Outdoor Hair Saloon

Hair saloon in the time of Covid 19, a hair saloon in piazza Vittorio setup a outdoor service under the arcade. 

Location : Piazza Vittorio

Riparti Piemonte

The government offices at Piazza castello with banners suporting the reopening of the Piedmont regione. The offices should be mainly empty, as the employees are working at home.

Location : Piazza Castello

Le Frecce Tricolore

At 3 PM, military planes were flying above the center of the town, spreading the colors of Italian flag, green, white and red across the sky.

To celebrate the 'Festa Della Republica', which is the national day of Italy, these planes are arranged to fly over various cities everyday, until the 2nd of June which they will fly over Rome.

Today, they flew over Torino and from my balcony, I could clearly see them flying across.

Lots of people who didn't want to miss the event gathered in the piazzas and via Po, all the way until the Gran Madre Church which is across the river, to view the event. Of course nobody was obeying the restriction of safety distance.


Location : Via Pietro Micca

Saturday Release

People were everywhere in the center on Saturday, the first day after the lockdown restaurants, bars and shops were allowed to reopen for business.

 Under the arcade along via Po where there are many restaurants and bars, tables were setup under the arcade, placed in a safety distance between each table.

Due to the fact that tables were setup along the arcade where people walked through, so the space to walk was reduced significantly, so basically there was no safety distance between people walking under the arcade, either one was brushing with other people walking along or one was walking too close to the people sitting at the tables.

At the piazza, group of people were enjoying their freedom to take a walk and to gather with friends to chat, it seems that the restrictions for the reopening were forgotten completely.


Somehow, I miss the empty street during the lockdown.


Location : via Po/ Piazza Castello

Legs Out

This was taken at the initial of the pandemia in Italy, when the complete lockdown had yet to be started, but already certain restrictions such as forbidden of crowds had been implemented.

However, when passing through via Garibaldi, a pair of legs protruded outward at vai Botero caught my attention, looked funny.


Then, noticed further down the street, there was a long queue of people crowded together. Later found out that they were queuing up for the Monte dei Pegni, which provides pawn/loans service.


Location : Via Botero

After The Rain

As usual after the rain, small pond of water remained along the curd by the road, couldn't resist to snap a photo of the reflection on the water while the two cyclists dashed across the road.

Location : Via Pietro Micca

Palazzo Madama

Palazzo Madama e Casaforte degli Acaja is a palace in Turin, northern Italy. It was the first Senate of the Italian Kingdom, and takes its traditional name from the embellishments it received under two queens (madama) of the House of Savoy. 

The Palazzo Madama houses the Turin City Museum of Ancient Art. Despite its name, it is a large collection of paintings, statues, church ornaments, porcelain, and decorative art, mostly from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century.
Turin's museum of ancient art, called Museo dell'Antichità, is located on the grounds of the Palazzo Reale. 

 Location : Piazza Castello

Spring 2020

Spring and we were more or less restricted to go around till about two weeks ago, still we are reluctant to actually go around to explore the beauty of Spring.

Luckily, I have some plants and flowers on my balcony to remind me of the Spring.

Here are my yellow roses and some little white flowers which I don't know the name.

Location : Home

Theatre Walk

The walk in front of the Royal Theatre is a very pleasant one, as it is often accompanied by the music broadcasted from the theatre.

It leads all the way down to the Royal Park.

Location : Teatro Reale

Phase 2 Via Roma

A look at the situation in via Roma few days into the phase two lockdown, by now, everyone is more or less free to go around, so it is not really a lockdown.

Location : Via Roma

Piazza Refilled

Already one week since the starting of phase two, during the weekend many people were out on the street. 

In piazza, since the day 2 already many people were seen taking a walk and visiting their favourite piazza, sitting on the benches and chatted.

Location : Piazza Castello

Park Crowd

Just 6 days into phase two lockdown, the park is already full with people.

Although the restriction states that the parks are opened only for people to take a walk, to jog, lying on the grass to take sun and playing ball games are not allowed, obviously more than 2 persons in a group is also forbidden, but judging from what we saw yesterday, people seem not following the restriction so strictly.

 The authority doesn't seem to implement the restriction so strictly either.

Location : Giardini Reali

Phase Two Market

The outdoor market at Porta Palazzo is finally allowed to open, but numbers of people allowed to enter into the fenced up market is limited, thus a long queue was formed yesterday when we were there. Ended up, we didn't enter to buy anything, the queue was too long.

There were fewer stalls then usual and the space was big, they should have allowed more people to get in, and strange enough the indoor market was allowed to get in freely with no control, isn't it more dangerous in closed up space?

Location : Porta Palazzo

Working With Mask

One of the service who is still working during the lockdown is the postage service.

Of course the postmen are working with masks, even when under the rain, wonder how they could keep the masks dry if it rains heavily....

Location : Via Conte Verde

Silent Church

During the lockdown, the cathedral of Turin, chiesa San Giovanni, which normally has many visitors was closed. 

  
Now, although we are in the phase two, mass in churches is still not allowed, certain churches are still opened for people to go in and pray, but I think the cathedral remains closed to public.

Location : Duomo

Give And Take

During this lockdown period, many shops and factories are forced to close up, many workers are asked to stay home and not many are getting paid, some of them even lost their job.

It is especially difficult for those who have family to support, everyday, they have to worry about food to feed their family, so there are places where a box or a bucket is setup to collect donated items to help these people.
One of these boxes is placed outside of the San Tommaso church near to where I live.

Location : Chiesa San Tommaso

Lockdown The Fifty-Fifth Day

55th day. Sunday, the last day of the first phase of the lockdown.
It was sunny like on Saturday. 

On Saturday, there were quite a number of people walking, running, cycling along via Roma. 
 

In piazza San Carlo, there were people sitting on the benches and chatted. Even the tables and chairs left on the piazza by the closed bars were occupied by small group of people, some were chatting among themselves and some were just sitting there to enjoy the sun.
Guess it would be the same on Sunday.

Monday, the second phase will start and everyone will have more freedom to go around, I am afraid that there might be many people rushing out, so I will just continue to stay home for a few days more, just to observe the situation.

Today, by the balcony, saw a woman standing at the bus stop, looking at the bus list, it seemed that she wasn't clear about which bus number to take.

Our situation now is more or like hers, we know where we want to reach, but not sure how to get there. 


Location : Via Roma/Piazza San Carlo

Lockdown The Fifty-Fourth Day

The 54th day. Saturday, the last two days of the first phase of the lockdown.
The day before yesterday was labour day, today is Sunday, yesterday Saturday, many people were doing their grocery shopping.

By the balcony, I could see many people crossing the street with shopping bags or trolleys.

Luckily, we were there early at the supermarket. There were just a few people queuing up at the entrance, by the time we were almost getting in, the queue had extended almost to the side of the galleria out to the street.

A lot more people were out yesterday, partly for the grocery shopping and partly because it was really a very pleasant day.

People were out taking a walk, for a run, to bring their children out to play etc.

It seemed that people were already getting ready for the beginning of phase two, which they will be allowed to have physical activities within the regione, no more limited by distance restriction.

Location : via Roma/Galleria San Federico