Bright and early 5:00am wake up call after three hours of sleep for a study trip. I have been excited for this trip for a really long time,to Torino to get to see some of the North of Italy with the one and only Cristina, the Torino native herself.
We made it to Tornio on time by 9, and got in our bus and headed immediately to Palazzo Madama to tour the huge 4 floor museum. Our tour guide was really great and we saw a lot of Torinos history so we actually knew where we were and what made it matter.
On the way to lunch we all started to realize what made Torino different from what we knew of the rest of Italy. First it was on the grid system, which all of us Americans appreciated, plus it was clean and the architecture was all very beautiful and detailed, but simple at the same time. One of my favorite things was how most of the streets were covered with Porticos to shield people from the elements.
We made our way to the Fiat and Maserati factories for a guided tour of the factory that produces Maseratis. They have just recently started offering tours and it was really impressive. One of the heads of quality control lead the tour and we got a really inside look at how the cars were made. As we were leaving the tour guide actually found a small scratch on the shell of a body that none of us could even see that had to be corrected. It was really amazing to see the quality and craftsmanship that went in to the cars.
Next we shuffled along to the Mole Abtonelliana, which was originally designed to be one of the largest synagogues in Italy but eventually ran out of money and was bought by the government to be made into the largest film museam in Italy. It was really cool to see the influence Italy has had on film, and the museum was really well put together with cool exhibits and it was in an awesome space in the nearly completed synagogue. We had dinner at a really famous Jazz club in downtown Torino before heading back to the hotel. It was really interesting to see jazz in another country. When we got to the hotel we discovered that we had a 5 person hotel room, so Will, Zach, Mitch, Frank and I settled in for a good night. We found a local pub around the corner but didn't last long since we were so exhausted. We stopped and had a cigar before going to sleep, it was Wills first, another Torinese experience not to forget.
Saturday we wet up early in order to drive up to Piemonte for a wine tasting. We met up with Robert ad Leslie, an expat couple who now lead wine tours in the North of Italy. We were treated to some of the best views I have seen it Italy of the wine country, and of corse there was the wine. We tasted more than 10 wines and learned a bunch of fun facts along the way. I can't wait for some dinner parties to throw those out at. Watch out America. We had lunch with typical Piemontese food and wine and then departed for our Truffle hunting adventure.
Nearby we met up with a novice truffle hunter and went hiking through the forest as the dogs searched for truffles. The forest reminded me a lot of Wisconsin, but presently surprised when I turned around from my hike to see the beautiful patchwork of vineyards behind me. The dogs found some truffles and we went back to learn about truffles and of course have a tasting with some red wine. During our informational session the hilarious and borderline creepy guide made a bunch of jokes about Truffles being an aphrodisiac to Jim, the professor that had accompanied us on the trip.
We went back into Torino and spent some time exploring Piazza Vittoria before we, um, ate more at dinner. At dinner Cristina invited her godmother out to eat and we had the chance to meet her (totally separate blog entry for that dinner, that I'm going to submit to Ciao Roma, look out for that).
We went out with Jim to the local pub and had a nice time before again going to sleep early after a full day of visiting Piemonte and Torino. Sunday we woke up and took the bus to Orto San Giulio. Without really knowing much of what we were going to see, aside from a boat tour I was more than amazed when we got there. The lake was breathtaking and the town surrounding it looked as if it was in a movie. We had time to walk around and shop and do all of those fun things, but Zach, Mitch, and I mainly sat and stared into the lake. It made me miss living on the water a lot, one thing I definitely look forward to when I get back to my own little slice of Chicago.
We took a boat tour around the lake, and around the island in the center of the lake. I easily took 160 photos in that 20 minutes. We got to lunch, that was on the aforementioned Island and ate on the terrace overlooking the amazing lake. We got back and didn't want to walk to the buses. Begrudgingly we got on the buses and headed back to Torino to head to the airport. We had longer than we had anticipated to wait for our flight, and hung out had a few Spritz and went made our way back to good old Roma.
We did so much in essentially two and half days, but never felt rushed. We had time to really sit and think, I truly took advantage of it. It was a feast for all of the senses and formed some memories I won't ever forget. It also gave me some awesome ideas of places in the North of Italy to visit after the semester ends. Hats off to Cristina for putting this trip together. It was amazing, a study trip my semester abroad really wouldn't be the same without.
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