Day Trip- Torino

Now that I'm settling into my new home in Milano, I decided it was time to start exploring the surrounding area. My roomies, some other girls from the program, and I took a little trip out of Milano on Saturday. We took a train 2 hours, 9.20 euros out to Torino. The more classic architecture and cobbled streets were a nice break from the modern city life and architecture of Milan. By the time we arrived, everyone was absolutely starving, so we ducked into a charming little ristorante that seemed very much like a mom-and-pop joint. The previously mentioned mom came bursting out of the kitchen and started jabbering at us in Italian, apparently taking our orders. After a fair bit of uncertain gesturing, we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. And out it came in the form of gnocchi with tomato sauce and a side of veggies.

The whole town seemed to be putting on a show for us. Within the first few blocks we ran into a quartet serenading the people on the street.

With the music resounding through the air and bouncing down alleys, we wandered around seeing all the palaces various rulers have put around the town to celebrate their power and glory.

Then we went and visited one of the town's claims to fame- one of the top Egyptian museums in the world. Though it was incredible to see the ancient artifacts, mummies, sarcophagi, statues of gods and goddesses, entire temples and tombs, I felt a terrible sense of wrongness. Being able to share artifacts and ancient knowledge is one thing, but permanently removing literally entire temples out of their original location seems tragically disrespectful. All in all I left the museum feeling strange.

Thankfully on our way out we ran into a smile inducing parade with saucy little baton twirlers and four different bands. One of the bands seemed to be made up of former rock-and-rollers, some of the members were rocking out as they wound their way through the cobblestone streets of Torino. It made the day feel like a big party.

We watched the sun set from a bridge overlooking the river running along the edge of town framed by the alps. Once we could no longer deny the effects of the frigid alps air on our fingers and noses, we ducked into Cafe Roberto and tried out the local drink, bacerin, layers of hot chocolat, caffe and whipped cream. We wandered back to the train station munching on roasted chestnuts purchased from a street vendor. All in all, it was a wonderful adventure.

Ciao for now!