Torino With Friends

Wednesday, 13 June, 2018

Laurie and I were off bright and early in the morning for the two hour drive to . . . 

. . . Torino

Or as the English speaking world calls this delightful Piedmont city, Turin.

It would be my second visit of any substance to Torino, Laurie's first.

We stayed at this nice hotel,

the Loger Confort Residence & Apartments,

near the Porta Nuova train station 

The main reason for this journey was to meet up with friends and former Rio Mesa H.S. colleagues, Deanna Owens and Dick Bellman, who are avid bicycling fans and were at the tail end of their annual two week foreign adventure cycling trip.

They have been doing this for over 20 years now at about the same time of the year. This year they, and about ten more of their riding buddies, picked the greater Lombardia-Piedmont area for their adventure.   

With Dick Bellman who arrived

at our shared hotel soon after we did

Once checked in, we toured the city

Torino is a city of beautiful arcades

These arcades are not simply in place for their visual beauty, instead they guard pedestrians from the ravages of the areas cold, wet Winters and its oppressive heat in the Summers.

A mini-galleria

T-R-O-U-B-L-E-!

A beautiful building that houses

Torino's Risorgimento Museum

With Deanna Owens, her husband Bob

and Dick after a fun lunch at

La Fila Ristorante Pizzeria

Deanna and Bob left us after lunch to continue their vacation in the south of France in gorgeous Nice.

Dick would be flying home on Friday.

Onward we marched . . .

. . . towards Paths of Glory!

Or were they just tractor ruts?

Buildings tend to be built

on a grand scale in Torino

Near some Roman ruins

The remains of a 3,000 seat Roman

amphitheater built between

13 B.C. and 44 A.D.

A Golden Girl

Betty White, I think.

Piazza San Carlos

Piazza San Carlos HAS to have a

GREAT statue in the middle like this one

We needed to sit down at a spot on

Piazza San Carlos to share a bottle

of Prosecco -- it's an Italian thing

The Martini Caffè was interesting . . .

. . . on the inside but we took a sidewalk

table to enjoy the people watching

Great cities need Great statues

Torino has its share to be sure.

After returning to the hotel to rest for awhile, we joined Dick and six of his bike riding gang for another fine Italian meal.

First we had to find a ristorante

so we walked in search of a good one

We crossed paths with this tribute

to a WWII deceased partisan

We kept on trudging in search

of the perfect dining establishment

Laurie was actively window shopping the whole time preparing her plans for Thursday morning.

My college roommate's

middle name is Lagrange

I wonder if this has anything to do with Jon Kadletz?

Another fine piazza, another fine statue

We hit the jackpot at this spot

on this very piazza at a place

called Alla Lettera 

This aerobics/exercise class provided

the dinner entertainment for us

That pizza oven is HOT!

Another nice, long discussion filled dining experience required but one last thing, a good stroll home to aid our digestion.

The streets were beautiful

at sunset in Torino

The arcades were all lit up

Other diners were enjoying

their meals on the sidewalks

of Torino on this perfect evening

Nearing our hotel

Just a great day in Italy's

Piedmont area

Our hotel is just around the corner

but we stopped for a good gelato

just to the left on this piazza

We only ate the gelato for its widely known health benefits not for any kind of personal pleasure at the end of a wonderful day, you understand.

Right . . .