Hike to Superga

As our second warmup climb before our trip tomorrow to Bardonecchia in the Alps, Kristen and I climbed to Superga, just on the outskirts of Turin. The hill is a roughly 400m climb with a basilica atop that can be seen from across the river. Here we can just see the basilica from the bus station at the foot of the 4.5 km long climb.

The climb was not too bad, except for some points where the sidewalks were so covered in overgrown bushes that we needed to walk on the street. On one side of the hill (the side away from the city), the land is almost completely covered in trees. This is not really something I would have expected on the direct outskirts of a large city. There are many hillside estates along the way that must have great views.

At the top of the hill, there is a nice view of the city, and wherever there is a nice view, there will be a panoramic photo!

One thing that I don't like about digital cameras is that you can't capture both a sunset and the ground below. On the photo above, the sky was beautiful, but you wouldn't be able to tell. In the picture below, you can see the nice sunset and purple sky, but the ground is completely dark. Maybe I need a better camera or better technical photography skills.

The basilica was of a style I can't quite pin down. It's almost certainly not classical like many of the larger churches here are, although the very front has some clear classical influence.

Now I thought the view from the top of the hill was nice, but after climbing to an observation platform about halfway up the basilica, I realized that a much better view was possible! Thus... another panorama!

It's a shame that the day was particularly foggy. Otherwise, the view would have been much better, and we may have been able to see some mountains. Looking downwards at the basilica, we can see the convent area, which I earlier strolled into not knowing it was a private area.

Story: The public church area was closed, but I saw an open door, so I walked in. It turns out that at the same exact time, some people on pilgrimage were arriving and the open door was to welcome them into the pilgims' convent. Fortunately, the man in charge was still very nice and helpful to me in the act of kicking me out of the convent, and it turns out that the church was to open about 10 minutes later.

Anyway, I think this is the closest I may have come to a bell tower without actually being inside the bell tower.

Our timing on our hikes this week seems to be good, as we always are able to make it into a safe area just before dark. We found a shortcut on the way down that would have been too steep to take up, and so we made it down the hill very quickly. As we were descending, the city was starting to light up.

Tomorrow, we will probably be climbing about twice as high as we did to get to Superga, but I think we'll be able to do it. The views should be spectacular. I better get some rest!