April 12, 2025

Torino, Italia

There is a change in the air. My body feels like the barometer has fallen, thus as torn front is approaching. Although it is Saturday we will have Gloria today. Not until 10:00 but she’ll be here until 17:00. So, most of the day is covered.

Looking out the kitchen window you can observe that the ground on the porch is wet. Good indication of rain. But, it isn’t raining and the sky looks more like it is turning blue rather than grey. Must have rain a little earlier this morning. The weather app says some chance of rain this afternoon, and looking more and more like rain as the week progresses.

I took the opportunity to go out to the laundromat and do a load of clothing. The laundromat is a good place to wash as the dryers work so much better than the home dryers. In Italy most of the dryers aren’t vented to the outside, so they have a water collection system. Most tourists don’t understand this and forget to empty the collector. As a result, most dryers don’t dry very well as the water collection system is full. Not an issue at Serra’s but it is elsewhere. However, because of this method, for a reason which remains elusive, the dryers just don’t ork that well.

Clothes cleaned and dried. I return to Serra’s where I pack up everything except for what I need in the morning and what I will wear tomorrow. It was easier than putting everything on the shelf and then packing. Tomorrow, Serra and Pietro return and we go off to an apartment on Via Cavour.

We join Gloria and the girls southeastern side of the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I in front of Gran Madre di Dio. We then walk along the shore of the Po to Giardino Ginsburg, a green area between the Po and Corso Moncalieri, where is find a bench to have a picnic lunch.

Fortunately for us, Gloria has taken care of all the details concerning the picnic. Luisa loves to run around in the park picking all the daisies. There is a family or rather a couple of families here today. They older kids are playing soccer on the grass. Some of them are playing tag. I lay out on a nearby wooden workout bench for a nap, following Amadea’s example, a Luisa brings flowers and puts them all over me. But I rest in peace.

After lunch we walk back to the ponte where we part company with Gloria and the girls, and Mary and I walk towards the macelleria, or butcher shop. The one on Via Della Rocca Serra normall shops at is closed on Saturday afternoons. There is another one we have bought beef at a little closer to Piazza Vittorio called Il Mannarino della Rocca. It is a restaurant that also has a macelleria attached to it. They have really good beef here.

We are looking for a pork loin roast for tomorrow night’s dinner. Now here in Italy the macelleria specialize. Meaning they have beef, lamb, chicken, or pork, but not usually more than one, although chicken seems to pair with beef ok. Serra’s normal macelleria does beef. He doesn’t do pork or lamb. He does offer chicken, however. He was able to order a turkey for her for Thanksgiving last year.

While turkey is a popular dish, rarely is it seen as a whole turkey except for Christmas. Getting one for Thanksgiving was somewhat of a feat. It was however very good. Il Mannarino della Rocca didn’t have pork.

The only pork place we knew of was Agrisalumeria Luiset. Salumeria translates as delicatessen, but that isn’t quite correct. More like a place that makes and sells sausage and salami. Agri is often added before this to indicate farm grown or farm based. Occasionally it is used to indicate artisanal. These guys are artists at making sausages and salami.

The store is little more than a postage stamp, but it is filled with a number of different sausages and salamis. I was having trouble describing what a pork loin roast is until I remembered is os a lonza sciolto. Once the Masonic words came out, the woman behind the counter pointed to it in the case. I then asked for the whole thing, which she apparently thought was way too much, but after asking twice if I meant the whole piece, we agreed that out was ok. The whole roast by the was was 1.132 kilos or 2 ¼ pounds. Not all that big.

Italians don’t generally roast the pork loin but cut it into “steaks” and grill it or cook it in a pan. The lonza was €16,90 for 1 kilogram, which works out to be about $8.71 a pound; expensive by California standards for sure. But this is a very upscale place, the price is probably a lot better had we trekked out to Piazza della Repubblica where “normal” Italians shop. The central district is more expensive in every way.

We also bought some prosciutto crudo. We did get the riserva luiset disossato affettato which was really expensive €47,90 per kilogram; almost $55 a kilogram or $25 a pound, which is the opposite- being less expensive than in California. Tomorrow we’ll found out if they were good buys.

After this we walked back to Serra’s to meet Gloria, and a little later Tiziana. The girls were tired after their long day out. Tomorrow is Gloria’s day off, but Tiziana will stay until 13:30. Serra and Pietro should be home by 15:00.

Everybody is down for the night. We have put in a good walk today. We are tired and a little sore.

Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria