April 22, 2025

Torino, Italia

There are a few of you out there who may question our use of Torino as the name of the city we are in. Due to linguistic deference between Italian and English, the Italian name of the city is Torino. In English it is Turin. Hey, it happens all the time. Firenze is Florence in English. Wien is Vienna in English. Rome is really Roma.

The city derives its name from the Latin “Torinorum” which is believed to come from the Celtic word “tau” meaning “mountain.” The earliest known inhabitants of the area known as Torino today, were the Celto-Ligurian Alpine people who occupied the upper valley of the River PO in the 3rd century BC. The chief town on the Taurini was called Taurasia. It was captured by Hannibal in 218 BC. The Romans established a colony here after 28 BC and initially named it Julia Augusta Taurinorum. It was later shortened to August Taurinorum and finally to Torino.

In doing the research on the name a link was found to the 1956 Olympic Games in Turin. Funny, because they weren’t help in Turin or Torino. The VII Olympic Winter Games were actually held in Cortina d’Ampezzo which is actually the Province of Belluno just above Venice (Venezia). This is about 500 kilometers east of Torino.

The XX Winter Olympic Games (2006) were based in Torino. The competition venues were spread over seven villages (most in the mountainous Province of of Piedmont to the west of Torino. There were nightly medal ceremonies held in Piazza Castello just blocks from where we are staying. The IOC was impressed with the large, happy crowds that the medal ceremonies routinely attracted.

Interestingly the next Winter Olympics (February 6 to 22, 2026) will be held in Milano and again in Cortina d’Ampesso. This will be the first time the Olympic Games will be co-hosted by multiple cities. We’re not going anywhere near Milano, Verona, Bologna or Venezia next winter.

Oh, wait! Harry V will be going to school in Milano next January thru May. Is that just a coincidence? His response is that it was an “intentional coincidence”. That does make some sense.

And, since he is going to be in Italy during this period, and he has the month of January off, we think, we are looking at going to Jordan and visiting Petra, etc. during this month off with him. We have looked at several different tours, but we don’t know his exact date he has to be at school in Milano yet, so still in the planning stages. Our only limiting factor is that the cruise to Japan begins on April 16th.

So, what happened today? Nothing much. We went to Serra’s and sat with the girls in the morning. Took a little walk. Came home, had dinner in the apartment and called it a night.

Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria