We took the Freccia train but a bianco, the slowest of the fast trains.

Grey clouds dominated the sky. There are a lot of tunnels leaving Genova as we headed north on the line to Torino. Tunnels made the interior of the train carriage dark. It was hard to stay awake.

The hills surrounding Genova gave way to flat farmland.

At Alessandria the train headed west.

Hills and mountains rose to the north. Fewer farms and more urban development appeared.

Torino (population 850,000, 2.2 million in the greater area) on the Po river, capital of the Piedmont region From 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the House of Savoy, and the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1865. It was the political and intellectual center of the Risorgimento (unification of Italy) movement

The name derives from the Taurini, an ancient Celto-Ligurian, Alpine people, who in 218 BC were attacked by Hannibal. It is believed that a Roman colony was established after 28 BC under the name of Julia Augusta Taurinorum (modern Turin). The family of Savoy trace their rule back to the Medieval period; first as counts, then dukes, until (again) the Napoleonic era. After the fall of Napoleon, Torino became the capital of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Because of the Lingotto Fiat factory, the city was heavily bombed in WWII. Fun fact: Fiat is an acronym for Fabbrica Italia Automobile Torino,

We barely got to our hotel, which is near the train station, when it began pouring rain. It was also getting late for lunch and most restaurants were about to close, so we had a bite at the hotel.

Sadly our room has a spacious terrazza, terrace, which we will likely not be able to use unless we want to sit in the rain. The forecast is for rain the entire time we are here.

Torino, like other northern Italian cities has porticoes which helps avoid the rain. This helped on our wine shopping jaunt.

For dinner we went to Scannabue, a place I had researched on the internet. It was highly recommended by various people and sites. It does not look fancy but does good traditional Torino dishes.

We started by splitting a tonno a coniglio, basically a confit rabbit served with a salad of greens, nuts, olives and cheese. We were told to eat different bites of salad with the rabbit. Barely remembered a photo.

It was very tasty and different from any Italian antipasto we had tried before.

Scott had the braised veal cheek with potato; the gravy was really flavourful.

I had agnolotti al plin, a traditional dish, basically a lamb filled ravioli. The server explained there was no cheese on top because it’s inside. The sauce, as far as I could, was just butter. I read it was a butter sauce but it seemed like pure butter.

A bottle of Barolo was a perfect complement.

Despite being so full, Scott saw profiteroles on the dessert menu so had to have it. I never have seen it this size before.

I had gelato. I picked the nocciola, hazelnut flavour. It was excellent. Some icy bits which suggested it wasn’t really fresh but the flavour was fulsome and not too sweet—which is essential in my rating system. I definitely will look for more gelato in Torino.

Over all, this was the best meal I had this trip.