Saturday & Sunday in Torino

Our train for Torino (Turin) left Ferrara station at 9:00 am, so we got up early, packed, ate breakfast and caught the bus to the station, where we caught the local train to Bologna. In Bologna we switched to a faster train (which, unfortunately was rerouted to the slower track) and arrived in Turin thirty minutes late, at 1:30 pm, where we were met at the station by Estie Martin, from Calvary Chapel of Turin.

When I was researching our trip, I started to follow a local, student-oriented restaurant chain on Facebook: Mongeato Primi secondi a nessuno. They post the menu of the day, every day, and I felt that I needed to try it out. Estie had never heard of it, but looked it up on her phone, helped us buy a two-day metro pass, and lead us to the restaurant. The food was very inexpensive, but good home-style cooking for students.

After lunch Estie gave us a tour of the center of Torino, starting with gelato at Gelateria La Romana, where there was a line stretching halfway down the block. The gelato was worth the wait. Three different flavors for 3.50E. 

After lunch we walked through the beautiful Galleria San Federico, which houses the Lux cinema. 

From there we walked past the palace to the Porta Palatina, the best-preserved Roman gate in the world. Originally this was one of the access points to the city.

Looking toward the center of town you can see the Holy Shroud Chapel, which is part of the Savoy Palace, where the shroud was once preserved (That's the red building in the center of the picture). In front of it is the Turin Duomo where the Holy Shroud is now stored. For those of you who don't know, this is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man. According to tradition it is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

You can't, however, see the shroud, since it is in a locked temperature-controlled case designed to preserve it. (In 2007, Kathy and I briefly visited Torino, and I thought that it was on display at that time. Kathy thinks that what we saw was a replica.) In any event, we skipped it this time.

As we walked through the town, both of us were amazed at the number of monumental buildings and beautiful plazas. This is Palazzo Carignano, now a museum, but originally the private residence of the Princes of Carignano, aristocrats from the House of Savoy, the ruling family in this area.

Calvary Chapel Torino had arranged to show the film, The Jesus Revolution, about the 1960s revival at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, to their congregation on Saturday night. Quite a few people showed up and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Since it was in Italian, Estie put on the English subtitles so we would know what was being said. Afterwards we walked back to our hotel and got to bed after 11:00 pm, really late for us.

In the morning, I still woke up early and went walking around before breakfast. Here are a few tidbits. This is a replica of the Mole (mo-LAY), one of the signature buildings in Torino. The Mole was originally built as a synagogue, but now houses the museum of Italian Cinema. This replica is in the Lego store window, along with a Lego Donald Trump. Why? I'm not sure. 

This is the train station, just as the sun came up, mostly because I thought it looked cool.

This fountain represents the Po River and it's female equivalent, the Dora, lies just on the other side of the gate that enters the CLN square. Since the female fountain is holding out an apple to the male on the other side, I was certain that they represented Adam and Eve, until I did a little research. 

This picture, looking down Via Roma to the Porta Nuova train station, gives you a feel for the Torino street plan. Notice that the walkways on each side are covered. These porticos house all manner of high-end shops.

There were very few people on the street, and it was amusing to see one of them stop and take a picture of the Prada window display.

We met up with Estie and her roommate, Amy Rodriguez, who also works at Calvary Chapel Torino, for lunch at Eataly.

Kathy and I were not that hungry, because of our large hotel breakfast, so we split a pizza and a pear salad, which was nice. Eataly is a large gourmet shopping center with several restaurants attached. It is quite popular.

Last week Calvary Chapel moved into a new building, which they rent from another evangelical church. Since they are sharing a building, Calvary Chapel holds its weekly church service in the evening on Sunday. We all walked over after lunch so the ladies could get set up.

This Sunday's worship team, Denae Downs (the pastor, David Downs' wife) and Sofia spent time rehearsing the songs for the service. They both have beautiful voices and I shot a few videos of the rehearsals.

Here is Kathy with Mario and Laura as they set up the computer for the projector during the service.

Estie helped Sam with the sound check (while I just wandered around taking pictures).

Finally, around 4:00 pm, everyone started arriving for the service, which started at 5:00 pm.

One of the things that Kathy and I love to do when we're traveling is to meet up with the different Calvary Chapels in the areas that we visit. We had planned to go out to dinner with David and Denae to hear all about the ministry in Torino. Instead, David got stuck in Israel, where he was teaching a block class at the Bible School when Hamas invaded Israel this week. As a result, he wasn't able to get a plane out of the country, and so Kathy and I had the pleasure of sharing our testimonies with the congregation.

Since they had just seen the Jesus Revolution film, which is Greg Laurie's story about how God used Calvary Chapel in his life, we found it easy to talk about how God worked in our lives. Afterward, everyone came up for a picture, which we really treasure.

As part of their evangelistic efforts in Tornio, the church has been partnering with a group called Steiger, an international youth ministry. The group had a training session over the weekend, and the girls stayed with Amy and Estie. When Amy told them about our testimony, they wanted to get together in the morning before we left for Milan, and talk.

We checked out of our hotel early and spent all morning in the train station cafe, sharing our stories and hearing about what God was doing with their ministry. Kathy and I were totally blown away. It reminded us so much of Shiloh, and seemed so much like an answer to our prayers. We were so engrossed that we didn't want to leave. 

Finally, though, 11:00 am came and we had to hurry a bit to catch our train to Milan. Tomorrow we'll see Leonardo's Last Supper, and the next day we'll head up to Lake Como for the day. Something tells me, though, that the last two days will be the ones we'll remember.