Viva Italia: Weekend in Turin

This weekend was quite uneventful, yet I had plenty to do. I only had one class on Friday, and it happened to be a field trip to the Accorsi Foundation on Via Po. It was the personal collection of a famous designer and a replication of his house. We saw some beautiful pieces of furniture, glass, and other design materials from the Rococo era and a few from the Baroque period. My design teacher helped me ask our tour guide if there were any positions open for a intern, and one might open up in about a month! I’m hoping to get an internship somewhere in one of the many historical buildings in Torino. The Tornio population has been trying to become a tourist community since the Olympics, so my hope is that I’ll be able to be hired as an English guide in a design museum.

Friday evening, I went with my friend Will, from New Jersey, to scour Via Po for the famous Italian puff jackets. They’re these shiny, puffy feather jackets that you can find on people of all ages, both male and female. We call them “guido” jackets. We price shopped for quite awhile until we found one that is normally €250 but was on sale for €35! The transit was on strike (something that happens quite often) so we were stuck downtown for a few more hours. By this time, it was late evening, so we decided to just catch an aperitivo. The place we stopped at on Via Po had delicious food and we enjoyed just sitting and relaxing after walking all day. There was still an hour to kill after finishing our meal, so we headed out in search of a gelati place. I had my favorite flavors, frutti di bosca (in season fruit, mixed berries), and limon. Once we got home, a group of us went out and adventured along Fiere Po (River Po) to learn what there was to do. There are so many discotecas along the river! Once it gets warmer, more will open up and we’ll be able to dance along the river in the evenings.

Saturday we headed up to the Superga, a church on the hill of Torino. The church has a gorgeous view. The Savoy Royal family crypt is housed within the church. That was creepy and not worth the money to visit! I got a few panoramic shots of the Alps that I’ll put at the end of this blog. It was so beautiful to see the city from above and see the streets that I travel on daily.

Sunday was a lazy day. We kind of just walked around the city in search of Italian jeans at a good price, but realized that all of the stores were closed, since Sunday really is a day of rest except for cafés and restaurants. The streets are so full of people though! Everyone window-shops and simply enjoys spending time with family members and friends walking, no matter the temperature on Sunday afternoons/evenings. I found a pair of jeans, which I’m stoked about, since I’m quite the collector of jeans. They were less than 15 USD! We tried so many sweets also. I had a doughnut-like food filled with Nutella; popcorn from a street vendor; and bicherin, which is a mixture of Nutella, coffee and whipped cream. Delicious! I went shopping at PAM for my weekly groceries, minus veggies since they go bad so quickly. Then, to finish of the day, I made something OTHER than pasta for dinner! Chicken quesadillas!

Tomorrow, I’m going to try to get up a video blog of my apartment and my walk to school.