Highlights of Turin, Turin, Italy

My writing skills being what they are, I frequently struggle with finding original or at least not overused ways to express my positive impressions of places and points of interest. But that is nothing compared to the search for ways to describe a lukewarm impression. The places that do not click with me are never unappealing in the direct sense - it is just that they fail to produce enough knockout wow moments and pale in comparison to other places on balance. Given that I am always happy to have the opportunity to see something with my own eyes and form my own opinions, how do I describe that I did not dislike the place - I just did not like it well enough?!

Turin did not click with me. As any city of reasonable size, it has a number of public spaces and monuments that catch the eye - and any proud native will undoubtedly point me to a bunch that I likely have unforgivably missed. Overall, though, its architectural composition - my main visual gauge - is no more than average. I am far from ever being prolific with my picture-taking, but the dearth of good photos from our day-trip to Turin must be an indicator that not that many views or details caught my eye.

A couple of elevated views. First, the front yard of Palazzo Reale, with the intricate cupola of the cathedral in the background. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).