The Italian Job
Coat of Arms of the King of Italy
As you probably know if you read one of my earlier posts, Book 7 centers around a royal client – the youngest of the Princesses in the House of Savoy. In 1931 when this latest book is set, Victor Emmanuel III is the King, Elena of Montenegro his wife and Maria Francesca Anna Romana (1914–2001) is their youngest daughter.
Castle of Racconigi
There are quite a few Residences listed as part of the Royal House of Savoy, but after reading through many of them, I think Castle of Racconigi is the best choice of setting for the majority of the book.
Unlike many of the other residences I read about, it had not been donated to the state (a rampant habit of Victor Emmanuel it seems!) or used as a barracks for World War One.
Racconigi is a town in Piedmont, Italy located in the province of Cuneo, 40 km (25 mi) south of Turin, and 50 km (31 mi) north of Cuneo by rail.
How does one travel from London to Italy in 1930? So glad you asked!
Well, Portia would have to travel by train from London to one of the ports (Folkestone for example) and then take a boat across to Calais, France. From there she would take the train towards Turin, Italy through France.
The train system in Italy was very well developed by the 1930s (you can read all about it at Wikipedia here)
The train trip through France to Turin
I updated my Google Map (called Portia’s London – click on the map on the left there to see the full GoogleMap) to include this trip.
The idea is that you can take the train straight through (except for the English Channel of course).
The distances are:
Train from London to Folkestone: 64.8 mi Boat from Folkstone to Calais: 31.23 mi Train from Calais to Lille: 57.92 mi Train from Lille to Paris: 126.72 mi Train from Paris to Chambéry: 283.77 mi Train from Chambéry to Modane: 43.75 mi Train from Modane to Turin: 50.37 mi
For a grand total of about 750 miles.
Trains at this time traveled at about 70-80 mi/hour, so I’m going to say a total of two days of travel for Portia to get from London to Turin. She could surely get from London to Lille in one day, and then spend the entire next day traveling from Lille to Paris, but let’s assume that there were wait times etc.
How the heck and I going to get THAT fact-checked? Where is Marty McFly when you need him?
#1930s #detective #portiaadams #travel #savoy #googlemaps #train #italian #fiction #england