Home of the shroud

Turin is known for two things, we were told at an international conference last year: cars and wine.

MANILA, Philippines - The setting of the forum bore this out: the Lingotto Conference Center once housed the Fiat manufacturing plant, with its test driving track left intact on the rooftop of the remodeled building designed by world renowned architect Renzo Piano.

On the ground floor of the conference center sat a gleaming Alfa Romeo, a product first developed in neighboring Milan but acquired by the Fiat automobile group along with other Italian luxury cars Maserati and Lancia.

Fiat – Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino – bade Turin ciao last August after the controlling Agnelli family and other investors approved a merger with Chrysler. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will be based in the UK. But the Italian city still retains its reputation as Europe’s Detroit, and its National Automobile Museum is a popular destination for visitors.

Turin is also the birthplace of Martini & Rossi, founded in the 19th century by Alessandro Martini, producer of the Martini vermouth. Diversifying later, the company would also produce the Asti Martini.

Sports cars and wines aren’t the only top-quality goods produced in Italy’s Piedmont region. There are also fine chocolates, with Ferrero Rocher (also the maker of Nutella hazelnut paste), Carrafel and Venchi among the most famous.

Back in the 18th century, a Turin resident concocted the delectable Gianduja: a blend of sweet chocolate and hazelnut paste. Gianduja flavors many confectionery products in Turin as well as its fine wood-roasted coffee, whose aroma wafting from art deco cafés permeate the city’s elegant plazas and boulevards. Gianduja gelato is exquisite. The city is also home to coffee brand Lavazza.

The coffee culture and the city’s architecture invite comparisons of Turin with Paris and Vienna. But the Italian city – birthplace of haute couture designer Nina Ricci and former French first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy – has its own unique appeal. Turin is reputed to be Italy’s greenest city, with 25 parks, tree-lined boulevards and promenades around the four rivers that run through the city.

At Eataly, a sprawling foodie destination across the street from the Lingotto complex, you will find a dizzying array of the fine foods that Turin and much of the country have to offer. The city is also home to the slow food movement.

With the Alps in the distance, the hills of Turin by the River Po are dotted with picturesque homes and casual trattorias. The hills offer panoramic views of the city, with the skyline dominated by numerous churches.

The churches of Turin serve as a magnet for Catholic devotees.

Man of the Shroud

Beyond the food, Catholics – including the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos staying in Italy – are drawn to Turin by a mysterious shroud bearing the image of a man with the wounds of someone who was crucified. The image is believed to be that of Jesus Christ.

Several accounts dismiss the Shroud of Turin as a hoax, with radiocarbon dating indicating it is from the Medieval Ages. A number of official tourism guidebooks for the city list the Museo Egizio, which houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities including mummies and sarcophagi, together with Italian attractions such as Valentino Park, with its medieval village and botanical garden around an 18th-century castle. But the Shroud of Turin is not mentioned in these guidebooks. With no official endorsement or rejection by the Vatican of its authenticity, the controversy rages.

I managed to find my way to the shroud only because a recorded voice guide on the hop-on, hop-off double-deck tour bus that I took from Turin’s city center mentioned the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, where the shroud is kept.

Hoax or not, the shroud is put on public display in Turin only twice a year, to preserve it from the elements. Even the replica on permanent display is protected from heat and light, kept behind glass in a church alcove. Photographs of the replica can be taken only from afar, without a flash.

When I visited the church there were only a handful of people around, but I was told that the twice-a-year public display of the original attracts a large crowd.

At the exposition of the shroud in March 2013, Pope Francis would only say that “the Man of the Shroud invites us to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth.”

But last year the popular pontiff announced plans for a pilgrimage to Turin this June, to venerate the shroud and honor the bicentenary of the birth of Saint John Bosco.

Fans of Pope Francis can join him in his pilgrimage to Turin later this year, there to contemplate the origin of the mysterious shroud.