Turin

I have finally arrived in Turin which I have planned to be my home for three weeks. This has come about because James Hannam's brother lives with his girlfriend Emily in Torino and are travelling to Greece for three weeks ending at the end of September. Emily works for GM as the Director of Communications for Europe! Trav and Em both hail from Adelaide but met in Melbourne.

This has worked out super well for me and I am most grateful for their generosity.

Travis picked me up from the train station which was a luxury and after dropping off my gear he took me on a tour of the town. He showed me his favourite lunch, coffee, gelati and sights. Most of which I forgot the next day but as I slowly learn more about the city I am reminded of where he pointed things out.

Torino is a little more touristy than Milan but is probably as touristy as Adelaide! In fact Torino and Adelaide are very similar in size. It's a beautiful city that has had an interesting past.

On the first evening Travis took me to a bar along the river Po for an evening beer while Emily was at the gym after work. It was lovely to sit literally a metre from the river sucking down a beer and communicating in a language that I can speak! They cooked a little BBQ that night to make me feel at home!

A business idea for someone is to import BBQ's to Europe. They all talk about them but don't use Gas ones only disposable ones from the supermarkets!

They have a great apartment a stones through from the Gran Madre which is just across the River Po from the city. In fact it looks over the Piazza Vittorio which is one of the biggest in the city. Turin likes to claim they have had many big things over the years. Their shopping mall (Via Garibaldi) is apparently the longest in Europe (it is pretty long!) and the Mole was the biggest brick structure in its day. They claim that the porticos all add up to around 30kms meaning you can walk around the city without getting wet and cover 30kms. Torino was the capital of Lombardia before Italy united. Even then I think it was the capital for a while. Milan stole its limelight as the largest in the North although Torino hosted the Winter olympics in 2006 and holds many conferences and expos of worldy note.

My days here revolved around exercise (bike riding into the hills and running, food (the Markets at Piazza Republica are amazing!) and doing stuff. Stuff includes internet time, German reading and sketching.

Emily and Trav introduced me to their english speaking friends. They are from all over the place. Katherine is a New Zealander, her boyfriend Falsto is Italian but speaks very good English. Lisa is a graphic designer from London that has lived for 10 years. Brid is from Ireland and an English teacher. Ester is also an english teacher that seems to be the common link between them all. Anyway, they invited me out on Friday night so I joined them for an apertivo and then a meal. It was my first proper Italian meal. They go well into the night and get pretty serious. This was where I met Paulo, the economist. He was pretty impressive in the sense he could speak 4 languages, has worked in London, Spain, Italy and now in the US. It was good company.

Similarly, Katherine and Falsto dropped by on Sunday to see if I wanted to hang out with them at Cafe Fluido in the park on the River Po. That I did and enjoyed a fun evening with them that included Indian, Gelati and many laughs. I'd worked up a pretty serious appetite by riding up to Magone (via Viu) so had 140kms in the legs with 600m altitude climbing. The curry really hit the spot and have me inspired to learn more about indian cuisine.

I'll keep living the Italian dream!