he
_Piazza del Castello_ and the _Piazza di San Carlo_, are very spacious and
striking, and there are arcades on each side of the quadrangle formed by
them. The _Contrada del Po_ (for in Turin the streets are called
_Contrade_) leads down to the Po, and is one of the best streets in Turin.
Over the Po is a superb bridge built by Napoleon. In the centre of the
_Piazza del Castello_ stands the Royal Palace, and on one side of the
_Piazza_ the Grand Opera house. The streets in Turin are kept clean by
sluices. The favorite promenades are, during the day, under the arcades of
the _Piazza del Castello_ and those of the _Contrada del Po_; and in the
evening round the ramparts of the city, or rather on the site where the
ramparts stood. The French, on blowing up the ramparts, laid out the space
occupied by them in walks aligned by trees. The fortifications of the
citadel were likewise destroyed.

In the Cathedral Church here the most remarkable thing is the _Chapelle du
Saint Suaire_ (holy winding sheet). It is of a circular form, is inlaid
with black marble and admits scarce any light; so that it has more the
appearance of a Mausoleum than of a Chapel. It reminded me of the _Palace
of Tears_ in the Arabian Nights.

In the environs of Turin, the most remarkable buildings are a villa
belonging to the King called _La Venezia_, and the _Superga_, a magnificent
church built on an eminence, five miles distant from Turin. In the Royal
Palace, on the _Piazza del Castello_, there is some superb furniture, but
the exterior is simple enough. The country environing Turin forms a plain
with gentle undulations, increasing in elevation towards the Alps, which
are forty miles distant, and is so stocked with villas, gardens and
orchards as to form a very agreeable landscape. From the steeple of the
_Superga_ the view is very fine.

In the University of Turin is a very good _Cabinet d'Histoire naturelle_,
containing a great variety of beasts, birds and fishes stuffed and
preserved; there is also a Cabinet of Comparative Anatomy, and various
imitations in wax of anatomical dissections. Among the antiquities, of
which there is a most valuable collection, are two very remarkable ones:
the one a beautiful bronze shield, found in the Po, called the shield of
Marius; it represents, in figures in bas-relief, the history of the
Jugurthine war.[76] This shield is of the most exquisite workmanship. The
other is a table of the most beautiful black marbl