of them in the Trianon at Versailles took over numerous rooms in the palace.

Victor Emanuele II (1820-1878) donated Villa della Regina to the state of Italy in 1868.