Turin: My favorite place in Italy

So I left Verona. I was a little sad because Turin was my last stop. My last adventure. But I was really excited to spend time with my Italian friends. In my opinion, the best times I had was in the cities where I knew natives. So I loved London with Margaret's friends. I loved Munich with Sohae's friends. And I loved Turin with my host siblings Silvia and Enrico. They were so hospitable and wonderful and caring and helpful. It was perfect.

They picked me up at the train station and I was so happy to see them. They took me on the brand new metro that Turin built right before they hosted the Olympics and then we had to drive way out into the countryside to get to Silvia's house, where we would be staying for the next three nights. I was surprised because Enrico (Silvia's boyfriend, possibly fiance) slept over too. I shared the room with Silvia. He shared a bedroom with Silvia's brother. But we drove through the beautiful mountains and I couldn't believe how lovely the countryside was. It wasn't like anything I had seen in Italy before. It was so green. It was breathtaking. We passed fields and meadows and finally got to her neighborhood. Her family's house was so pretty. It was 1.5 stories. And her dad had some awesome vegetation. He had a 150 year old tree and jasmine plants and gooseberry plants and basil plants and so many other wonderful things. And the awesome part was that Silvia's dad was an English teacher! So I didn't feel so left out because they spoke English for me when they could remember. Silvia's mom was okay at English and I think her brother could understand it too. I'm getting all misty eyed just remember it. How kind is that? To speak your second language for a couple days just to make a strange feel welcome and included. I was touched.

But Mrs. Bessone was so nice. She offered to wash any of my clothes and help me with anything I needed. She made some delicious food too. The first night we went out to Silvia's favorite pizza place. And her family treated me to everything. Food and Metro tickets and museum entrances. I honestly could not have been more blessed. So the first night, at the pizzeria, I had pizza with red and green peppers and Silvia and Enrico both had walnuts on their pizza! I thought that was weird but Silvia said it's her favorite topping. And they all had after dinner coffee, but I passed. I didn't want to indulge on their dime (or Euro, shall I say). And I don't really care for espresso. Haha.

But then we went home and took a little walk to see her town. It was very small. We saw the church and the city hall and they showed my the nearby castle. So the story is that once upon a time, a lady and her daughter lived in the town, Reano. One day, the daughter fell in love with a wealthy Egyptian man (?) and he took the daughter away and married her and he had a huge house built for the mother. Mr. Bessone knows the mother and on the day of Mr. and Mrs. Bessone's wedding it was raining, so they called the lady and the lady let them take their wedding pictures in the castle. It was a pretty pink castle and you could see it from far away. It was gated in though, obviously, so you couldn't get that close.

Then later that night, Silvia and Enrico took me out on the town. It was raining pretty hard but that didn't really matter. They showed me along the main road of Turin and I saw the Mole which is one of the iconic monuments of Turin. We walked up and down the street and met up with their friends. Unfortunately, the friends didn't speak English, but I used my Spanish skills to understand what they were saying. So I was able to get by. We went to a bar and I didn't know what to get. So I asked Enrico what a typical Italian drink was. He told me to get an amaretto. It was pretty good. But listen to this. Even though it was a nice bar, and it still only had squatty potties! Remember those? Not toilet, just a porcelain hole in the ground. I was shocked. It was a nice place. I expected better. But it was normal for Silvia and her friend. Gross. After our drinks, we walked a little more and then went home. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in the car. But we got home and went to bed.

Now let me tell you one bad thing about their house. The doors that have windows. The bedrooms and bathrooms and everything had opaque glass windows. It was weird. I was nervous going to the bathroom and showering and everything. It's not like I didn't trust them, it was just a weird thing to encounter.

The next day Silvia and Enrico showed me around downtown Turin. There was a lot of shopping places but we also saw a "palace" which was kind of small but still very fancy. We also went to the royal cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. It is famous because it contains the Holy Shroud, you know, the cloth Jesus was wrapped in after his crucifixion. The Vatican hasn't really confirmed it's authenticity, but it's interesting to think about when you see the images and tests performed on the cloth. We also went to another church that was a cylinder. It was strange looking but still really cool.

I also got to go to Turin's Egyptian museum. It is the largest Egyptian museum aside from the one in Cairo. It was really cool to see some of the mummies and all the artifacts. I got to do this by myself which was kinda nice. I mean I loved spending time with Silvia and Enrico, but sometimes you've just gotta have some time to yourself, with your thoughts.

After that, I met back up with S and E and we headed back to Silvia's house. While Silvia was working on something, Enrico and I watched TV. Up, the Disney movie, was on TV and I made Enrico watch it. But it was only in Italian and Enrico was concerned that I might not understand it. I told him not to worry. I had seen it so many times that I pretty much had it memorized. So we watched most of it and it was funny to anticipate the scenes and try to understand the dialogue and then hear Enrico laugh.

That night there was some election in Italy for issues about nuclear power, privatization of water, and whether the Prime Minister can be infallible. So I walked up to town with Silvia and her mom and they voted and then we walked around a little bit more and tried to visit Silvia's aunt, but she wasn't in. Then we went home and Mrs. Bessone made a yummy dinner. To be a good host, I ate everything. Dinner started off with some thin bread sticks and slices of lunch meat. Now, normally I am not a fan of lunch meat, but I ate it to be a good guest, and guess what? I liked it!! Then had some pasta dish and homemade ice cream! Mr. Bessone also made me try some of his homemade liquor. There is this popular alcohol in Italy called Limoncello. It's just lemony hard alcohol. So we each had a bit of that, then he brought out this mint liquor. It was fresh mint leaves and alcohol and sugar cubes that basically just sat and fermented or something. And man, was it strong. All you did was take a alcohol soaked sugar cube and put it on your tongue. But it was SO strong, but good.

After dinner Silvia, Enrico, and I decided to play a board game. We played Italian Risk! It was so much fun. Like, honestly, so so so much fun. It was just so American, but not really. Who knew that across the world, I could feel so at home and so comfortable and so normal? Who knew that kids from Italy played the same games I did growing up? We had so much fun and laughed so hard and got a little slap happy. It was wonderful.

The next day (6-13, my last day) was Silvia's birthday and we all slept in a little which was nice. We met up with Silvia's dad near his work and had lunch at a restaurant. Again, they paid. Again, they all had a coffee after dinner and I said no thanks, but I was definitely kicking myself after I left the restaurant because I was already feeling drowsy and we had a long day ahead of us.

We had planned to do all sorts of outdoorsy stuff. So we left the restaurant and Silvia, Enrico, and Silvia's brother Simone, headed to the mountains. We drove and drove and it was beautiful. The mountains, the fields, the houses, everything. It was kind of like Germany, because it was in the Alps. We drove up and up and finally reached a huge old monastery. Sadly, it was closed that day but we still got to hike up and look around and then hike down. From there we drove down the mountains and parked the car and walked around a beautiful lake and then we went to go visit Mrs. Bessone at the post office where she works. Then we drove through some fields and pasture and saw another monastery and they were just so adorable yet beautiful. It looked like it could be straight out of Sound of Music. Then I think we headed back home. I helped Silvia make a dessert for dinner and Mrs. Bessone made dinner. We ate and had a wonderful time and then Silvia, Enrico, and I watched The Day After Tomorrow. It was so late that we didn't finish the movie, but just went to bed since we all had to get up early the next day.

So I got up early and said my goodbyes and Mrs. Bessone drove me to the train station which took me to Turin, which took me back to Bergamo. I took the bus back to the airport and flew back to Alicante.