I’ve now been living in Turin for about three days and in that time I’ve been trying to really get to know the city I’ll be living in. Turin is the fourth most populated city in Italy and as such it is incredibly built up in some places, and of course everything has an Italian touch to it.

Everywhere I go I see streets that I’d only seen before in movies, lined with balconies and brickwork. It’s difficult to properly capture the feel of everything in picture especially because to the people who live here these are just streets, a way for them to get from A to B. I imagine I must look strange to the locals as I take pictures of buildings and roads, but these are sights I want to properly remember.

On with today’s adventure though.

Today I want to go to Parco del Valentino, a large park found next to the main river in Turin: the Po. I live pretty centrally to the city, whereas the park is found more to the East so I’ll have to get some form of public transport. Turin has multiple different forms of public transport such as buses, trains, and trams. Firstly today I want to take the tram.

The tram stop is a short walk from where I live sort of sandwiched between two main roads. Getting on is similar to buses, I wait at the stop, hold my hand out when the tram I want to get arrives, get on and pay my fare. Well usually I pay my fare, I’ll admit I didn’t realise I had to the first time. Oops!

After a short ride I arrived at the stop for the park, aptly named Valentino. From here I simply step off the tram and I’m in the park. The immediate view though cannot be understated…

Castello del Valentino

This is one of the most prominent landmarks in the city. A castle hundreds of years old which has been owned by only the richest of Italians. It stands in the middle of the park and lends its name to the area.

Currently the building is owned by Politecnico di Torino, the university I now study at, and houses the Architecture department. My Italian teacher from Leicester studied there himself, so I already have my links to it!

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I continued my walk around the park, as it’s my first time being within 1,000 km of this park I have no idea what to expect. I always love just wandering and looking upwards at everything I see. I knew there was a river nearby, so I headed towards that through the paths. Eventually I saw a path heading down towards the water, so I followed it down. What I happened upon was a small rocky outcrop next to the river, from where I could take the photo below.

Il Fiume Po – The Po River

The Po river is the longest river in Italy, stretching from the Western alps all the way over the Eastern shore nearing almost 700 km in length. Here in Turin we’re pretty close to the source and with the relative water speed I measured, the water will take upwards of a week to reach the Mediterranean sea.

I of course had to give my feet a dip, it was freezing compared to the 25 Celsius temperature of the day.

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Once I had finished admiring the view, I continued on my walk. The rest of the park was a collection of trees, streets, and Italians. I think most of the rest of Italy will be similar, which I love!

On my way home, I want to get the metro. Turin only has one metro line which spans from the South-East of the city to the North-West through a few twists and turns. There’s a metro station not too far from the park and seen as I want to know how to use it before I start my work, that’s my next task!

The Metro

It’s difficult to take pictures of things such as metro station signs without looking like a tourist. I know I’ll be living here for a while but I want to make sure everything is logged properly.

Anyway, I found the metro station soon enough (I got on at Marconi for anyone following my footsteps). Once you take the stairs down, you’re greeted by a collection of turnstiles opposite from some ticket machines. I headed to the latter first to get myself a proper physical ticket.

Buying one was easy enough, even with my rudimentary Italian skills I could tell which tickets were needed for a single trip. The ticket was printed and I turned around to head through the turnstiles, which is when I noticed it…

There wasn’t a slot for a ticket! Back in the UK there’s a little ticket sized hole at the side which eats the paper and then spits it back out once it’s done. After a moment of confusion, I saw that the turnstiles also took contactless payments. I grabbed my EU card and pressed it to the scanner. After a moment it unlocked and I passed through and continued down to the platform. My confusion would have to be solved later.

As with most undergound railways, the trains come very frequently. The announcement said only two minutes until the next one heading back towards my accomodation. Sure enough before I knew it I was on the train and heading back home.

Whilst on my journey, I pondered over the paper ticket I had bought but not been able to use. As I held it in front of me, I suddenly saw it catch the light. Through the paper I could see … wires? I put the ticket up to the overhead lights and sure enough inside of the tickets was what must make up an NFC chip, a way of contactlessly transferring information. So the paper tickets must work in a similar way to my card does, I just have to hold it to the scanner! Very futuristic!

Soon enough I had made it to my exit station: Vinzaglio. The doors opened automatically and I headed back up the stairs to the surface. There was no need to scan on my way out so I wouldnt be able to test out my paper ticket just yet, I’ll save it for my next adventure!

The metro was only a short walk from my accomodation. So before I knew it I was back in my comfy room.

Todays adventure was just the beginning, I have a whole new city in a whole new country to explore. Life is quite literally waiting for me to live it, but for now, I think a good night’s sleep is in order. After of course, some more Italian words for me to teach you:

• Buonasera(ta) – (Have a) Good evening
• Piacere – Nice to meet you
• L’acqua – The water
• Gli alberi – The trees
• Il tram – The tram
• Il treno – The train

A presto.

Cassie