Thursday, October 23, 2014

Alba shopping

 Alba, Italy is a mecca for European Foodies...the home of Tartufi Bianca (white truffles), Porcini mushrooms, hazelnuts and NUTELLA! 
Started out with a little salad in the piazza...

Tartufi EVERYWHERE....















The truffle festival goes through November 11 with displays and tours every weekend. 



Then there are hazelnuts, porcini mushrooms....                             A 26 euro container of Nutella...

A place that makes cashmere...

Fiat brand chocolates

And oh, have I mentioned NUTELLA? 
Yes, they make it here in Alba and it's the 50th anniversary. 
GIANT containers to teeny tiny containers for your purse! 



Doors in Alba...you never know what's behind them. 



 And a church around every corner...

On the way home, school was getting out. About 4:30. Every day they close off the streets so parents can take their kids home safely. Many nonnas with babies, and I saw TWO Italian grandpas walking home together holding the hands of one lucky little boy. 
View from our hotel room and a look at breakfast in Alba! 


Off to Salone de Gusto in Torino at the Lingotto, then off to Rome! 



Leaving Torino...for now

One more mercado with fresh food and unique items over the weekend in the area across the Po River called Cit Torino, we discovered.
Many, many olives!


 A very interesting natural incense. Smelled great!


We left our little apartment since it was booked for Salone de Gusto over the weekend. Our plans are to see Rome, then when Tim is in Slovakia, I will visit Vienna which is a couple hours away. Before we left, I took another walk around the wonderful city of Torino.





























One thing that was always interesting to me was, while walking along the streets, there are very large doors, two at a time, that can fit a car when opened. They all open to courtyards and you never know what you'll see! Sometimes the view is amazing. 


Piazza Castello in Torino

Earlier in the weekend, we shopped with a colleague of Tim's in the mall called Lingotto, built from the old Fiat factory. The ramps shown here were where they brought the cars up floor by floor as they were built, to the top where there is a rooftop test track. In the mall, they serve as a way to get from floor to floor. Pretty cool! 




Upon leaving Torino, we travelled to Alba, where we had first stayed when we arrived. Beautiful town. Many WHITE truffles, chocolate and wine.On our way to Alba, neither one of us had eaten. We were hoping by default we might just see a BK or McDonald's just to get something quickly. No luck. So we stopped at a little restaurant out in the country, where we had eaten before.

The restaurant owner spoke mostly Spanish, a little Italian and NO English. The menu had a ten euro special with just two choices for the Primo and Secondo. Easy enough. Tim ordered the minestrone. I got the penne con jambon (ham).

For Secondo, they had a burger and something called "fegato". He was not able to explain what it was, just motioned to his waist and indicated that it was a type of veal. Maybe beef? Not sure.
So Tim's burger came. Just a burger, along with spinach. No bun, condiments, anything. Made me giggle a bit.

Then mine came. Interesting sort of meat pieces with onions in a gravy. Tasted unlike anything I had before. Tim tasted it and the look on his face was priceless. He said, "Ew, that's liver!" 
Never having had liver, I didn't know. Wasn't bad. But his face was hilarious! 
Fegato=liver. Now I know. 



Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Random stuff from Italy




I realized today that a few of you don't have Facebook, so I thought I would post some of the things here that I put on FB going backwards.

Adventures in Italia continued...today I finally stopped in to get some gelato! There are gelaterias on every corner here and I just never had the chance...I asked for a fruit one, I know fragola (strawberry) and the young man offered "fico"...hmm. Tasted kinda like kiwi with all the seeds, but he insisted that it wasn't. Tried it on my translator and it came up with "it's cool". LOL. He finally found a picture of one..fico = FIG. 
Good stuff! Something learned every day...

This cup is comprised of 75% melted chocolate and 25% coffee. 
Not sure what it's called but some say it's called Bicirin. 
Seriously, the bottom part is just melted chocolate. 
YUM.
Here we are at the Superga after the train trip up to the top. 

Voila! Italian purse stand! We need these in the US!

Found my favorite gelato place today again! 
Mela (apple) and zinzero (ginger) and limone and salvia. 
YUM.

Wow. The woman who rented us the apartment stopped by with apple pastries - homemade! She did it once a week while we were there! Nice.


Ah yes...I learned how to make coffee the Italian way in our new digs - the apartment. 
Not bad!

First hotel. Here we are! The view from our hotel window in Torino.


Sunday, October 19, 2014

A walk to the Torino symbol -the Mole Antonelliana

If you look at any website or literature about Torino, you will see the symbol of this city it's called the Mole (pronounced Mo-lay). Named for the architect who designed and built it - Alessandro Antonelli. They say a mole is a building of monumental proportions... Begun in 1863 and finished in 1889 after his death. It was originally meant to be a synagogue. 
Walk down this street and you can't miss it...



At one point in time, it was the tallest building in the world...now it is the tallest museum in the world because it houses the Museo Nationale del Cinema. 
Oh and even cooler? Another Eataly Restaurant! 
So I went inside and bought tickets for the museum and of course, 
especially since Tim wasn't with me, a ride to the top!! 

So up we go, in a glass elevator like Charlie, up throw a tiny hole in the dome just the size of the elevator to the top of the Mole. 

We get out and see this...





In the distance, you can even see the Superga...you remember our train trip to the top, right? VERY cool....


On to the museum... 
Great exhibits from the history of moving pictures... 


 To modern day films, horror movies, sci fi and more... Aliens...you know who...
                                    Gremlin...
The creature...

 The Golden Calf from Ten Commandments...
 Recliners to watch old movies....including a very young Sophia Loren. 

Really great museum.