Torino Sunday 11 May, Day 18

Last night on our evening stroll we saw a poster  "Il PreRaphaeletis" with Millais' wonderful painting of Ophelia - a travelling exhibition from the Tate which was on in Tokyo when I was there in February. We thought this was a good first stop, so after a bit of a Sunday sleep-in, we headed on down to the Palazzo Chiablese where the exhibition is housed. Today being Mothers Day - Festa Della Mamma - and a nice warm Sunday as well, the streets were filled with people out buying flowers - the custom seems to be white or red azaleas for mamma - heading off to church dressed to the nines, or just walking around, generally having a good time.

Because of our late start, there was a substantial queue and we were told at least half an hour. After about 10 minutes in the hot shameless queue where most people seemed to be passing the time by smoking heavily, and being a sitting target for the particularly persistent Torino beggars, we could feel our enthusiasm for PreRaphaelites beginning to wane, and we decided to visit the nearby Museo Archaeologico instead.

We could only buy a group ticket to three museums, the Palazzo Reale - the royal palace of House of Savoy - the Armeria - a collection of armour and weapons from 15th century on, and the archeology museum. Don't think we are really palace sort of people - room after room of gilt and stuff gets oppressive quickly. We got lost trying to find the archealogy museum, which when we did locate it seemed to be closed. Anne had a sit outside the lovely church while I retraced our steps to visit the Armeria. While I was contemplating a few centuries worth of man's ingenuity in devising nastier and more efficient ways of inflicting damage on his fellow man - I was particularly impressed with a dagger which had two spring loaded side pieces - Anne was watching the local children who had just made their first communion issuing forth from the church. I think she got the better deal.

We then headed down to the Museo_Egizio which is said to be the second largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world.  A jaw dropping collection of statues, household objects, paintings, sarcophagi, altar pieces. One room has around a dozen imposing statues of Sekhmet, the lionheaded goddess of healing, all beautifully carved. One room had a huge rams head, again, meticulously carved. Moving from one gallery to another is a window through which you can see a storage area. As well as racks of mummies, sarcophagi and other stuff, there was a milk crate filled with mummified cats. In the main collection there were more mumified cats, a cat sarcophagus, a lovely little statues of a litter of cats, and this wonderful cat effigy.

After the Egyptian Museum we had a late lunch, then back for a bit of down time. Caught the end of stage three of the Giro, another horrible cold wet day for the riders by the look of it. I'll bet they will be glad when the race returns to Italy after the rest day tomorrow.

Tomorrow we head off to Verona. Early night then ...