On the morning of Sunday, July 9, we found ourselves toiling away at our weekend Italian language homework (verbi pronominali--don't ask!) We finally took a break around noon and had lunch at a historic Caffé, Il Florio, on Via Po. Then we took a tour of the Palazzo Madama; it was the first Senate of the Italian Kingdom. The Palazzo still has some elements of the main Roman gate to the city. The Palazzo now houses the City Museum of Ancient Art, which includes some artifacts dating to Roman times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, to the 18th Century. The Palazzo has large rooms with sumptuous decoration. Maybe not quite as impressive as Versailles, but still worth a visit while in Torino.
Here's the major extant Roman structure, the Porta Palatino, from the 1st Century BC, with a statue of Cesar Augustus
While browsing the decorative art collection in the Madama, where there are several displays of glass objects dating from the Roman era, I came across a few small, delicate-looking glass objects. I had to re-read the description notes a few times because there were some place names that seemed to me, to be totally incongruent with these beautiful glass vials and glasses with sophisticated decorations in polychrome enamel and gold. They were from Syria...Damascus, Aleppo, and Raqqa, in the 12th and 13th Centuries. What a revelation for me to realize that these cities had this rich history; but during the past several years, these cities have been associated with ruin and despair. And the realization that so much of Syria's cultural and historical heritage have been lost made viewing these pieces more poignant.
Glass objects from Damascus, Alleppo, and Raqqa from 1160-1260 Common Era
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