Turin (or Torino to us cool kids)

Next up in our Italian adventure was Turin.  We rented an apartment.  Renting apartments rather than hotels is always a bit of a lottery - sometimes they can be terrific, and a great way to stay somewhere central and save money. And sometimes they just mean lost nights' sleep, tossing and turning listening to the traffic below through inadequately soundproofed windows.  This place fell into the latter category.

Thankfully we were in Turin to eat rather than sleep.  And eat we did.  On our first night we went to Eataly. Eataly is the enormous Slow Food Movement headquarters housed in an old factory in Turin.  Each section of the factory is devoted to a different type of food (vegetables, meat, seafood, pasta and pizza, dolce). And in each section there's a bar/tables where you can order from a limited menu of food with wine to match.  We ate and drank ourselves silly - treating each section as a "station" and stopping off at each on our gastronomic tour of Italy.  The food was delicious - even the salads were divine.

baked ricotta and walnut salad with balsamic reduction - yum! 

Eataly isn't super cheap, and is clearly designed for the well-heeled middle classes.  It's also a little way out of the centre of town.  However, I recommend a visit - it is a great way to taste lots of different Italian food and produce when you only have a limited time in the country.

Unfortunately, for most of our time in Turin it largely rained. This necessitated a quick shopping expedition.  I am a dreadful holiday packer.  G likes to remind me of the holiday when the only footwear I brought was boots and sneakers but I forgot to bring a single pair of socks.  Then there was the holiday (in the depths of winter) where I forgot to bring any sweaters or warm tops.  And the holiday when I only brought one clean pair of knickers.  All of these holidays have resulted in a quick trip to a clothing store, usually Zara. This holiday was no exception. On this holiday I kept up my bad packing trend, and failed to pack any cold or wet weather clothes.  So off shopping we went.  I now have a very fine pair of VERY bright blue trousers (Zara), a new top (Zara), rain jacket (Zara) and some running gear (H&M). The latter is pretty hideous - a bright pink hoodie and some leggings - but it kept me warm and meant I had no excuse not keep up my running and to run along the Po in the mornings.

To hide from the rain we visited the Egyptian museum while in Turin. It's reputed to be the world's second best (after the one in Cairo) and it was pretty amazing. Is it wrong that my highlight was seeing the mummified bodies? It's just so incredible to see how well preserved they are, even down to the teeth! 

 

We also kept up our eating, managing to find several delicious restaurants, including one which served the most delicious beetroot gnocchi.  And it was it Turin where I discovered Grom gelato - heaven in a cup!

 

After three days in Turin, and just as the weather cleared and the sun came out, we were back on the train, this time to Milan where we were staying for one night before flying back to London.

 

Milan gets a pretty bad rap.  All of the locals we met in Turin were terribly dismissive of Milan, questioning why we would go there at all.  So my expectations were not high.  In fact, the only reason we were going there was because that was the city from which our flight home departed.  Maybe because of these low expectations, I was quite pleasantly surprised. 

However, the city did manage to fulfil some of the cliches - surely it's only in Milan where one side of a great cathedral can be taken up by a fashion billboard?

 

After Milan it was sadly time to head home, back to the real world of work and only three meals a day (plus snacks of course).