Unexpected Bonding and Facing Fears

Ivana went to church with me on Sunday, it was nice to have her there. Strange that she understood the language, and I understand the doctrine, but I don't understand the language and have no idea what was said. She said one of the speaker said good words, and said he can marry people, so we talked about the Rome temple.

After church we went to Ivana's parent's cottage. It was about an hour away and simply lovely. We had a big dinner with some family friends. Later we went for a walk, which was actually more like a LONG hike to a waterfall. On the walk, one of the family friends, Andrea talked to me the whole time in English. He was 17 and a pure delight. "Sorry if I annoy you, I just want to practice my English." Who knew I could talk to a 17 year old for 2 hours and not run out of things to say?

The surrounding area (not exactly a clear day).

Cottage

What Italian home is complete without Snow White garden gnomes?

Lunch

Ivana and me at the waterfall.

My buddy Andrea.

Me with the grandparents.

Other things I've seen:

Bridge at shopping center.

Palazzo Reale

Palazzo Madama

Sunset view from the apartment.

Facing Fears:
With all my thinking time here I've decided I need to face my fears more often. The following video is Jerry Cortez (my guitar teacher) and I playing and singing Falling Slowly. Maybe 2 people have seen this video before. Enjoy (and please ignore the watermark...).

Tre Bello Posto

Thanks to Ivana and all my tourist information, I feel like I've seen almost everything this city has to offer. I really do love it here in Turin.

Veneria:
Sunday afternoon Ivana, Luigi, and I went to Veneria to rent bikes and tour. Veneria is a LARGE 3-part royal residence and gardens of the Savoy family. The rain was looming, but we risked it and had a great time.

Luigi raced me at the beginning, I beat him. He said later he was a gentleman and let me win.

We passed the royal stables and took a peak. How do horses get so big? It's baffling.

I like this pony, he had some crazy hair.

Royal stables

Main entrance to Veneria. I want to explore here more, everything was closing at the time.

Stupinigi:
Ivana took me here one night. I'd been REALLY wanting to see it (though she didn't know that), but I couldn't figure out how to ride the transit system here. This is a hunting lodge of the Savoy's. Those Savoy's had some serious money, almost everything I've posted on this blog has been Savoy owned. This was a hunting lodge. And by lodge I mean a huge estate with miles of forest area in the back.

Please note the deer statue on the very top.

This is now a furniture museum, so I was ok with not going inside.

Sacra de San Michele:
Ivana had the day off so we went to Sacra de San Michele, an old monastery perched on a cliff. It was a long drive but oh-so-beautiful. I loved it. This was also closed, but we may or may not have snuck through the exit and looked around for a while.

View from the top. Incredible.

The legend goes: the synagogue was being attacked, a girl was there and was trying to escape. She said a prayer and jumped off the cliff and was unharmed. She told her story and no one believed her. Determined to prove it happened, she jumped from the same spot, this time to her death. Moral of the story: don't give in to peer pressure.

You Are A Beautiful Monster

Reasons I was meant to partake in this adventure:
-I like pizza
-I like pretending to be part of other families
-I'm good at entertaining myself
-While I'm not good at sleeping in, I'm pretty good at faking it
-I'm really good at exploring
-I like cheese
-I like to ride bikes
-I don't think I'm incredibly prone to homesickness
-I love markets
-I like to challenge myself each time I leave the house
-I can be entertained by Sudoku and card games
-I don't mind skipping church ;)
-I like pasta
-It has increased my endurance at laying in the sun
-I am directionally sound. Although I have maps, I don't take them anywhere and haven't gotten lost yet.
-I'm awesome at taking pics of myself
-I like bread
-I like cold showers
-I'm still ok wearing the few clothes I brought (I only miss my colorful shoes and my earrings)
-Little things entertain me

Today was my Tour de River Po. I left the house at 8 at was pleased that it was a quick ride to the river (8ish miles). I was thankful for the clouds today to help keep me cool. I passed all the young Italians who were STILL partying at the pub and drunk off their arses. I rode along the river then toured the Valentino Castle.

This picture doesn't exactly prove I was on my bike, but I was, I promise.

That's the Mole Antonelliana in the distance.

While the tour was in Italian, I didn't really care because the tour guide was good looking. I was provided with a book with the tour in English, so that was nice. The castle and grounds are neo-midieval, meaning they were built in the 1800s but structured after the 1500s architecture. So no powerful person ever lived there, which seemed strange to me that it would even be a tourist attraction, but I was still pretty impressed.

Entrance to village

Partial castle view from across the river

Throne in the Great Chamber

Chapel

The castle's bit of earth

While leaving the village, this kind man asked for a picture with me, I couldn't deny him.

On the hot journey back to Grugliasco, I stopped and had my first kebab. I forgot to get a pic, but I think that someone is stealing ideas and passing it off as their own because it was EXACTLY like a gryo. So which came first, the kebab or gyro?

Other randomess:

In case you can't tell, that's a swordfish. I found this gem at the market. I just don't understand why the swordy part is still there, there's no way you eat that part, right?

Just some great graffiti I found. I especially love when there's English graffiti without proper grammer and/or spelling.
Obviously there are lots of statues here. It's made me ponder that if/when I have a statue made of me what it will be. My answer: me riding a cow backwards, playing my guitar. It's perfect.

This is me when I starred in The Matrix.

Original mask from LOTR

My pizza box

And a little vodka...

We made the long drive to the beach the other day. We were regular road trippers, stopping for snacks, occasional fights, wrong turns, and some impatience showing. Along the way we drove through France for awhile (cool, but would've been cooler had I gotten my passport stamped...) We spent the day at a beach in Ventimiglia. Changing clothes on the beach was the norm, with no regard for modesty. We laid in the sun all day, swam, ate sandwiches, I got an awesome sunglasses tan, we were sucked in by beach vendors, then we headed onto our next stop.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the last movie I saw in the US was Monte Carlo. Talk about a very rich and beautiful area. We wandered and I saw some familiar sights. Sara suggested I go hobnob with the rich people to find a boyfriend, I respectfully declined. I got in trouble when I took a picture in a casino, but as you can see, it was very important! I've always wanted to play a Wizard of Oz machine, I should've done it there. We stopped by the royal castle there as well, very beautiful.

On our way home we stopped at a seafood pasta place. During dessert I was offered some lemon sorbet. "It's lemon sorbet, and a little vodka," Ivana purposely told me after I had taken a drink. She thought it was funny, because she knows I don't drink.





Yesterday I went into Turin again and went to the Mole Antonelliana. Built as a synagogue, it now houses the National Museum of Cinema. As mentioned in an earlier post, I get kind of bored at museums, but not this one. NOT THIS ONE! This was by far the coolest museum I've ever been to. The history of how movies have been made was really interesting, there were poster galleries, interactive displays, on and on. I already was having a great time, when my breath was literally taken away as I entered what's called Temple Hall. It was a large open room, around the perimeter was a walk that went up a few floors that had pictures from various films. On the ground level you could lay in a lounger and watch movies, complete with speakers in the headrest. There was also a light display on the dome far above. Along the bottom floor you could wander through old family rooms, watch movies on a heart shaped bed, or a toilet, or many various other places. The curtains around the room automatically closed when a movie was about to start. My favorite thing though, was right through the middle of the room was the elevator lift, which went straight up and through a small opening in the dome. I rode the lift after the museum portion and the view from the top was beautiful. This was a highly successful trip which only cost me a mere 9 euros.

PS - I searched high and low for Wizard of Oz things, and found only one, and a photo of Judy Garland.
Not much else to report from this day, other than my mouth blistering from the hot hot pizza I bought, wandering through a park by the royal residences, realizing my 20 oz Coke Light cost me 2.50 euros (ouch), Zara, and checking into bike tours. Oh and I found this little gem, what a great place.

Tourin' Turin

Like a professional traveler (one that is afraid to buy a bus ticket so walks 3 miles to the subway station), I went into downtown Turin the other day. What did I find?

#1. An Egyptian Museum. The locals say it's the 2nd most important Eyptian museum, behind the one in Egypt. My tour book says it's also behind London. Who is right? I don't know, but here are some gems I found.

I really want some of these.

Note: I'm bad at museums. I get bored, just putting it out there.

#2: No explanation needed.

My Coke Light was awful and I was so disappointed.

#3: Happiness is...
I had pre-planned to buy whatever I wanted here, my one chance on this trip. I walked out with 4 things. I am also bad at shopping, not really my thing.

#4 - Boat Tour of the River Po
Ivana, Luigi, and I took a boat tour of the River Po the same day. Beautiful. I'm now hell-bent on getting my bike here so I can ride along the river.

Ivana and me.
Luigi (Ivana's brother) and me. Love him.

#5 - Superga Basilica
So the big thing to see in Turin is the Crown of Delights, the royal residences of the Savoy family. This is one of their churches.

The story goes in 1949 that the Italia football team was coming back from a tournament somewhere. It was a foggy day and their plane crashed into the mountain on which this basilica sits. 31 people died and it shook the country. There is a memorial in the back for them. Each year on the anniversary of the crash, football fans gather here to pay tribute.

#6 - Chescara
Ivana, Sara, and I went here tonight. Sara needed to take pictures for school so we wandered and snapped pics.


Then we stopped at two cute candy shops, such good chocolate.

#7 - The Collegno Library
Usually wouldn't be a big deal, but I was thrilled to find they have like 60 books in English. I got 3 yesterday and finished the 1st within 24 hours.

That's about it. Arrivederci!