Torino Torino Torino

The thing about going to Italy that excited me most (as with most places I have to confess) was the FOOD!  I am a Foodie, a Food Lover, A Gastronomic Finder! I am a Taurus and I think with my stomach! This is probably the reason that I battle to stay a size 10! 

The first part of my holiday was the Hubby's business trip to Turin where I was his Plus 1, and we stayed in a rather southern part of the city and this did not excite me until we drove past this place!

Eataly

It might not look like much from the outside but when you walk inside . . . Well I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It is a supermarket, deli, market, food store, restaurant (well about 7 restaurants) and and Italian "Woolies" all rolled into one! And I spent almost a whole day 'window shopping' as I knew that we could not buy anything with 2 weeks of travelling ahead of us.

Just hams

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta

ONLY Parmesan Cheese

A small sidebar here:- The people of Turin do NOT speak much English. They are friendly and try, but international tourism is not like the other cities in Italy and so I did a lot of pointing, grunting and nodding.

After all the food staring and salivating I decided to have lunch - this is where the sidebar comes in handy - the menus were all in Italian, and there were things I just did not know how to translate. There are about 7 restaurant stations within this gastronomic sanctuary and the only non Italian speaker was Spanish!

SO, I did what I thought I would only ever do at a Chinese take away, I ordered a number 3 - I had recognised prosciutto as ham! I was offered wine with more gestures and hand signals which I refused - the look of horror was something I thought I would only ever get from my kids when I tried to kiss them goodbye in public so I took the wine. What a fabulous call! The food and wine both danced on my tongue.

I wondered if I could tie myself to the chair and beg for Gastronomic Asylum!

I Am Off To Italy!

I will see you when I am back.

Don't miss me too much

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy

Ciao Baby!

At last a reason to be thankful for the amount of overseas travel that the hubby does! The next trip to Italy includes ME - Thanks to Voyager miles and a birthday. But it leads to the crazies as I need a visa as I am a South African passport holder! So a few calls to my long suffering Travel Agent and throwing myself at her feet while in begging mode I get her to find me a Voyager flight which is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack! Mel, you are a star!

Now a Schengen Italian visa requires you book and pay for your flight, you need a trillion Euros worth of travel insurance, ALL hotels need to be booked, e-mail confirmation from the hotels is required:

(DEAR SIRS/MADAMS  I AM CONFIRM YOU WITH PLEASURE YOUR BOOKING RESERVATION OF 1 DOUBLE  ROOM FROM  FOR 2 NIGHTS AT THE RATE OF EUROS x PER NIGHT INCLUDED A RICH BUFFET BREAKFAST AND PARKING UNTIL AVAILABILITY.RESERVATION NO IS BEING XYZ IN OUR SYSTEM, RESERVATION IS BEING ABC

WE WAITING TO WELCOMING YOU AS OUR BEST GUEST WE REMAIN FOR THE MOMENT WITH OUR KINDEST REGARDS MARCO)
as well as needing everything bar a blood test and my bra size - THEN you may apply to reserve a place to have your visa reviewed! And I have 24 hours to do it! But at least I will be the best guest - thank you Marco!

I am now an expert on the various cities in Italy that we are visiting, the proximity to landmarks and train stations (Oh yes I have to CARRY my own luggage - *GASP*) Hotels range from the flea pits we can afford, to the luxury we desire and about a bazzion in between - so I put a pin in the computer screen (which is never a good thing for the computer screen) and book us the lower-mid-range-pray-for-no-fleas-and-more-than-a-stodgy-roll-for-breakfast Hotel and pray. But I think HEY it's ITALY is there such a thing as a bad hotel? Dodgy, sure but bad? Anywhere in Italy is going to be wonderful (such an optimist!)

But I do these things along with finding passport photos that vaguely resemble me, to getting out my passport with a photo that is so hideous that I just hope that the immigration staff just think I REALLY need a holiday, to booking hopefully undodgy hotels, to getting a flight to.....the list goes on along with looking after the offspring, having the hubby overseas for the 27000th time this year, having some in-laws arriving and having my two kitties "fixed", baking for a cake sale, booking hair appointments and seeing a dear friend out from the USA - oh yes and having to organise the kids for the time we are away remember, I got the crazies and said to the hubby "Shoe! But this is stressful!!" to which he replied from the comfort of the 5 Star hotel in which ever city he was in at the time "Oh this is supposed to be fun, so relax!" 

I may be speaking to him by the time we board for Turino!