A Mini tour of Turin

By PETER POPHAM

The last time I was in a Mini, you opened the doors from inside with a length of black plastic washing-line, and when we got to the house where the party was supposed to be, my friend - who was driving - activated the washing-line and I rolled out into the road, dead to the world.

That was more or less the same time that screenwriter Troy Kennedy-Martin came up with the idea of a Lavender Hill Mob-type caper set on the Continent, The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine and Noel Coward. But upstaging both of them were three Mini Coopers painted red, white and blue, and the city of Turin.

Charlie Croker (Caine), you will remember, is fresh out of nick, and his Italian colleague, whose nice red Ferrari was blown to bits by the Mafia with him inside it, has thoughtfully left Charlie a home movie explaining how he can remove $4 million in gold bullion from Turin by paralysing its traffic.

But having removed the swag from the gridlocked van, how do you make good your escape? Answer: choose very small getaway cars and use the city's unofficial routes - subways, historic shopping arcades, the porticoes of ducal palaces, rooftops, drains - in one of the funniest car chases filmed.

Breathtaking, too, at moments: near the climax of the chase, all three Minis fly more than 21m between two buildings to escape the police.



The makers of the original film attest that the Turin authorities were extraordinarily co-operative, considering the idea was to bring the city to a standstill. "The whole thing about Turin was about getting control of the city," says producer Michael Deeley, "and we had to cause chaos, because we couldn't do it without causing chaos.

"Gianni Agnelli was head of Fiat. Fiat owns Turin, which is a company town. One of my dearest friends called Gianni Agnelli and said, 'I want you to help as much as you can'. The police respected Mr Agnelli and they did what he wanted."

In 1968, when The Italian Job's cheeky Minis bounced through Turin during filming, it was against a backdrop of nothing but Fiats.

Turin may be a company town but anything less like Detroit is hard to imagine. The historical centre is still the vibrant heart of the city and has none of the ugly marks of modern development. Turin is gloriously intact, succeeding without strain in being ancient and up-to-date at once. Backstage, out on the edges, the dynamo roars. In the centre, one sees all the other things Turin has refined down the ages to make life gracious: Baroque architecture, barolo and barbaresco wines, handmade chocolates.

Among other things, The Italian Job is a remarkably chauvinistic film. It gets easy laughs out of every "wop" stereotype in the book - the waving of hands, the gabbling, the lechery, the chaos. But even a film intent on making Italy look ridiculous couldn't disguise the fact that they had descended on one of Europe's jewels.

Like a pan of special chocolate, this city has been simmering gently for more than 2000 years. Not much survives of Augusta Taurinorum, the ancient Roman city founded there in 28BC, but the classic Roman grid plan dictated the city's austere, well-ordered development more than 1000 years later.

The remains of one of its ancient gates is enclosed within Palazzo Madama, the marvellous palace that is at the heart of the city today, the heart, not merely because for centuries it was the home of the ruling Savoys, but also because it is a synthesis in stone of the city's history, from ancient Rome by way of the Middle Ages and the Baroque to the Risorgimento, the exuberant, late-19th-century style that accompanied Italy's unification under the kings of Turin.

It is up the splendid, long, curved outdoor staircase at the back of Palazzo Madama that Charlie Croker improbably jogs to meet his cronies as they plan the robbery, and in one of the state rooms inside (a further indication of Signor Agnelli's favours) that he delivers his final briefing to the gang, culminating in the vital information, "Just remember, in this country they drive on the wrong side of the road."

Palazzo Madama is set in Piazza Castello - "Not a square, Arthur, a piazza," as Croker reminds his underling - around which Turin's life revolves.

From here it is only a step to the Giardino Reale, the Royal Garden, with its lawns and statuary, a straight line to the mid-19th-century railway station, and another straight line, heading west, to the Ponte Vittorio Emanuel I over the river Po.

And here we pause because this spot, besides being one of the prettiest in the city, was also the location for two of the best scenes in the movie.

It was down the flight of 38 steep steps that leads from the neo-Grecian Tempio della Gran Madre di Dio church that a white wedding was processing when the Mini Coopers came bounding from either side of the church and clattered diagonally down the steps, narrowly missing the bride and groom ("Good luck!" yells one of the robbers).

And minutes later, after executing the hair-raising jump between two buildings, the same three cars, barred by the traffic jam from crossing the bridge, came trundling axle-deep across the weir just north of the bridge to disappear into a sewer, which was actually filmed beneath Coventry in Britain.

That was the last Charlie Croker and his mates saw of Turin. More fools they. Too busy plotting to remove the gold, they had missed practically everything that makes a visit to the city worthwhile.

The coffee shops, for example, such as Al Bicerin, the tiny, wood-panelled cafe that opened on the Piazza della Consolata, a kilometre or so northwest of Piazza Castello, in 1763, since when it has comforted the likes of Cavour and Alexandre Dumas with its invention, now one of the city's most famous products: bicerin, a cocktail of coffee, hot chocolate, milk, whipped cream and liquor.

One of the gang grabbed a panino from a hapless customer's hands as they careered through a galleria, but that was as far as their adventures in Italian cuisine took them. So they went home knowing nothing of places such as Ristorante Sotto la Mole, where you can wash down flan di lumache (snail pie) and financiera alla Piemontese (Piedmontese banker, a selection of offal) with a magnificent selection of barolos.

"Sotto La Mole" means "at the foot of the pile", and the "pile" it is at the foot of is the most amazing building in the city: a colossus of 167m, built in 1863 and still the tallest building in the city, by far, and the tallest traditional brick building in the world.

A marvel of 19th-century engineering, it is also, with its classical portico sitting at the base of the high aluminium spire, an inspired attempt to expand the traditional vocabulary of architecture to the new dimensions made possible by science.

Originally intended to house a synagogue, the Mole Antonelliana today contains a spanking new interactive National Museum of Cinema, where one day, perhaps, fans of British comedy and Italian culture will be able to dissect the original Italian Job, frame by frame.

- INDEPENDENT

Case notes

Getting there

Expect to pay from $2299 a person for a return flight to Turin ex Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, plus taxes. Four nights' accommodation in Turin, including daily cold buffet breakfast, five-day car hire in a group B (1L car), starts from $689 a person share twin.

Getting around

Both urban and suburban Turin are served by buses, and trams cross the city (first departure for almost all lines is about 5am and they continue until midnight). Tickets can be bought in tobacconists, newsagents and public places exhibiting the special sign. For further information see; Gruppo Torinese Trasporti or call 800-019152 when in Turin.

Things to see and do

With its 40 museums, Turin can satisfy everyone's curiosity. The Museo Nazionale del Cinema, housed in the Mole Antonelliana, offers an unforgettable adventure in the fascinating world of film, from shadow theatre to the latest of Hollywood's special effects. Then there is the GAM, Galleria Civica di Arte Modernae Contemporanea, which exhibits paintings by Chagall, Modigliani and Picasso among others, and the Museo Egizio, second in the world after the one in Cairo for the quantity and importance of the objects conserved.

Shopping

Turin's 18km of arcades that criss-cross the city centre offer protection from rain and sun. Wander along the Piazza della Repubblica, where the biggest open-air market in Europe is held. If you like antiques, don't miss the Gran Balon, the biggest flea market in the city. If you are keen on second-hand and antique books a walk down Via Po is a must.

Italian State Tourism Board

Turismo Torino