Egyptian Museum
It was a very leisurely start in comparison to my usual 0630 wake-up. We had a buffet breakfast at 0900 in the top floor of the hotel.
On the agenda today was the Egyptian Museum in Turin, which is quite well-renowned, plus a little wander around the city.
We departed around 1000 and parked under a city square. While Riccardo had tried to book our tickets online, it didn’t appear to have been successful. As I hadn’t come to them bearing gifts, I paid for the pricey entrance (along with dinner last night and later tonight).
Fortunately, there was no trouble entering the museum at 1130 even though we had not successful reservation. We agreed to meet up at the foyer 2h later in case we got separated.
It was a great museum and in some ways it is better than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where there was so much stacked everywhere, one gets overloaded with goodness.
There were several things I liked in particular:
The high-tech presentations, in particular showing the 3D scans of mummies, eg. fractures, indications of disease, jewellery worn etc.
Timeline showing the evolution of mummies, starting with simple pits, progressing to embalming to elaborate coffins and paraphernalia, and finally the Roman and Muslim influence. The layout of the museum also reflected this timeline to a certain extent.
Coffins being shown as a set. Eg. Kha’s coffin comprised of a simple outer black wooden box, which contained a large decorated coffin which in turn contained a smaller decorated one.
Text continues after this gallery.
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- Figures from various graves.
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- Mummies started out as just slightly preserved bodies in pits.
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- Sarcophagus lid of Djehutymes (a high official).
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- Not a coffin but a projection on a plain shape of a coffin.
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- Sarcophagus lid of Gemenefhorbak.
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- Statue of pharoah Horemheb with god Amun.
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- Good display of mummification characteristic through the centuries.
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- Kha’s set of three coffins. Outer is a simple wooden box, with decorated middle and inner coffins.
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- Turin’s main square.
Tea time, massage and dinner
We finished up at the museum 2h later. The time we had given ourselves turned out to be perfect. We met up with Lorenzo’s dad for a tea (or hot chocolate in some cases) in a nearby café. Our attempt to walk around was thwarted by drizzle and then our drive-around exploration cut short by horrible traffic.
We returned to our castle-home without any lunch. After a rest, I gave Lou a massage. We took dinner at nearby Ristorante Pizzeria I Rubini. As it was our final night in Italy, we thought pizza or pasta would be appropriate. The pizza was tops! Thin crust, perfectly crispy on the side and not too soggy under the fillings. The staff were nice and friendly too! Not so sure about the raw mince (with truffles) that the next table was eating.