The neighborhood and "the palace"

 Took another walk around the neighborhood today...

This is the little courtyard out the back door of our apt.
                                                                     This little old couple is straight across and they grow                                                                              amazing things on their balcony. They come out every morning, mostly it's him, to tend to the garden and they close the doors and windows once again.
Kind of like the little old guy in Under the Tuscan Sun. They never wave or even look up.

 A couple more sights on my walk - Collegio and a cool church.

A park that I went to called Parco di Valentino, didn't get too far...lots of thugs around...going back tomorrow to see the castle. In the meantime, these are called I Toretti, little bulls, they are the traditional symbol of Torino - bulls, that is. And every little drinking fountain in parks around here have a bull on it or as the spigot. Their appearance is connected with an old legend dated from ancient times when the taurus (the bull) died at the feet of the village after he had defeated the dragon.

 Grocery shopping....lumaca (escargot) and Limoncino!!                                                                            Yum.

OSCAR Bernard Shaw??

Went back to Parco del Valentino...along the banks of the Po River. 

Massimo Taparelli Marquis d'Azeglio (Turin, 24 October 1798 – Turin, 15 January 1866) was an American politician, Patriot,painter and writer Italian.

Castello del Valentino

Residences of the House of Savoy, very cloudy day! 

The River Po

Borgo e rocco Medievale, a medieval village that was reconstructed back in the 19th century...

the entrance with drawbridge. 

 Fountains, one is a modern tree art piece, the other functional. 

The buildings, castle and fortress were modeled after others in the area. It was all built in the 1880s as part of the Italian Exposition, but was supposed to be torn down in 1942 after another exposition. 

 

The chapel, where I saw a group of young 20 somethings attending a friend's wedding. She had flowers in her hair....

 A guy walking his Newfie...

La Rocca or the fortress

Many gardens are in the Parco del Valentino as well as an indoor botanical garden....

Fassendo un passagiatta...taking a walk.

 Took a walk to il mercado today...the daily market a couple streets away.
Wow. Clothes piled up on tables, merchandise like cell phone covers, toys etc....and of course FOOD!
There were tons of fresh verdure - vegetables - pastry, even meat and pizza.

 Lots of great looking funghi - mushrooms - and yes, many things I'd never seen. SO neat.

 Then I walked in the other direction, over to Porta Nuova, the train station, which is also a pseudo mall around here. Lots of stores and a McDonald's!
And lots of people watching the schedule, coming and going....

The tram to La Superga

Up the hill/mountain....cute little tram/train with several cars. 

Took about 15 minutes to go up....great view but misty even at 2pm down on the city! 

I have more pictures on my camera that I will load...

So the tram dropped us off but not at the top...kind of a walk up to the top still....
Nothing like the bike tour we saw up there! Can't imagine riding up that way! Wow.
THEN Tim decided he would climb the stairs inside the church to get to the top. No thanks.

We wondered what it would be like if they just let go on the brake on the way down....a little boy was there with his dad, the train driver. SO cute...kept blowing the very high pitched whistle!

Dinner and shopping later. Don't know if you can see it clearly, but the left picture is at a restaurant where we ate. This is an actual pig LEG, hoof and all, that had been dried and cured. Tim insisted on having the 20 euro prosciutto from it. They have a napkin over most of it and they didn't cut it in view of anyone. Honestly, we thought it was fake! 

 Converse tennis shoes are big here. These are around 100 euro! Wow.
 Interesting fur hats with "ears". 

We had to cross the Po River to get to the tram. This was a pair of statues at the bridge. Cool.
The actual city/village over the river and going up the hill was much nicer and newer.

An apartment in Torino!

Since we will be here fairly regularly, we wanted to be able to find a place to unpack the six weeks of clothes we brought, do some laundry, relax and for Tim, have a bowl of cereal! This is on via Sant' Anselmo in Turin...No. 8. When I looked for a place, I wanted one in a neighborhood, but especially with a balcony. Oh, and TWO bedrooms for the snore master. Here is a view from the little balcony.

Upon researching, the owner - Giusi - pronounced Juicy! - assured us there was coffee. 

Well, not exactly what we are used to in the US. She taught me how to turn on the gas, then how to make the coffee in the um...thingy. Came out great! Watered down with a little hot water! 

This is a view of the living space, kitchen on left, one of the two bathrooms with the washer on the right. TWO bedrooms and another bath too. Nice. 

 Another view of the neighborhood....the rounded tops of the windows belong to a synagogue.

We discovered that all synagogues in Italy are guarded 24/7 since 2001. The feature on his cap makes him look very menacing! I walked the neighborhood a bit. The guards make you feel safe, but sometimes there are leering Italian guys standing along the sidewalk....eek. Plus, I was worried with my AWESOME sense of direction, I would probably get lost. Stopped in and bought a piece of pizza ala funghi, prosciutto that happened to have a couple grapes in it....not bad! 

San Remo on the Mediterranean...

So from Alba we drove THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS down to San Remo, Italy 

on the coast of the Mediterranean. About an hour from Nice, France and Monaco. 

After one misfire on a hotel, we found this gem called the Royal Hotel of San Remo. 

Reminded me quite a bit of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island inside. 

Outside on the balcony, here was the amazing view! 

 The veranda below there is attached to someone's ROOM. Another on the other side had a hot tub.
 Wow.

Before dinner, we had drinks which always are accompanied by nuts and many little munchies. I learned that my favorite drink is called a mirtillo ross and vodka! (Take a guess!) We had dinner on this patio, overlooking the pool and ocean, Tim had steak and I had lamb chops "agnello",  finished off with probably the BEST dessert I've ever had....I have a thing for meringue, whipped cream and raspberries. WOW. 

The turn down service includes a little linen next to the bed that says "Good Night" and complimentary slippers. 

The next day, we sat by the sea water pool, right above the ocean.

It was really warm in the pool too! 

San Remo, like Monaco and Nice, has a Vegas flavor to it. A big casino near the hotel...

we walked the back streets to dinner and came upon this cool church. 

                                         Another view from the pool. Interesting "Ombrelli".

Beautiful place we hope to return soon...now back to reality, a new apartment!