April 17, 2025

Torino, Italia

Surprise, surprise, it is still raining. Actually, it is still raining fairly hard. The weather app says it is 12°C but feels like 7°C; 54°F but feels like 44°F. It still indicates severe weather, extreme rain warning, which I can see well from the window.

I called EA+ this morning. They referred me to an “air doctor” whatever that is. Apparently, the doctor will write me a prescription and send it to the pharmacy. There is a charge for it, although the person didn’t know exactly what that would be but did say it could be as high as $300. So, I texted Pietro and suggested we just go to the pharmacy and see if we could convince them to fill it or just give me 11 pills to see me though until I get home.

It is possible to substitute Pantopazole with Prilosec if necessary. I am not really interested in paying $300 and the paying the pharmacy to fill the prescription. The only issue is that I will have to stop taking the vitamin B12 and low-dose aspirin while taking the Prilosec as there are indications of problems when you take these three things together.

So, it is still early and the pharmacy doesn’t open for another hour. We’ll see what happens then. Good news, the pharmacist was more than happy to sell me a box of Pantopazole, which they call pantopazolo. Twenty-exit pills for €0.97. Yes, you read that right 97 certissimi, less than a $1. Thirty pills at home without insurance is about $37.

I also got five boxes of the Voltaren Emulgel, the good 2% stuff. They were about €11 each, which is about one-third of what it is in San Carlos. Socialized medicine is bad? No, I did not attempt to use the Italian medical card. Why? Because the the Voltaren Emulgel is other-the-counter so not covered on the medical card, at least I think it isn’t, and the pantopazolo was less than a $1.

After the farmacia I met Pietro for a quick coffee at Torteria 40. Picked up a breakfast brioche for Mary, and walked back home. The rain had slowed down, but it was still coming down. Mary got up about 10:00, just about the same time I went back down. I didn’t stir until 12:30.

I got up, put in a load of laundry and sat and read my book for awhile, while Mary listened to her book. We played a game of canasta, I have now own six games in a row. I think maybe she will stop playing with me so. Don’t know how I am doing it, I just seem to get the cards.

We talked about dinner and decided to try a Chinese restaurant near the apartment. We ate at Lao, a Chinese place in the quadrilatero near Piazza Madama one a previous trip. But the quadrilatero would be a good hike in the rain, although right now, a good two and a half hours before dinner starts, it has stopped raining. The weather app says the rain is dropping off and should stop by 21:00; although it says the chance of rain between now and then is only 40%, and given it had stopped….  Looking out the window it is still grey and cloudy.

We received a text from Pietro about 17:30 that there will be a mass at Gran Madre at 19:00 for his grandfather who died yesterday. We decided to attend. Gran Madre di Dio (Great Mother of God) is a Neoclassical-style church located just across the river from Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Basically, where the Via Po crosses the Po River, although the name Via Po ends at the bridge, Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I.

The church was built in the early 19th century to celebrate the return of Kind Vittorio Emmanuel I of Sardinia. The Wien (Vienna) Congress of 1814 established the return of Emmanuel I and created or recreated the Savoyard state. Remember Italy didn’t exist until 1864, halfway through the 19th century. The area around Torino was ruled by the Savoia family until Napoleon kicked them out in the late 18th century. Actually the Savoia family ruled a fairly great area which included parts of present-day Switzerland and France.

The church was designed after the Pantheon in Roma, only much smaller. It sits high and slightly above the bank of the river, up a set of majestic steep stairs. Just before the church are the statues of Faith and Religion by Carlo Chelli. Beneath the church is the Ossuary of those billed in the First World War.

Yes it is confusing. Sardinia is a island off the coast of Italy. But, the basis of Italy comes from the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Kingdom of Sardinia was the Savoyard state from 1720 to 1861. The kingdom united the island of Sardinia with the mainland possessions of the House of Savoy. Before 1847, only the island of Sardinia proper was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, while the other mainland possessions (principally the Duchy of Savoy, Duchy of Aosta, Principality of Piedmont, County of Nice, Duchy of Genoa, and others) were held by the Savoys in their own right, hence forming a composite monarchy and a personal union.

Note that the Duchy of Savoy included the Swiss cities of Geneva and Annecy, and the French cities of Chambéry and Montmélian. The County of Nice, well it included Nice and Villefranche. It also included the Principality of Monaco. Things changed in 1847 with the Perfect Fusion formally put Sardinia and Piedimonte, on the mainland, on equal footing. Obviously, this all changed again in the 1860’s when Italy was finally united as a single country for the first time since the Roman Empire. The 19th century was really a complex time with lots and lots of changes going on. Some where related to the Industrial Revolution. Some were related to the fact more and more people were educated. And, people weren’t really happy with absolute monarchy forms of government. All of this is explained and displayed very well in the Museo Nazionale de Risorgimento here in Torino. It takes a couple days to really see the whole thing, but it is really interesting.

So, I got sidetracked, sorry. We attended the mass at 19:00. It was finished by 20:00. We were hungry but it was late. So, we started to walk back to the apartment, but we remembered the butcher shop that is also a restaurant on Via Della Rocca, Il Mannarino. Protein is always a good late-night choice.

We stopped at the shop and went in. It is an interesting concept. They are a butcher shop first and a restaurant second. You get a table number, stand at the counter and look into the butcher case for what you want. You pick you meat or meats, the side dished are on a printed menu, order your wine and water, and go sit down at your table. A waiter brings you your food as it is ready. Meat is sold by weight.

We started with arrosticini. Arrosticini is a class of traditional dishes of skewered grilled meat characteristic of Abruzzo cuisine. They are typically made from mutton or lamb, but we are in Torino  at a butcher shop specializing in beef, so they are made from beef, cut into chunks, about 1 or 1-1/2 centimeters square, and pierced by a skewer. Arrosticini are traditionally cooked on a brazier with a typically elongated shape, called furnacella, which resembles a rain gutter.

As our main dishes Mary chose Gnocchi cacio e pepe, while I chose the cotoletta di pollo. What? That isn’t beef. Yea, but were different. We added a green salad, ½ liter of the house red wine, and a ½ liter of water. The cacio e pepper had all the right flavors, but it just doesn’t go with potato gnocchi, you need to use pici pasta. The cotoletta was very good, for chicken.

Dessert was different. We ordered the cannolo. It was served in a really neat way. The sweet ricotta cheese filling was in a piping bag, or plastic pastry bag, the cannolo on the side, and a small bowl with the chocolate bits and pistachio pieces. It is a good way to keep the cannolo crisp and fresh. Nothing worse than a soggy cannolo. PS Cannolo is singular and cannoli is plural.

The whole meal was less than €50. The quality of the food and wine would easily have commanded more. The service was very good as well.

After dinner we walked home. It started to rain again about half-way home. We got home and played a couple hands of cards before retiring. We’ll have to finish the game tomorrow.

Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria