Transition Day
San Siro to Torino, Italy
Buongiorno, there is a buzz of activity this morning. Adults in and out of the dining room, young adults seemingly missing. The cars will be here at ten. Who is going in which car where? Finally, the children are about looking for their shoes, air buds, phones everything and yet ignoring packing their luggage. As usual as the cars are pulling through the gate it all gets pulled together.
Everyone is saying goodbye, see you soon, or next year. Marian and Carmen are headed directly to Malpensa for their flight to Sicily. Taylor, Rachel and Leander are headed to Milano for a few days. Harry IV, V, Rochelle, Grace, Oliver, Mary and I are headed into Torino. Harry IV and family are staying at the NH Hotel in Piazza Carlina. Mary & I have an Airbnb less than a mile away. Damilia and Pietro are headed to Torino also. Damilia has an airbnb not too far from ours. Pietro will head home, which is also not too far.
Torino, or Turin in English, is the capital city of the provincia or “state” known as Piedmont. The city has been a significant business and cultural center since the Middle Ages. The House of Savoy, in various forms, has ruled the area since the middle of the sixteenth century. The city is mostly located along the Po River which is a four-hundred-mile-long river ending near Venice.
Torino is often called the “cradle of Italian liberty’ as it was at the center of the political and intellectual of the Risorgimento that lead to the unification of Italy in the 1860’s. During World War II is lost much of its significance as a seat of power as it was the centre for the Italian resistance movement against the fascists. Moving ahead one hundred years Torino has become a major European crossroad of industry, commerce and trade. It is part of the industrial trainable along with Milan and Genoa. With a GDP of $58 billion dollars it is ranked as the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power. The metropolitan area has approximately 2 million people.
Torino is home to much of the Italian automotive industry, hosing the headquarters of Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo. It is also a city of art galleries, restaurants, churches, palaces, opera houses, piazzas, parks, gardens, theaters, libraries and museums. Its architecture ranges from Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical to Art Nouveau. The historical center of Torino is on the World Heritage List of places as the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. The Museo Egisto is said to have the best collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Cairo. The Mole Antonelliana, the city’s architectural symbol hosts the National Museum of the Cinema.
Torino also hosts some of Italy's best universities and colleges, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, and the Turin Polytechnic. Guess where the Shroud of Turin is? There are two football, soccer clubs, in Torino; Torino and Juventus. Although as it is understood from the children and grandchildren Juventus really isn’t much of a club anymore. Such as the fortunes of professional seaports. Torino has hosted the 1990 FIFA World Cup, 2006 Winter Olympics, the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest and is hosting the ATP Tennis Finals from 2021 to 2025,
Unfortunately, one of the things that comes with along the PO River valley is very poor air quality. Torino is among the worst. The air quality is said to be four times worse than the minimum standard to air quality posted by the World Health Organization. Most of the pollution is from automobiles, but there is also a lot of industrial and animal pollution. It is one of the things that comes with being an industrial and agricultural center. Those of us who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960’s & 1970’s, when the air “could be cut with a knife” this doesn’t seem bad. It is bad, just seen worse.
Wed did get on the road as it had just gone quarter past ten. Ours was the last vehicle out the driveway. It is about 200 kilometers from Villa Camilla to our airbnb. Most of the route is on the A4, super highway, between Milano and Torino. Honestly there was a little napping going on during the route. A stop was made about an hour and a half into the journey at one of the many Autogrill service stations on the A4. It was a good break from riding, it allowed some relief, and the hungry grandchildren who missed breakfast were able to get some sustenance.
The first stop was the NH Hotel Piazza Carlina, which is actually in Piazza Carlo Emanuele II, to drop off Harry IV and family. Once they got Harry V checked in, Harry V rode with us the 650 meters to our airbnb so he could help with the luggage. When we arrived at the airbnb Debora, the host, actually met us just outside the door on the street. She was exiting as we were entering. Check-in is 3 pm, but she said we were welcome at drop off the luggage now.
The luggage was safely stowed in the airbnb we walked back to Piazza Carlo Emanuele II. Serra and I had gotten a sandwich somewhere in this piazza, once. Fra Diavolo Pizzeria in one of the corners of the piazza look familiar and the thought that this was it ran through my mind. Mary confirmed we had eaten here before. Rochelle, IV, Grace and Oliver joined us, and we had pizza for lunch.
Once the piazza arrived, it occurred to me that we had been here before, and it wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience. The pizza is good, it is just one of those places that like to put a personal touch on everything. Personally, the traditional is more to my taste. After lunch we walked back to the airbnb. We got our wash together and headed out to a near by lavanderia a gettoni, Lav@sciuga. Lavanderia a gettoni is a a coin or token (gettoni) operated laundromat (lavanderia). Lavasciuga translates are washer dryer, thus the name. Cute isn’t it?
It has been a long time since there was a need for a laundromat. Jim and I used one in Berlin, but it was put your credit card in the machine, select your machine number and the machine started. It covered soap and everything. Since Jim’s card was used there is no recollection of the cost. However here it was €5 to run the small washer, and another €5 to run the dryer. Honestly the dryer was €1 for ten minutes, but as we all know nothing dries in ten minutes.
The clothes were loaded into the machines. Yes some people separate colors, even in a laundromat where is costs €5 per machine. While the washers were running, Mary sat and played word and I walked around the corner to the Supermercato CRAI. We needed coffee, milk, yogurt for breakfast in the morning. After the dryers were done extracting our last euro, we folded the clothes and took the back to the airbnb.
We played a game of canasta, Mary won this time, before retiring. The bed was not the usually Italian granite slab but actually a nice soft bed. We have three bedrooms, Taylor and Family were going to original stay with us, in which to spread out. By 9 pm I was gone and it was only 10:30 pm by the time Mary went down. Both us, it will turn out, slept for ten plus hours.
Photo of Mole Antonelliana
Buonanotte and Ciao, Enrico
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