Picture of the Day - Kings Wall

We were traveling around Italy and our Italian host family and dear friends took us to the hunting lodge of the former Kings of Italy just outside Torino (Turin). It was a do-it-yourself-guided tour, which was just fine by us.

The hunting lodge was quite luxurious in its day with room after room all around a main ball room. The furniture and other decorations were all authentic from the 18th and 19th century. There were several paintings and fresco's throughout the lodge. I was particularly taken with this fresco of a lion. As it turns out, it was my favorite photograph from our tour.

For most of its history after the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy was not one country, but rather several small countries of duchies mostly ruled by other countries and the Popes. They constantly changed hands and borders. Italy as we know it today did not come into existence until 1871, mainly thanks the efforts of Garibaldi and Mazinni.

In fact, the history of Italy is very complicated, but there is an interesting article on the Wikepedia Web Site if you want to read about it. It is actually quite fascinating...if you like politics and classic imperialism.