Oh The Places We’ll Go

After having to change our plans, going to Torino instead of leaving for Spain on Friday, we are back in Milan with 6 hours or so to kill before getting on an overnight train headed to Barcelona.  We haven’t done much of anything for the last few days, mostly because everything is closed around here for the Italians vacationing in much nicer places with better weather.  Torino is a nice place.  Cleaner than some of the other Italian cities we have been in, and much much greener.  The Olympics have definitely made an impression on the city.  You see advertisements for the Olympics everywhere, even two years later.  The metro is spectacularly clean.  You could probably eat off of the floors if you wanted to (which who does?), and the trains are graffiti-less, a first here in Italy.  If you’re looking for some adventure, though, Torino might not be the place to go.  Sure, the Alps are a nice setting and backdrop, but for travelers who need something to DO there isn’t much to offer. 

The highlight of our trip in Torino was our time spent at the Huntsman Pub, a little pub near the Porta Nuova train station where people speak English and follow football.  Lots and lots of football.  We had a chance to catch the Arsenal v. West Brom match on Saturday, which was a cakewalk for Arsenal since West Brom was only recently brought up to the Premier League level after being at what they call the Championship level for a while (think being a Triple-A baseball team playing against a Major League team… easy).  Yesterday was all about football.  The first match of the season for Manchester United was against Newcastle, who are a good team but not nearly as good as the big four: Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool.  It should have been easy for the defending champions both of the premiership and the champions league, but no.  We must have jinxed it.  Or Ronaldo did with his bum knee, the traitor.  We drew.  First match of the season and a 1-1 draw.  Disappointment for sure, but hopefully when Ronnie’s knee is better and Hargreaves tendonitis is gone we’ll be back at full strength. 

We also got to catch some of the Juventus match versus AC Milan, in Italian and none of which we understood.  In Italian football there are four main teams: Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Roma.  Juventus just so happens to be from Torino, so you can imagine which team all of the people in the pub were going for.  Their main guy, Del Piero, is a stud striker who has been playing for the Italian national team for what seems like forever.  The keeper for Juventus is also the keeper for the Italy national team, but he wasn’t playing yesterday. 

It’s crazy watching Italian fans watching football.  Think Boston Red Sox fans, but on crack if that’s even possible.  There are all different kinds of people who come to bars and watch the matches.  Old men, young boys, parents with their kids, grandmothers, anyone and everyone comes together to cheer for their squad.  It’s love and hate all swirled in to one.  It’s like that with any sport for any real fan, though: a constant state of agony.  You’re never completely satisfied.  Even when you’ve won, there is always something you could have done better.  Why did they pull Lincecum out in the 7th instead of letting him pitch the eighth?  Why did Lewis swing at the first pitch?  Doesn’t he know anything?  Agony.  Constant agony.

We saw two good falls, by the way, during our time in Torino.  The first, a motorcyclist trying to show off popping a wheelie going 40 down a street and having his bike slip out from under him.  He slid across the street and after a loud ‘thud’ his bike was no more.  It shouldn’t have been funny but who am I kidding- it was.  The other fall came from an elderly woman in the footballing pub, who was sloshed out of her mind and took a dive going up a step to her table.  She fell, got back up with some help, and then fell off of her chair on to the floor.  Oh, and she dropped a fry on the floor, picked it up and ate it.  Really, it happened.

We left Torino this morning after checking out of our room and watching some Olympic weight lifting.  Yes, weight lifting.  If the Italians are competing in it, they put it on TV.  We leave tonight for Barcelona around 8 and get in tomorrow morning at 9am.  A 13 or 14 hour train ride.  Oh, the joy. 

As for the experience in Italy as a whole, there’s a lot of good and a lot of bad.  There’s a big graffiti problem here.  In the big cities especially, a lot of graffiti.  As much as the cities are beautiful, all of the graffiti takes away from their overall impression on people traveling and visiting.  The food is wonderful here, let me tell you.  Pizza, spaghetti, and bread bread bread.  Sure, you get the good and the bad, but when it’s good… it’s really really good.  It sucks being a tourist, not knowing where you’re going and being in a constant state of frustration and confusion, but you find good people who remind you of home everywhere you go.  I saw a Golden State Warriors jersey while we were at the Colusseum and told the guy I liked his shirt.  Jason Richardson, an oldie but a goodie.  And the guy working the internet cafe in Florence- a Dodgers fan.  Bad decision, for sure, but still cool to talk some baseball to someone.  No one knows baseball anywhere in Italy, but they all wear Yankees hates.  Ugh.

I’m not trying to make a meaning of life out of this or anything; that’s for someone else to do.  God, J.K. Rowling, I don’t know.  What I am saying is that Italy is definitely worth a look for those people who are out there looking for a something, whatever that something is.  Romance, nature, history, food.  Something. 

I should probably go and brush up on my Spanish since I don’t think ‘Hola’ and ‘taco’ are going to cut it in Spain. 

Ciao.

Our travels have brought us to Torino, our final destination (well, stay at least) here in Italy.  We left Milan earlier today after a reasonable stay, relaxing and seeing what they had to offer.  It’s not much, let me tell you.  Milan is a big city with a lot to offer, but again a lot of things are closed because of vacationing, which I believe they call ‘ferie’ here in Italy.  Basically, everyone in Italy up and leaves to go to the coast, places like Nice and Cannes, while the rest of us travelers are stuck trying to find places like restaurants that would normally be close, but are now much further away because of the holiday.

A few observations about Milan that I didn’t have the chance to add before: there’s really not much going on in a city you hear so much about.  I mean, Milan is supposed to be the fashion capital of the world, right?  You would think it would be a more exciting place.  Another complaint: the church where the last supper is.  Sold out for 2 weeks?  They only let 25 people into the church every 15 minutes.  I’m all for crowd control, but when 2 travelers can’t come and see one of the world’s most famous paintings for two weeks because they are worried about crowd control, there is a problem.

Enough about Milan though, let’s move on to Torino.

We have been here in Torino for a couple of hours now and we already have good vibes.  Our hostel was easy to find and the people here are very nice.  We asked about restaurants since everything around here is closed, and the guy at the desk called a few to see if they were open before sending us on our way.  How nice is that?  Good vibes from Torino are also coming our way because it’s RAINING here!  Yes, raining!  After dealing with hot, hot, and more hot, rain is the perfect kind of weather for us right now.  I’m finally able to put on these things called jeans, which I haven’t been able to wear all trip, and they feel great.

As far as Turin vs. Torino, I think the Italian pronunciation of it is Torino but we Americans can’t pronounce words like that, so we call it Turin.  I think Torino sounds much better, personally, but so does Firenze (Florence), Sicilia (Sicily) and Venezia (Venice).

One thing that we are missing right now in Torino is American coverage of the Olympics.  We get the Olympics on the TV here, but it’s all in Italian, which obviously we don’t understand, and all of the athletes featured are the Italian athletes.  A lot of fencing, judo, volleyball, even ping pong.  No gymnastics, basketball, or swimming (mostly for Michael Phelps).

We were able to catch coverage of the 10000m I believe for track, which doesn’t sound like it would be that interesting but both Thomas and I were amazed by it.  Over 20 girls running for 30 minutes faster than the speed of light around a track for something like 25 times.  Nuts.  I could never do it.

I think our plan for tomorrow is to look around and check out the downtown square, hopefully see some of the stuff from the Olympics in 2006, and try to figure out a way to get to the Juventus stadium for Thomas to take pictures.  Oh, and find a restaurant to eat at since nothing is open around here!

Still working on getting pictures up.  I’ll keep everyone posted!

Ciao