Torino

Time for a new blog entry after this exciting weekend. Off we start with Friday night. I really regret living at a busy street, because you hear everything. So come to say that at 3 am I hear a bunch of guys on the street and it turns out they are firefighters, who have to extinguish a trash container lit on fire by some crazy people... No more sleep that night and with sunrise I am on my way to Torino, an Italian city located about 220 km East of Chambéry.

Spritz, just a sip for the driver

The ride was rather interesting. Accompanied by 3 friends (Belium, Dutch and Italian) we experienced drastical weather changes from sunny 16 degrees to rainy 8 degrees within a couple of minutes of driving and a tunnel in between. Added is the fact that my window suffered major diseases when someone broke into my car; meaning the electric window opener does not work at all any more and the window is opened a crack, which widens during driving. The road fees (also called péage) are outragious in France and in Italy. We ended up paying over 70 euros for the use of a tunnel and highways!!!
Finally in Torino we meet the friends of one of my companions. The sky cleared up, the temperature rose and the day began with a Spritz, a typical Italian drink, in a cafe.

Difficult to read, but creative idea

In Italy one still gets little snacks with the order, so we ended up having about 5 plates with little bread pieces and coldcut, LIKE! :) From the cafe we went back and forth through the city at least three times to see the Royal Palace of Turin, other different plazas and buildings. It was absolutely not a tourist tour but really living the city, which is what I love most about visiting a city! In the center one can find sayings, which I guess light up at night, through a whole street. I found it very orignal and would have liked to see it at night.

View onto Mole Antonelliana

My 3 ERASMUS companions Demi, Riccardo and Simon

For lunch we stopped for pizza in the afternoon and enjoyed the sun and the people. Because all of us wanted to have a nice view on the city, we wanted to climb up "Mole Antonelliana", but the line would have taken over an hour. Therefore we quickly decided to grab a six pack and sit on top of a hill to get an even better view.

Thx for that terrific day! =)

After a little nap on top of the wall and almost one and a half hours later we took a little detour through a parc to go back to the car. It really was a perfect day and I am really grateful to Riccardo and his friends to show us around.

All in all it is to say that Torino looks a little bit like Lyon especially the view from the bridge (see pic). However I could definitely tell it was a French city!

After Torino I was invited to a French party on Saturday night, where I was able to speak French for more than 4 hours and one will not believe it, but with every sip of wine it got a little bit easier. Therefore, my weekend ended today with a very relaxed day with a 13km run and home made apple sauce. =)
To another great adventurous weekend!

Cheers