Turin, beyond bronze

AH, bella Italia. Rome, Venice, Florence, Turin ...

Turin?

This city of 900,000 in the northwestern corner of Italy, known mostly -- if at all -- as home to the Fiat and a certain controversial shroud, has been busy reinventing itself as it prepares for the 1.5-million spectators expected during the Feb. 10-26 Winter Olympics.

I had never been to Turin -- Torino to Italians -- and was not sure what to expect as my plane began its descent, revealing a dazzling panorama of snow-blanketed Alps glistening under a clear blue sky. My first view of Turin on the ground, from the cab taking me through the bleak industrial suburbs near the airport, was less than dazzling.

I perked up on being deposited in town at the Hotel Victoria, a place of considerable British-inspired charm, where I had a sweet little room that had been done up in red toile. And my first outing -- dinner at the unpretentious little Giusti Mauro a few blocks away -- was encouraging. A man at the next table, also alone, translated the menu for me and suggested agnolotti, a delicious ravioli-like local specialty.

A good omen, I thought: Torinesi are friendly, and they eat well. They also drink well; during my stay, I enjoyed the robust regional red wines Barolo and Barbaresco.

A chance to change

ON the first morning, after breakfast in the Victoria’s wicker and trompe l’oeil garden room, I headed to the headquarters of the organizing committee for the Turin Olympics to meet Mary Villa, international media relations manager, who spoke of the Games as a catalyst for a “very deep process of transformation” of the city.

It was a theme I was to hear again and again. Turin has good bones -- palaces once occupied by members of the House of Savoy, whose dukes and kings ruled in Italy for centuries; handsome piazzas; and 11 miles of graceful pedestrian arcades -- but it has struggled to cast off its image as a gritty industrial city, a sort of Detroit on the Po River. In fact, this charming city was the capital of a united Italy from 1861 to 1865.

For about 60 years, starting in the 1920s, Fiat dominated the local economy, but then the car manufacturer’s fortunes began to falter. As a cab driver taking me to Turin’s car museum said, “Fiat kaput. Turin kaput.”

Fiat was not really kaput (it moved to the suburbs), and neither was Turin, but the city needed a face-lift and an attitude adjustment. “We are not good at selling,” said Evelina Christillin, deputy president of Turin’s Olympic organizing committee and a history professor at the University of Torino.

An inferiority complex, perhaps? Christillin, a native of Turin, pointed out that Juventus, the leading soccer team in this soccer-mad city, “doesn’t even have Turin in its name.”

But that shroud does. Depending on whom you believe, it is the linen cloth in which Jesus was buried or a medieval hoax. It has been in Turin since 1578, residing in the Duomo di San Giovanni Battista, a 15th century Renaissance cathedral. I couldn’t wait for a peek.

Here’s what I saw: a glass window with a red curtain across it. The shroud is displayed publicly only every 25 years and is not due to be shown again until 2025, Olympics or not. But visitors may be able to see the box in which it’s kept and can see photographic reproductions in the Duomo and at the Sindone museum, 28 Via San Domenico.

Shortly before I arrived in Turin in January, I’d read that certain sindonologists (shroud experts) claimed to have new evidence invalidating tests that had indicated it was a fake. But when I mentioned this to the Torinesi, they just shrugged. It wasn’t big news here.

“There have been so many different ideas and surveys for the last 20 years....” Christillin said. “People here are so proud of their [shroud]. In some way, they don’t really want to know the truth.”

A style all its own

THERE is plenty to see and do in this underrated city, which is both trendy and traditional. Although I wouldn’t call it the Paris of Italy (as some partisans do), it definitely has style. Fashionable shops -- Versace, Armani, Hermes, Cartier, Gucci, Prada, Fendi -- occupy real estate along Via Roma, where the beautiful people stroll. (Pedestrian-only Via Garibaldi is trendier and cheaper.) There’s a definite Parisian ambience in the lively cafes, notably the 19th century Caffe San Carlo on Piazza San Carlo, which is awash in crystal, paintings and sculpture.

A good starting point for visitors to the Games (or the Paralympics, which begin March 10) is Atrium 2006 on Piazza Solferino, which will have Olympic merchandise and information on sightseeing, transportation and tickets for cultural events.

Clustered within about two miles in the city are four competition sites, all for skating and hockey, and the Stadio Comunale, the newly renovated Mussolini-era landmark that will host opening and closing ceremonies.

Ten minutes away is the Lingotto, the 1920s Fiat factory that has been transformed into a shopping/entertainment/hotel and dining complex by noted Italian architect Renzo Piano -- who’s been tapped to update the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Its crown jewel: Piano’s oh-so-chic ultra-contemporary hotel, Le Meridien Art+Tech.

Food is also part of the fascination here. The Piedmont region, famous for white truffles, prides itself on its culinary traditions, and there is a plethora of good restaurants of all stripes. Legend has it that breadsticks (known here as grissini) were invented by a House of Savoy cook trying to find something digestible for a sickly 17th century heir to the throne. The hazelnut-chocolate spread called Nutella was also created here, but don’t let that put you off. Turin is passionate about chocolate -- il cioccolato -- and is also home to bicerin, a sinfully good layered drink of bitter chocolate, coffee and cream.

Also in the must-try category: the National Museum of Cinema, housed in Turin’s most recognizable landmark, the 19th century Mole Antonelliana. The domed Mole, whose needle-like spire makes it Turin’s tallest building, is a curiosity. It was designed as a synagogue but abandoned by the Jewish community and given to the city after cost overruns 10 years into construction.

Since 2000, it has housed the museum, a five-level interactive journey through the history of moviemaking. If Turin seems an odd place for the museum, it isn’t; the city has been a major player in filmmaking.

Remember those great car chases in the 1969 version of “The Italian Job”? They were filmed in Turin. The museum’s eclectic collection includes vintage movie posters, a bowler worn by Charlie Chaplin and a cape worn by silent screen star Rudolph Valentino. Visitors recline on red chaise longues in the domed Temple Hall to watch films and light shows projected on the walls.

For car lovers, there’s the Museo dell’Automobile near the Lingotto. Its treasures include the Isotta-Fraschini in which Gloria Swanson was chauffeured in the 1950 film “Sunset Blvd.”

At the Lingotto, a spiral ramp on which Fiats once zoomed from the assembly line to the rooftop test track now sends cars to La Pista, the rooftop restaurant. From there, it’s only a few steps to the small Piano-designed museum housing the art collection of the Agnelli family of Fiat fame.

The Museo Egizio claims the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside of Cairo, built upon treasures amassed by a Piedmont man who did well by doing good as a diplomat in Egypt during Napoleon’s time. There are some first-rate mummies and objects from the tomb of Queen Nefertiti. The space could use a little sprucing up, though, and few of the descriptors are in English.

Turin’s piazzas are big and splendid. Most of the Olympic medal ceremonies will take place in front of the 350-year-old Palazzo Reale in Piazza Costello, where nightly music and entertainment are promised.

My Turin guide, Alessandra Anghera, indulged my wish to see the shroud, but she insisted that I also visit La Consolata, the Baroque church beloved by Torinesi. Displayed within are simple ex-voto drawings expressing thanks to the Virgin for lives spared. They were placed by friends and family of loved ones and depict the subjects in scenes of crisis -- battle, surgery, traffic accidents.

Anghera and I walked the oldest parts of the city, stopping in Piazza della Repubblica at the huge open-air market, Porta Palazzo, open daily except Sundays, where you might buy a mirror or a melon. (She warned me to guard my valuables.)

In the countryside

ONE day, we drove 10 miles west to the medieval fortress town of Rivoli, which is dominated by the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, a stunning architectural melding of old and new. Its core is an 18th century palace planned as the Savoys’ answer to Versailles, France, until they ran out of money.

Some of the Olympic sites are outside Turin’s city center. Curling competition will be held at Pinerolo at the foot of the Alps. Five Alpine villages an hour or more west of Turin will host skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, bobsled, skeleton and luge competitions.

The Alpine village of Oulx will be the transportation hub for spectators taking buses or trains from Turin. (Extra trains, shuttle buses and a permit system for private cars will encourage use of public transport.)

Snow was sparse on the day I visited the mountain villages. Near Bardonecchia, the snowboarding venue, flurries started as skiers swooshed down a slope of artificial snow. In case snow is scarce for the Olympics, it will be created using a system of man-made lakes.

I drove narrow roads framed by pine-dotted mountains, stopping in the little medieval town of Exilles for lunch at Osteria del Cels, thawing out by a stove before sitting down to a table laden with antipasto, three kinds of pasta and apple cake with cream, all prepared by the proprietor and his wife.

In Sestriere, I saw the giant and super giant slalom sites, then under construction, and I tried to envision them with lights playing on the slopes. (These ski events will take place after dark.)

Back in Turin one night near the end of my stay, I had dinner with Silvia Lanza from the tourism office. I told her, with honest enthusiasm, about all I’d seen and done. She just smiled and said, “People go to Venice and expect gondolas. They come here and expect nothing but pizza, pasta and Fiat, so it’s a surprise.”

And a pleasant one at that.

*

Gold-medal trip

GETTING THERE:

From LAX, connecting service (change of plane) to Turin is offered on Lufthansa and Air France. Restricted round-trip fares are $658 until Dec. 16 and Dec. 26-March 31. Dec. 17-26, those restricted fares are $1,877.

TELEPHONES:

To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 39 (the country code for Italy), 011 (city code for Turin) and the local number.

OLYMPIC TICKETS:

Cosport, (877) 457-4647, www.cosport.com. This is the official U.S. agency for Olympic tickets. Some of the tickets are scarce, but the situation changes day to day. “For people who are interested in attending, there is great availability; we’re not simply dealing with the crumbs of the cake,” said Mark Lewis, president of Cosport.

Tickets begin at about $41 for such sports as curling and can cost as much as $1,768 for the closing ceremony.

Packages, some of which include tickets and others just hotel rooms, begin at about $1,200 for three nights, Lewis said.

WHERE TO STAY:

Hotels in the mountains have been booked for months, but as of the Travel section’s deadline Tuesday, apartments were available for some nights at the Olympic venue mountain resorts. Bed-and-breakfasts and accommodations in private homes are an option for shorter periods and go for about $30 to $175 per person per day. Information is at www.montagnedoc.it.

Packagers sometimes release unsold rooms at the last minute. “Honestly, it’s not a very nice situation from the tourist point of view,” said Paola Musolino of Turismo Torino. The situation may be like that in Athens in 2004, she said, when “it was easier to find accommodation one week before the Games than one year before.” And, as in Athens, “rates will be very high.”

The tourism office, www.turismotorino.org, will provide names of two- and three-star hotels that have vacancies. However, Musolino said, for Americans who are “used to traveling to Hilton or other chains,” the two-star hotels may not meet guests’ expectations.

An official agency, www.jumbograndieventi.com, still has a limited listing of available accommodations, but all are some distance from Olympic venues.

There is no availability at these hotels during the Olympics, but they are good choices for those visiting Turin at another time.

Le Meridien Turin Art+Tech, 230 Via Nizza, 664-2000, www.turinartandtech.lemeridien.com. Sleek, stylish hotel in the former Fiat factory. Rooms have every amenity, including plasma TV and power showers. Doubles from $260.

Hotel Victoria, 4 Via Nino Costa, 561-1909, www.hotelvictoria-torino.com. Recently renovated boutique hotel on a quiet midcity street. Lots of British charm, including clubby bar with fireplace. Doubles from $180, breakfast included.

Ai Savoia, 1B Via del Carmine, www.aisavoia.it. To call this delightful, well-located bed-and-breakfast, dial 011-39-339-125-7711; it’s a cellphone and does not require the city code for Turin. Three en suite rooms. Doubles, with breakfast, $135.

WHERE TO EAT:

Tre Galline, 37 Via Bellezia, 436-6553, www.3galline.it. Long-established restaurant in trendy Roman Quarter. Regional specialties include bollito misto, boiled meats with cold sauces. Main courses $19-$23.

La Pista, 262 Via Nizza, 631-3523, www.lapista.to.it. Atop the Lingotto complex, where Fiat’s test track once was. Lots of style, and a dollop of humor (Sweets arrive on a cake plate that once was an engine part). Main courses $23-$30.

AB+, 13 Via della Basilica, 439-0618. Trendy spot serving modern Mediterranean cuisine in restored Renaissance residence. Downstairs is a jazz club; upstairs are three eye-popping penthouses for rent. Main courses $16-$19.

Osteria del F.I.A.T., 2 Via Biglieri, 696-2651. Budget-conscious choice for pasta and an easy walk from the Lingotto. Lots of young locals. Nice touch: A toy Fiat nestled in the basket with the check. Main courses from about $9.

Osteria del Cels, in heart of medieval Alpine village of Exilles. Cozy little place run by husband and wife, who turn out good dishes for $23-$35. Open for lunch and dinner during Games.

TO LEARN MORE:

For Olympic updates: www.torino2006.org.

For Turin visitor information: www.turismotorino.org and www.visitturin2006.com.

For information on Olympic venues and towns in the Alps: www.montagnedoc.it. (There is an English button on the left side.)

For general Italy information: Italian Government Tourist Board, (310) 820-1898, www.italiantourism.com.

-- Beverly Beyette