September 23, 2026

Wednesday

Torino, Piemonte, Italia

Our job today is to help with the girls. Serra & Pietro are going to Milano for the night. Gloria will be here until 17:00 and the night nurse comes at 18:00. Nonna Damilia will be here as well. Thursday the process is basically reversed. The night nurse leaves at 07:00. The girls may or may not be up by then, today apparently they slept until 08:30. Whenever they wake up, we will head out to Torteria40 for a cappuccino and brioche, which Nonna Damilia has preordered, so they don’t run out. Gloria will rejoin the posse at 10:00.Serra & Pietro are due back sometime in the late afternoon.

It was a long night. Someone came back to the dorm about 02:30 and decided to take a shower. Even without my hearing aides I could here the shower and the toilet flush. Therefore, I was awake until the silence returned finally about 03:30. After that it was difficult to get comfortable so sleep was in short bursts until about 07:00. The it was time for a shower and to get dressed. Mary managed to stay asleep until 08:00.

I went and tried my hand back in the kitchen to see if I could get the stove top to work. Finally, I figured it out. There was an automatic childproofing lock on the stove top which you had to defeat before you could turn the stove top on. Out came our Italian supply bag. This is a bag we keep at Serra’s so when we stay in AirB&B’s in Italy we have a proper moka pot and a Nespresso Aeroccino 4 frother. Just like the one in Sonoma it makes the prefect foam for a cappuccino. As we are here for only a short time, I stole a tin of coffee from Pietro rather than buy one of my own. He uses a slightly strong version of espresso than we usually do. But it was still very nice to have a good fresh cup on cappuccino.

About 10:30 we headed over to Serra and Pietro’s. Serra and Pietro left shortly after we arrives and Nonna Damilia arrived about the same time. We packed up my backpack with the food for our picnic and headed out so that Monika could get one with the cleaning. We packed up some cheese, salame, sliced cherry tomatoes, a sliced peach, some sliced bread and some prosciutto. We stopped at Carrefour Express on Via Eusebio Bava on the way to the park. There we picked up some water, bottled iced tea, a bag of popped popcorn and some potato chips.

The we walked on to Piazza Via Vittorio Veneto and towards the river. Due to the preparation for the festival this weekend, we actually had to walk a little way in the street because the sidewalk was blocked. We crossed the Po on Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I and to the park on the east side of the river. We have used this park before for picnics. Not really nice but they have picnic tables.

We spread out things out on the table and enjoyed our lunch. Then we let the girls play on some of the exercise equipment installed in the park. After lunch we headed back to Piazza Vittorio Veneto for a gelato. Níva Gelato at the corner of the piazza and Via Giovanni Plana. This is Luisa’s favorite gelato shop. We sat in the shop and enjoyed our gelato before continuing our adventure.

Looking up the hill from the river towards our picnic table.

Looking across the river from the park.

We then headed to Agrisalumeria Luiset for more salame. We are getting some to take to the Valtellina this weekend for Mariaguilia who is hosting a dinner and Mattia for his birthday which is Monday. We purchased four different types of salami to give as a present. Then we continued walking on to Borello Supermercati.

Luisa and I were in the lead and when we got to the store she immediately grabbed a cart and took charge of shopping. Our list was milk and yogurt. We ended up with blueberries and raspberries. We did get the milk and yogurt. Somehow some candy for near the register slipped into the cart.

With our shopping complete we headed back to the house for nap time. Amadea, Nonna and I napped. Luisa watched YouTube on nonna iPad. Just before 17:00 Nonna Damilia returned and Gloria took the girls for a walk.

It was quite a scene. Amadea was having nothing of it. Gloria finally made it out. Nonna Damilia and I started preparing dinner. I got the meatballs out and reheated them, then put the ravioli on to cook. Damilia prepared roasted cauliflower. We served dinner in the kitchen. The girls seemed to love dinner.

Just before 20:00 the night nurse arrived. We turned the girls over to her. She inquired about feeding them dinner, they had already eaten. She seemed disappointed. An Italian eating dinner before 20:00? She bathed them and put them to bed. Serra said they had had a very disruptive night last night and we should be prepared for one to night. So, I went to bed a little before 21:00 thinking I would be up early for the girls.

Buonanotte & Ciao

Enrico and Maria