Yoga at TurinEpi18

For the fifth edition of Turin Epicurean Capital we decided to include a power vinyasa yoga class because our Turin's vidaroyal lifestyle includes both our body and soul.

Lucia Hannau and Francine Segan

Up to this edition we have only focused our event on the food, wine and cultural aspects of our local lifestyle, but as a growing number of visitors request our yoga privates, we thought of including a session to allow our guests and the locals to enjoy a vinyasa to energize their bodies after the hot days, to reactivate their internal organs through spinal twists that would also clean their system of all the food and wine they had savored. Naturally, stretching  and lengthening poses were included too to enhance our bodily surrendering during savasana and our short guided meditation.

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This TurinEpi yoga class was taught by Lucia Hannau on the beautiful terrace of the De La Salle Collegio San Giuseppe, where we enjoyed Turin's unique view of the hills surrounding Turin, Mole Antonelliana and the Synagog bulb-shaped spires.

We started by slowing down our breath to quiet our minds and find the right rhythm; surprisingly even though we were downtown, our terrace was such a privileged sanctuary! After setting our intentions, we took some cat and cow poses to awaken our spine and prepare for the dog sequences. Chair pose, mountain pose, a little back bend, bow pose and eagle were our central asanas, before perching on one of our legs at the time, in tree pose. 

The level of the participants went from beginners to advanced, and each one of them practiced mindfully, in full respect and safety of their bodies 🙏

The mat work of our yoga class also included some toe massages, ankle twists and hip openers because these are all areas we normally neglect in our busy lives. We also stretched our hamstrings and pumped our abs in boat pose before twisting and releasing our liver, stomach and intestines with matsyendrasana or half lord of the fish pose.

the Turin's synagogue is in the backgroud

On this last morning of Turin Epi 18 we were blessed by a clear and sunny weather, a sweet breeze blew all through our class drying out our sweat. As it always happens when you have fun, our class quickly reached the meditation phase and we all relaxed in savasana or corpse pose. 

For this final part, Lucia designed a food guided meditation around a herb garden where the yogis released their bodies and allowed their minds to follow the scents of rosemary, basil and sage.

After regaining the presence of our bodies and our regular breath, we sat down on the mat, quickly visualized our day, fast forward like in a preview, thanked for this TurinEpi yoga practice and enjoyed our view.

Francine Segan and Br Alfredo Centra. Photo by Lucia Hannau

Br. Alfredo Centra, director of the De La Salle Collegio San Giuseppe came to greet us and brought our guest, Francine Segan a copy of Torino Sette, the week-end section of La Stampa aka the Turin's newspaper where there was an article about Turin Epicurean Capital 2018 including a picture of Francine!

Thank you yogis, thank you Br Alfredo for this unique experience above Turin's roofs and thank you Simonetta Carbone for our article on Torino Sette 🙏 a yoga class will definitely be included in the next editions too !

Photos by Alberto Bonis