we continued walking, saw the university, the main building of which apparently appears in architectural textbooks as an example of "what not to do". here we met her fiancé for lunch. the place was called shortbus (after the movie, i was told), which initially concerned me. but it ended up just being an artsy little cafe/resto with an out-there bookshop. we continued walking, where i saw the palace, the "castle", and the church without a façade. simona was an excellent tour guide, telling me all about the city's traditions and history. when italy was unified in 1861 it became the first capital and the king of turin became the king of italy. also the city is famous for its roots in magic. at the gates of the palace there are two equestrian statues (the gemini twins) that are said to mark the boundary between the good and evil parts of the city. another part of the city has a fountain that shows black magic triumphing over white magic, pretty unusual. also, according to this website i just found turin apparently forms a triangle of white magic, along with lyon and prague. who knew!
as the afternoon went on we saw the rest of the city, including the mole antonelliana, the symbol of the turin. you can see it in the distance at right; it's interesting in that halfway up the tower portion there's a full neoclassical facade. we paused at the famous caffè al bicerin (above) to sample its namesake. we continued on and crossed the river po for a look back at the city. (turin, like lyon, has two rivers.)at this point we met up again with simona's fiancé and some of their friends for a delicious pizza dinner before the comedy show. i hadn't planned on going but after hearing about luttazzi, who berlusconi has banned from tv, i ended up using their extra ticket to see the show. perhaps not one of my best decisions, as the show was over 2 hours and my italian's a little rusty (read: nonexistent). apparently it was very funny. after this we met up with other friends for drinks across town, where i spoke french and english (thank goodness!) before catching the bus back to simona's neighborhood.
the next day, my last in italy, i think i got a taste of typical italian lifestyle. i had a small breakfast before heading out to do a little shopping. saturday is market day and so we got our bread and pasta as well as henna for simona's hair (so italian!). we came back to simona's for lunch where her parents had prepared an amazing lunch - spaghetti with homemade pesto sauce, a salad (eaten after the main course) with maybe the most delicious oil and vinegar i've ever had along with a soficcino (sp?), something like a fried pizza pocket. then they offered me focaccia and cheeses and fruit to end the meal. how could i say no? then simona's aunt came to join us for the requisite after-meal coffee and see simona again before she left. a very sweet woman, she tried very hard to communicate with me (did i mention no one in their family speaks english? and only simona speaks french) and gave me her email so we could be friends on facebook. simona and i went to her grandmother's apartment, about a block away, for our coffee. she's a typical sweet old italian grandmother, kissing me on the cheek as i walked in the door. she proudly showed me the view of the city - pretty impressive - before doting on us and giving us coffee and sweets. she even gave me a bag of cookies to take with me. what an adorable woman.
after being thoroughly spoiled by simona's family we headed back into town to see the egyptian museum, one of the city's biggest landmarks. it's the second in the world after cairo, and certainly very impressive. there were entire rooms filled with monumental stone statues, not to mention mummies and room after room of smaller artifacts and hieroglyphics. we (now four, with simona's boyfriend and his friend) continued back through the center of town where we had tea at the famous caffè reale, inside the palazzo. the decorations consist of cabinets full of the king's china.just past the palace is the duomo which houses the shroud of turin. we had to wait for mass to let out and then we were able to see the glass case covering the box that holds the shroud. it's only taken out about every 10 years (with the exception of 2000, being a very big year) but they have giant photos and x-rays on which you can see the outline of the shape. so i suppose i can say i saw it, in a matter of speaking.
we continued on, getting hungry, and opted for a dinner at an aperitivo. we doubled back across the city near the university where they're plentiful. we went to one that's particularly popular, la drogheria. it was so popular in fact that we ended up eating outside but the food was delicious - pastas, pizza, vegetables, polenta. we had thirds. after chatting over our drinks we headed back to simona's and i bid farewell to the city. i think turin was one of my favorite cities; it really surprised me. but then again perhaps it was because i had such an excellent tour guide and host. it was a nice way to round out my time in italy.the next morning we left early for the train station and had our last italian coffee before the train. the first leg i spent sitting between two small families, which was entertaining to say the least. the view passing through the mountains was lovely and i was admiring the clear sky (simona tells me this is normal; italy is the land of the sun) along the way. just as we were approaching (or maybe at) the french border our train made a particularly long stop. in typical italian fashion they waited until about 25 minutes later to tell us to get off and board another train to lyon. literally in the span of that half hour, the clouds rolled in and by the time i got on the second train, the sky was completely covered. welcome to france. the next train was direct to lyon where i arrived and was greeted by gray skies and drizzle.
now it's time to settle back in and remind myself why i like this country, too.
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