Well, actually, lovely though Pinerolo is, this was a day trip to visit Turin, by train. Yes, I know we could have cycled to Turin directly by turning down Val di Susa instead of climbing the Colle del Sestriere – but the Susa valley is full of big roads, and getting in and out of Turin by bike also looked tricky. So we are cycling the quiet route and visiting Turin by train.

The Piazza Castello was suitably grand, and the indoor shopping arcades were strangely reminiscent of Leeds!

For our dose of culture we visited the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento – the history of Italy since 1706 in over 20 detailed rooms. And what a complicated story! Luckily, Helen and I had both read David Gilmour’s ‘The Pursuit of Italy’, so we had a head start. But even so! Perhaps the best thing was that the building had housed the 1848 Subalpine parliament (before unification) and the original circular chamber was still there, unaltered. Cavour woz ‘ere! There was also the hall intended for the post-Risorgimento parliament of 1861, but by then the capital had moved to Florence.

But most of the time we just pottered and drank tea before returning to Pinerolo.

One disconcerting incident on the train was when the electronic ‘next station’ display said ‘None’. Was it never going to stop? Turns out, to our relief, that None is a town!