Woke up around 6:30 and had breakfast closer to 8. Luckily the weather looked pretty good! At the b&b, and I still can't figure out how big it is, an older Italian lady was at my breakfast table and we had a conversation fully in Italian! Set out to find the #4 tram and took it four stops to the main station. Validated my 3-day transport pass just before a ticket guy came checking. I think that may be the first time I've ever seen someone check tickets on a bus/tram. Maybe that's why this city runs smoothly!
Luckily, found the right bus stop to catch the express bus to the Venaria place, Italy's Versailles, outside the station. An entire school group was taking up all the seats so I had to stand for the 40 min bus ride in traffic. Not fun. The kids sang and cheered when the d passed the enormous Juventus stadium. They are a rather big deal here. I even saw Juventus shampoo in a shop??
Anyway, the palace is MASSIVE. so much so that my museum card actually got me four different tickets. In the first floor of the palace you go through a series of introductory/educational multimedia things that seem out of place in a centuries-old palace. Then the good stuff is upstairs, with the gilded rooms etc.
Next visited a temporary exhibit of old royal carriages. At 11 we got let into a thing to see this incredible Venetian boat from the 1700s. The whole thing was a crazy multimedia exhibit with music from Vivaldi that led you through to the boat, then at the boat it was dark and they were having technical problems with the projection. I waited a bit, then they got it to work, then I felt like I'd had enough at noon. I left in time because in the gardens there was a fountain show set to music. Awesome!!
Wandered around the gardens for a while then into the littl adjacent town. Had a gelato for lunch - don't judge!! Caught the 1:30pm bus back and luckily got one of the last seats again. Sucks that school groups take them all up. Got back to the main station around 2:15 and found A. Giordano chocolates, which is one of the few to make handmade gianduotti candies so I spent a small fortune and bought 400 grams.
Caught the space-age and sleek metro to lingotto, the end of the line, and walked the ten minutes to the auto museum. I am not a car person and didn't have super high hopes but it was free with the museum card so I figured why not. It was pretty darn cool I have to say! It takes you through the history of the car, then stuff about design, racing, etc, with a ton of cool cars. I bought a little Torino/fiat magnet, naturally.
Walked the 5-10min to the huge, original eataly. Never seen anything like it. It felt twice as big as the one in Milan and was just full of aisles and aisles of Italian edibles. I bought a little bag of carnaroli rice to bring home and some salami for the flight. And had a strawberry/cherry sorbetto combo while I was there.
Walked back to the subway and took it back to the station and then tram 4 back to the b&b for a quick rest. Decided i wanted to do the aperitivo thing 1) to experience it and 2) since I never really had lunch! And then the storm started rolling in. Luckily the places I chose to go are a pretty quick walk from my b&b!! I was going go to the same place for aperitivo and dinner but then I stumbled on Pastis across the street, which everyone mentions is good and it didn't disappoint!!
10:15pm - back at the B&B for the night. Luckily the rain stopped a little after 7pm and blue/puffy cloud skies came out. Wandered around a little bit and went into Tre Galli around 7:45pm for dinner. Very cute place and always a good sign when people coming in are hugging the people who work in the place. Had "fassone" which is a local Piemontese beef. Quite delicious. The place did not charge a cover and the waitress was especially nice and friendly so I left a 2 euro tip. One of my first of the trip actually! She offered me an Italian menu and she seemed to be able to tell Italian wasn't my first language but she kept speaking it to me anyway! Actually come to think of it, I don't think I spoke any English since breakfast!
Wandered around after eating and noticed a ton of places had seriously legitimate food buffets out for "apericena" - such a cool concept. I wandered because I wanted to go back to + Di Un Gelato, the place I went to the first night. It means "more than a gelato" because it's some kind of cooperative. Whatever. It's freaking delicious is what it is. It may be the creamiest gelato I've ever had and the flavors are so delicious. I had a dark chocolate/hazelnut (made with Piemontese hazelnuts) combination. I will be going there (at least?) once more tomorrow. Worth the 30 minutes or so extra walking! Unfortunately, the location they have that's much closer to my B&B closes at 7pm. There are a lot of Grom outlets here in Torino because this is where it started. Grom is a big Gelato chain all around Italy, and they even have a location in Malibu. I was unimpressed and have never gone into one in Italy. It's 50 cents more than even the place I'm gushing about, and I can get it at home.
So, can't believe tomorrow is my last day. I was planning on taking a day trip to somewhere in the Alps while here in Torino, but there's so much more to see and do I think I will just trek around the city using up my museum card a little more. Maybe a river ride on the Po, and the national cinema museum is supposed to be fantastic.
Total walking today: 29,494 steps, 11.73 miles. Honestly it felt like even more - today was a LONG day!
Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow morning. Too tired.
No comments:
Post a Comment