February 10, 2026

Torino, Italia

Last night was actually very nice. There wasn’t any street noise, which we were kind-of expecting. It is a busy area. The bed was comfortable and the temperature in the room was fine.

I got up at 05:00 and took a nice long soak in the tub. Washed up, and got dressed. Repacked a few things. At 07:00 I woke Mary up and said I was going downstairs for breakfast. They have a nice breakfast room, and a fairly good selection of items. I made a cappuccino and took a fresh brioche. I even went for some scrambled eggs. When I was done, I took a banana for Mary and headed up to the room.

Mary was up and getting ready. We are supposed to be at Serra’s about 08:30 to take Luisa to school. Just before it went 08:00 we left the hotel and walked over to the taxi stand at train station. We probably could have walked. The weather was ok, but with the suitcases Mary wanted to take a taxi.

The taxi, as usual, cost 10 Euros, and dropped us off in front of Serra’s at 08:10. We went up stairs and dropped off our suitcases and walked Luisa to school, with Pietro. More like pushed the stroller while Luisa rode, and the three of us walked to school. It is about 2.8 km round trip to school. We stopped along the way to school and Luisa got a brioche.

We checked her into her school and then walked back. Gloria was already here taking care of Amadea when we returned. Serra & Pietro got out as quickly as they could. Gloria packed up Amadea. We sorted out our laundry and headed to the laundromat. It was going to be easier to do it all at once at the laundromat rather then try and use Serra’s washer and dryer.

We loaded the clothes into the washers, three of them. They are 5 euro each. We then walked down the street to the laundry/dry cleaners and dropped off my dress shirts. They will be ready Friday morning and will cost 3 euro ($3.60 each). This is the one Pietro uses so I know they will do a good job. On the way back to the laundromat we stopped at a bar and had a cappuccino and brioche, Mary’s first and my second breakfast.

Mary wondered off to do some shopping and I stayed in the laundromat. As soon as the clothing finished washing, I put it into the dryers. Unfortunately, only two of the four dryers were working. I doubled up two loads and used the remaining two dryers. Mary returned and we waited for the clothes to dry. Once they were dry we folded and packed them up for the walk back to Serra’s. As Mary said, it will be nice to have clean PJs.

The afternoon was spent going to the market, having lunch at McDonalds, unpacked the Moka pot and the frother. Seasoned the Moka Pot. To properly season a Moka pot, you just water in the pot and let it cook, then you make three pots using water and coffee. You aren’t supposed to drink the first three pots, instead you pour each of them out. At this point the pot is ready to make coffee in the morning. I did have to make a separate trip to the market. Pietro said they had lots of coffee, and they do. Just not the Moka grind. They have whole beans for their machine, and a percolator grind.

Gloria showed up with the girls just before it went 18:00. We put bread, beans and fruit for the girls. They ate but not much. Tizana, the night nurse, arrive 19:00 and took over, more or less. Got the girls into the bath, changed them into their night clothes, and eventually got them to bed.

It was an early night for us anyway. We start again at 08:00, well, probably a little before that.

Buonanotte e ciao,

Enrico e Maria