So, oh my god, we leave Sunday. Today's Friday. I've once again put myself in the position of having seventyquadrillion blog posts left to do before leaving the country.
Oops.
My plan is to get all of these written and them have them post automatically, so there isn't a glut of like 8 posts in one day (as if I'll get 8 posts finished in one day), so don't get confused if Sunday comes and goes and there are still Italy posts arriving, 'k?
Mama Bear hadn't even been in town twentyfour hours before we were packing her onto a train for northern Italy. Time was short!
She wanted to see her some Alps, but on the way we convinced her to make a stop in Torino (Turin). Though we had some wonderful advice about lovely places to go in the Piemonte, (thanks, Rick!) we didn't have a car or much time this trip, so in the Piemonte we just stuck to Turin.
At least we had a ridiculous picnic?
Tomatoes and homemade hummus and babaganoush and sausage (from Matera!) and 'nduja (from Cosenza!) and caperberries and tap wine and oranges and pears and gorgonzola and parmigiano and three different types of bread and I think that must have been it. Mama Bear was quite impressed with our collapsing wine glasses. Yummy picnic - thumbs up, Husbear.
After like seven hours of travel, we arrived in Torino late afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Hotel San Carlo. Turned out to be in a perfect location, and they even gave us two rooms for the price of one since they didn't have a triple available.
Though the guidebook's characterization of the place as "scrupulously clean" may have been a bit outdated...
First stop upon leaving was to get poor confused jetlagged Mama Bear some coffee. We stopped at one of the very old-school grand caffes on the piazza in front of our hotel and ordered her a Bicerin - coffee with chocolate and cream. And likker, though we ordered it senza.
She liked it muchly.
We walked up towards the area of town that looked most likely to house good restaurants. Torino looks very much northern European - definitely different than Florence. We wondered what the city looked like before the Olympics, since it looks newly spruced up. Our Rough Guide was hilariously out of date, describing traffic-free piazzas as "choked with cars" and one immaculate space as a giant hole in the ground awaiting a new car park.
We think the loggias are a great idea that should be adopted in the southern US.
I found myself really liking Torino already. It was open and full of air. The buildings here are of a completely different style than we've grown used to - back to the Baroque!
And neoclassical! (Check out the wide-angle on our new little Canon SD800 IS... we love love love. Wave hi to your new fans, little guy!)
At 7:45, the town had barely started thinking about the evening meal. Bars were bustling with a crowd of attractively-dressed Torinese, drinking dainty cocktails and munching on buffet-style hors d'ouevres.
We, however, were hungry. Yummy picnic lunches don't stick with you forever! There were lots of really nice-looking restaurants around - definitely the type of city that caters to a lot of discerning locals, not just tourists coming in from out of town wanting bistecca fiorentina and crostini toscani (I'm looking at YOU, Florence!). We actually saw Argentinian and Mexican restaurants!
We decided on Tre Galli, based on their yummy-looking menu and 73-page wine list. 73 PAGES, people!
Nice bread basket - with olive bread and the Piemontese breadstick, or grissini.
We ordered a delicious Dolcetto, Diano d'Alba La Lepre (2004, if you're counting), and split a delicious but tiny sformato di asparagi con fonduta. That's asparagus pudding with melted cheese sauce. We wanted more.
Moving on - a maltagiata con ragu' di mare. This was a bit of a disappointment - the pasta was cooked well, but the seafood sauce was pretty bland. Matter of fact, for me the overwhelming taste was of the flat-leaf parsley garnish. Meh.
The orecchiete were better - but they better have been, since they were topped with speck and gorgonzola. I mean, smoked cured ham and blue cheese? That's like the best combination there is! The fava beans, though deliciously fresh and in season right now, were totally overpowered.
Too bad the pasta was way undercooked.
After all this food, we were totally full, and decided once again to drink our desserts. When our waitress told us they had an amaro (bitters) made in house, an involintary "oooh!" escaped my lips... and the waitress totally imitated me. I really deserved that.
The amaro was clear! Wierd! And it tasted like flowers. I dunno... I still like my amaro del capo.
By the time we left the restaurant, near 11 PM, the streets were totally full of people strolling and enjoying the cool evening. A beer tent was set up outside of a bar, and Husbear stood in line to get us a couple.
While Husbear was waiting for his beer at the front of the line, two gypsy kids (age of 12? 14?) sidled up next to him. When their requests for free tequila were met with "vai!" or "Go away!" they waited until the bartender's back was turned and poured themselves shots! Ballsy.
The walk home was really pretty. We flexed our cameras trying to capture Turin by night.
Good night, Torino! We'll see you in the mo'nin.
