Torino pt. 1

We have been in Torino for 4 days and have been trying to settle into the Italian lifestyle. The past 4 days have been filled with our being made aware of many Italian customs and their style of living and then getting used to them.

We arrived on Friday afternoon after a very adventurous ride from the Cinque Terre. Leaving Manarola, we decided as we drove north to Torino that we would try to drive along the coast seeing 3 northern Cinque Terre villages. Well what we forgot is that the mountains are incredible steep, we were in Italy so therefore roads are very narrow (a two lane road was the width of one car), and that a mudslide had occurred last year in October washing out some parts of the road. Clearly we faired well as we are alive and do not have any damage to the car, but it is scary when cars needed to pass us and the scariest of all was when a bus needed to pass us. He did not stop to wait for George to back up the car to a point in the road where he could pull off but just kept on driving forcing George to have to drive in reverse down this windy mountain road at a pretty fast pace.

Our apartment in Torino is right in the heart of the city (right across the street from the Cinema Museum) and is in a building built around 1700. The apartment is actually pretty large (we are getting spoiled) so it is perfect for little George to crawl/ walk around in. The apartment has three balconies. Two on the exterior of the building, from where we can witness the sounds and scenes of the city and their is a balcony in the interior courtyard of the building, from where we can witness the daily lives of our neighbors.

The past few days we have been running errands picking up food and things that we needed to make our time in Italy easier (ie fan because its so hot in our apartment, crib mattress so little George has a place to sleep.) It has been a new experience for me to have to go to so many stores to get a relatively small amount of things. Since every store is small and pretty specialized, shopping takes much more time. Shopping also becomes adventurous when you do not know the language. When we are shopping, we are having to make some guesses as to what things are. So far we have faired pretty well and have been able to do something productive with the mistakes we have made. In fact, we have purchased many delicious eats for our lunches and dinners!

One of the places we did shop at was Ikea (I know, not a very Italian store) but we were able to get a few things for little George for cheap (20 euro for a highchair!).  Also he grabbed a little bear out of a bin and started cuddling with it. So we bought him that and another toy (wish I had known earlier that Ikea had decent toys for reasonable prices). It was great going to Ikea because it had a/c and it felt like I was back in Maryland.

Besides errands, we have doning tons of walking and exploring of Torino. They have two major roads here with portico-covered sidewalks that are lined with lots of cafes and shops. So we have popped into some of the shops (especially the Italian shoe stores- I love their shoes minus the fact that I do not think I could walk in them for more than 5 minutes.) We have enjoyed our fair share of gelato, espresso drinks & pastries. Little George is a huge fan of gelato! (I need to take a picture of him eating it, he gets it all over his face!

George and I bought our first souvenir; a stovetop espresso maker! We figured we needed to be able to make these yummy drinks at home or we would very quickly be broke. The past 2 days we have enjoyed tasty espressos at the apartment. We will have to make ones for all of you when we come home!

Yesterday (Monday), George officially started working on the research for his grant. We of course have already been in many churches but he had not sat down in them and done sketches. So we all drove to a little town outside of Torino called Chieri so that he could sketch and take photos of some Vittone churches. When we arrived we tried to get into a few of his churches to find that they were all closed on Mondays. George went into a police station that had been designed to by Vittone to look around/ ask when these churches might be open. There they told him that all of the churches and museums are closed on Mondays and some of the churches are only open for a few days of the month.

He was able to get some sketching done of buildings in a piazza in Torino while we at a early lunch at a cafe. (By early, I mean, 1pm.) Italians do not seem to eat lunch until about 2. We at a buffet of stuzzichini, which are bite size snack or mini forms of classic Italian dishes. Delicioso! We ate plate after plate of them while little George napped.

Another custom we have become aware of is that August in Europe is the month everyone goes on vacation so many stores will close for the whole month. That is awesome for the employees! Its also great for our wallets. There are so many cute stores but we cannot go in since they open on the 1st of September!

Today (Tuesday), George is spending the morning in Chieri and hopefully he can get into the Vittone churches. Hopefully we are now acquainted with the Italian schedule so that George can work within their timeframe. Though I am sure there are still many more customs that we will be made aware of very soon.