Torino, Italia
Buongiorno! It’s Sunday. Off for morning coffee. Waited until after 07:00, which is what the opening time is listed for The Place. Got there about 07:30 to find it very much closed. Their hours are listed at 07:00 to 21:00 everyday. It is located in the piazza next to the University of Torino, so most of its customers are probably students. Students generally aren’t up this early, especially on a Sunday. So, it makes sense they aren’t open.
The Borello Supermercati here was well. Unfortunately, they are closed this morning also. I turned and walked down Via Sant’Ottavio towards Via Po. There are several cafés along Via Po, maybe I can get a coffee.
So, you ask, who is Saint Ottavio? Well, the Saints Avventor, Ottavio and Solutore are considered the first martyrs of Turin. They belonged to the legendary Theban legion and were martyred in the 3rd century in Torino, then the Piedmontese capital. The church of the Holy Martyrs is some distance from Via Sant’Ottavio. The church has housed the martyrs relics since 1584. The liturgical memorial is set for November 20 in the Roman Martyrology, on the anniversary of their death, while the archdiocese of Turin celebrates their memory on January 20, the anniversary of the translation of the relics.
This begs the question – who or what is the Theban Legion? The Theban Legion (from Thebes, a city in Egypt) is the name attributed to a Roman legion in Christian hagiographic literature: it was decimated twice, then totally exterminated by order of the emperor Maximian, because its members (6,600 men under the command of Saint Maurizio) refused to execute some Christians from Valais. PS. A hagiography is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Had to look it up.
According to Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon (c. 434–450), the Theban legion was composed entirely of Christian Egyptians (Copts) and served on the eastern borders of the Empire.
In the later years of the 3rd century, the legion was transferred to Central Europe, operating between Cologne and the northern side of the Alps under the command of General Maximian, who in 285 was named Caesar by the Emperor Diocletian and the following year received the title of Augustus. As head of the western part of the Empire, Maximian was engaged in fighting the Quadi and Marcomanni who, after crossing the Rhine, were making incursions into Gaul, and against the peasant revolts of the Bagaudae.
Eucherius reports that the soldiers carried out their mission brilliantly; however, when Maximian ordered the persecution (and killing) of some local populations of the Valais who had converted to Christianity, many of the Theban soldiers refused. Maximian ordered a severe punishment for the unit and, since the flagellation of the rebel soldiers was not enough, it was decided to apply decimation, a military punishment that consists of killing one soldier in ten, by stoning or beatings.
Other orders followed that the Legion still refused to carry out, under the encouragement of its commander Maurizio, yes, the guy the street, on which the October apartment is, named after, also a Christian. A second decimation was then ordered and finally the entire Legion was exterminated (6,600 men). The site of the massacre is indicated as Agaunum, today San Maurizio in Valais, home of the abbey of the same name.
Interesting how everything is interconnected. Any on to coffee. I went to Caffetteria Antonelli, again, the morning. It was drizzling lightly but I still sat outside looking down Piazza Vittorio Veneto towards the Po River and looking across to see the Memorial to the Fallen in World War II and the beautiful Chiesa di Santa Maria del Monte dei Cappuccini.
Monte dei Cappuccini? Does this have something to do with my morning cappuccino? Yes! My cappuccino takes its name from the Capuchin friars. Yes, the ones that found Chiesa di Santa Maria. The color of espresso mixed with frothed milk, a cappuccino, was similar to the color of the Capuchin robe. The Capuchin friars are members of the larger Franciscan orders of monks, and their order was founded in the 16th century in Italy. Fun Fact! Mike, this would be a good trivia question. PS Cappuccini is the plural of cappuccino.
Even though it is drizzling a little, it is still a beautiful day. People are starting to arrive, not many but the city is slowly coming to life. It simply feels right to be here.
After my cappuccino and brioche I headed back to the apartment. Mary was already up and starting to get dressed when I returned. I made her her coffee and awaited for her to finish. She wants to go to Flying Tiger just to look around. It’s not very far and on Via Po, which means if it starts to rain to heavily we will be walking under the portico and won’t get wet.
Knowing she is going to want lunch, we walked towards Via Roma with the idea of finding some place near there for lunch. After stopping at Flying Tiger, yes she bought a few small things anyway, we walked on to Piazza Castello. We walked through the beautiful Galleria Subalpina. The Galleria is a tourist spot, but it is an historic building. The construction is reminiscent of the typical 19th-century model of an urban commercial area. It is a large open gallery filled with sunlight though the glass roof and is about 50 meters long. The ceiling is about 19 meters high and the upper floor is tempered by a balcony. The name Subalpina comes from the bank that financed its construction, Banca dell’Industria Subalpina. It is the home to several cafes, including the famous Café Baratti & Milano, antique books shop and an art gallery.
We continued walking past the Museo Eqizio (Egyptian Museum) along Via Accademia delle Scienze. It was actually beginning to rain fairly hard and most of the outside eating was closed or not practical. We happened along Eataly, so we stopped and went to the basement restaurant. We ate here with the family in January.
We did better on the ordering, as compared to yesterday. We got one caprese salad, which we shared. It would have been enough for lunch for both us however. It was very good. The tomatoes actually have flavor and the mozzarella cheese was excellent. We did however also order a steak and potatoes. Mary almost order her own portion of potatoes, but I asked the waiter if one order would be enough, he said probably.
The steak was excellent. It was served on top of roasted yellow bell peppers. The peppers were very good.The steak was cooked properly. The plate of roasted potatoes was more than sufficient. Mary had a nice glass of wine and I ordered a beer. A good meal for the day.
It was still raining fairly hard as we headed back to the apartment. So we chose to walk along Po with its covered porticos. We had a good passeggiata, we managed to get five miles in.
Back at the apartment we worked on packing, figuring out which taxi app to use. There are several. ItTaxi is one I have used before, but apparently it hasn’t expanded to Torino. FreeNow was one which was recommended. It was difficult to use and they wanted 17+ Euros to go to the train station. I downloaded the WeTaxi app, and they only want 13 Euros, still more than we paid to get to the apartment. Having thought about it, it is because we pre booked the taxi. On demand is always a little less.
After a while we walked to Borello Supermercati just to check it out and buy some milk for Mary’s morning coffee. Ok, I’ll have a cup as well. Back at the apartment we had a simple dinner, cheese salami, prosciutto and melon, and then played a hand of canasta. Mary maintaining her streak.
Then it was off to bed for the night. Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria.
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