February 26, 2026

Thursday

Torino, Italy

One relaxing day. Didn’t even go out for coffee. Had coffee right here in the apartment. The morning was spent working on the blog. Mary had an 11:30 lunch with Serra, so she left about 11:20 to meet Serra. I went to the store and bought some chicken cutlets, cheese and pasta. I came back and made my lunch. I tried to nap but that wasn’t going to happen, so I spent the early afternoon looking into different neighborhoods to stay in next time we are in Torino.

Mary got back just after it had gone two. We walked down to Flying Tiger because she wanted to get things for the girls. We stopped in the pharmacy at the far end of Via Po and got some Voltaren Gel to take home. It is cheaper here, and you can get 2% here and only 1% in California. It is €12 for 100 grams of 2% here, and 100 grams of 1% is about $34 in California at Walmart. I can also get Voltaren Advance, the pill form without a prescription here for about €6 for 20 pills. They are only 25 mg so I have to take two. Even with insurance they are more in California, but I do get 50 mg.

The United States may have the most advanced health care, but it also the most expensive. You also need a prescription for so many things which are over the counter here. There really should be a balance somewhere between the two.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at Agrisalumeria Luiset and bought a salumi Cordino Rosso. This is a typical raw salume from the Terre Alfieri hills, Southeast of Torino near Asti. It is made with pork and seasoned with honey, black peppercorns, coarse salt, and local Nebbiolo wine. There is no claim that it is natural: it contains nitrates. However, it is really good. Luisa likes it but she picks out the peppercorns.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at the market and got some bread, more milk, and some more mandarin oranges. We thinking all we need for dinner was some bread, salami and cheese. We went to Serra’s about 16:30. Played with the girls for a little while, picked up my shirts which I left the in closet, and headed back to the apartment.

We looked over some of the rental places together. Nothing really hit our fancy. I was looking across the river near the Gran Madre church. It isn’t too far some Serra’s but slightly less expensive. We will be getting more than 25m2 this time. So I spent some time looking at other neighborhoods. Especially ones off of the metro line but further away from the historic district. They didn’t see much less expensive but you got more room.

Then we got thinking that maybe we don’t need an apartment in fall. We will go directly to Prague and Vienna, and then to the Valtellina for birthdays/grape harvest/wine bottling. The we are off to Spain and Portugal. We will be back from Portugal on October 21 in Milan. The end of October is usually olive harvest. So we may end up in Loro Ciuffenna. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Susan Longhito is coming to Italy and maybe in Milan about the time we return. She wants to visit Torino. So we maybe heading back to Torino. However, we have to be back in Miami on November 9th for the Amazon cruise.

We had our bread and salami, played a game of canasta and called it a night.

Buonanotte e Ciao,

Enrico and Maria