Italy - Nietzsche in Turin
Mole Antonelliana,Carignano Opera, Teatro Regio
When the 19th century German philosopher Fredrich Neitzsche moved to Turin in 1888 he loved it instantly. He also loved walking and for him Turin was the perfect place.
His restless spirit had led him to travel Europe seeking a place where he could settle and he seemed to find what he was looking for in this regal north Italian city. In less than two years he had completed some of his major works. He loved walking and regularly described in letters to friends and family where his wanderings took him and why he so admired Turin.
Turin - Walking around Turin
It’s not difficult to see why Nietzsche was happy here. He walked Turin up and down and inside out, and if you too like to explore on foot, this is the place to be. Turin lends itself to walking. It lacks the distractions of Rome or Venice. For example, there is no Trevi Fountain here where tourists crowd together in their tribes and it is not a place of mysterious winding alleyways like Venice. What you see is what you get. Turn a corner on a straight road and you can see right to the end of the next straight road.
The grid pattern, put in place by the Romans more than 2000 years ago, is easy to negotiate and leaves time for serious thinking or for just soaking up everything around you without having to constantly check the map. It seems like a city that was made for walking, with 18km of 18th-century arcades built for the courtiers of the royal house of Savoy, when Turin was the capital of Piedmont.
Turin - Along the Via Roma
Nietzsche arrived at the beginning of April by train from Nice where he had spent the winter. He set off to walk along the via Roma which leads in a straight line from the mid-19th-century railway station, the Porta Nuova. to the Piazza Carlo Alberto, where he rented a room nearby at No.6, via Carlo Alberto. Today there is a plaque on the wall of the house commemorating his stay. His lodgings were on the fourth floor and at the corner of the house.
He loved the fact that from the centre of town he could see the snow-covered Alps. He also loved music and good food, all of which he found in abundance in Turin.
Turin - National Museum of Cinema
He had wonderful panoramic views, dominated by the Mole Antonelliana - the symbol of the city. Completed in 1889, it took twenty-six years to build and was (and still is today) the tallest brick building in the world, towering 548 meters over the city.
Nietzsche walked by the Mole regularly and came to know it well, but he almost certainly never went inside. It was built as a synagogue but was never used as such. Today it houses the National Museum of Cinema and is one of Turin’s most popular tourist attractions. He was a man of esoteric tastes and probably would not have approved of the Mole, but there was much in Turin to cater to his preferences. He loved music and now his home was a stone’s throw from the Carignano Opera and Music Theatre - the theatre orchestra played at weekends, just below his window, and close by was the national drama theatre, the Teatro Regio.
Turin - An Elegant City
Turin is an elegant city. The miles of covered arcades are lined with stylish shops, small restaurants and some very grand buildings. Follow in the steps of Nietzsche and you may appreciate why he wrote estatic letters to friends describing its grandeur and beauty and declaring “this is the only place I can be”.
Ref: 'Nietzsche in Turin' by Lesley Chamberlain. Published by Picador USA, 1997.
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