(September 8th-13th) It almost seems as if this is a yearly migration for me. Come the end of the fiscal year, I take off for a month long trip, and the last few times it's been a month to Europe for work. As exciting as that may sound, keep in mind that these trips are usually so full of work that sight seeing isn't a possibility; however, since I've had too many trips in a row like that, I deliberately scheduled some easy days to enjoy the scenery.
The first stop of my trip was Torino, home of the winter Olympics a few years ago. Never having been to Italy before, I was very excited. At the same time, though, it was definitely a foreign experience compared with visiting England or even Germany. Apparently, knowing Latin provides no help whatsoever in understanding conversational Italian. Go figure! The people of Torino were very welcoming, though. After leaving the airport, I was highly dependent on the kindness of strangers to get onto the right train, then to the right buses. Google Maps, uncharacteristically, failed me in helping me navigate. Luckily, this kind old lady, slightly hunched over, who didn't speak any English took me by the arm from one bus stop to the next, including helping me on and off of the crowded buses. Super sweet.
Torino itself was slightly disappointing. Generally, I have a preconceived notion of European cities having a classical, old feeling about them. But Torino, it was almost modern. The conference center was in the Olympic Ice Hockey stadium:
As you can imagine, the acoustics were pretty bad in the conference rooms. Trying to hear the speakers became quite a burden at times.
The rest of the city was a mixture of historical and modern, a strange juxtaposition if there ever was one. On the outskirts, larger, mid-centruy blocks of apartments had been built, but inside the old city center, everything old seemed to have a new facade.
As I often try to do in new cities, I tended to get up early and to take long walks out of my way as I traveled to my daily destinations in order to take in some of the sights, such as Santa Rita da Cascia
Chiesa Cattolica Parrocchiale Santa Teresa, plus an art installation in front of it:
Giardino Andrea Guglielminetti, and old fortification that is now mainly frequented by dog walkers
Piazza Castello, and the front of Madama Palace, the old seat of the one-time rulers of Italy.
And the back of the Madama Palace (your eyes are not mistaken, it looks about 400 years older on one side than the other...).
The film museum. This originally was built as a synagogue, but the owners ran out of money near the end of construction and turned the building over to the state.
And a few views of the film museum from I Giardini Reali...
Another thing that struck me was that oftentimes there was an eclectic mix of WW2 era apartment blocks juxtaposed with ultra-modern green condominiums, such as the next two pictures from different directions at the same interesection
And finally, the public fountains. Everywhere there were these charming little bull fountains (little bull being the English translation since Torino means little bull in Italian)
Still to come from Torino: the food, running, film museum, and the Egyptian museum...
The first stop of my trip was Torino, home of the winter Olympics a few years ago. Never having been to Italy before, I was very excited. At the same time, though, it was definitely a foreign experience compared with visiting England or even Germany. Apparently, knowing Latin provides no help whatsoever in understanding conversational Italian. Go figure! The people of Torino were very welcoming, though. After leaving the airport, I was highly dependent on the kindness of strangers to get onto the right train, then to the right buses. Google Maps, uncharacteristically, failed me in helping me navigate. Luckily, this kind old lady, slightly hunched over, who didn't speak any English took me by the arm from one bus stop to the next, including helping me on and off of the crowded buses. Super sweet.
Torino itself was slightly disappointing. Generally, I have a preconceived notion of European cities having a classical, old feeling about them. But Torino, it was almost modern. The conference center was in the Olympic Ice Hockey stadium:
As you can imagine, the acoustics were pretty bad in the conference rooms. Trying to hear the speakers became quite a burden at times.
The rest of the city was a mixture of historical and modern, a strange juxtaposition if there ever was one. On the outskirts, larger, mid-centruy blocks of apartments had been built, but inside the old city center, everything old seemed to have a new facade.
As I often try to do in new cities, I tended to get up early and to take long walks out of my way as I traveled to my daily destinations in order to take in some of the sights, such as Santa Rita da Cascia
Chiesa Cattolica Parrocchiale Santa Teresa, plus an art installation in front of it:
Giardino Andrea Guglielminetti, and old fortification that is now mainly frequented by dog walkers
Piazza Castello, and the front of Madama Palace, the old seat of the one-time rulers of Italy.
And the back of the Madama Palace (your eyes are not mistaken, it looks about 400 years older on one side than the other...).
The film museum. This originally was built as a synagogue, but the owners ran out of money near the end of construction and turned the building over to the state.
And a few views of the film museum from I Giardini Reali...
A few things that struck me about Torino were the plazas. You could be walking through a dense maze of narrow streets, and all of a sudden everything would open up on a gorgeous plaza, larger than a football field, filled with statues, sun bathers, or tourists enjoying the site.
Another thing that struck me was that oftentimes there was an eclectic mix of WW2 era apartment blocks juxtaposed with ultra-modern green condominiums, such as the next two pictures from different directions at the same interesection
And finally, the public fountains. Everywhere there were these charming little bull fountains (little bull being the English translation since Torino means little bull in Italian)
Still to come from Torino: the food, running, film museum, and the Egyptian museum...
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