Life in Turin & a Trip to the Mountains

I'm starting to get used to living in Italy! I'm less scared to speak my extremely broken Italian now since almost everyone I've met has been extremely nice. I spruced up my bedroom a little bit, too. Here's my sassy bed.

We went to our first aperetivo with our classmates last week. As a poor student, I'm always down for gifts with purchase, so free food when you buy a drink is a dream come true! There was a ton of food, though not much variety. It was all delicious though, especially the little quiches with zucchini.

That night Pam learned to roll cigarettes (just for fun!) and got pretty bummed when she realized that meant someone was going to smoke. We've been making a lot of new friends, too!

I've spent some time wandering around Turin on my own and trying to get the feel of the city (without getting lost). This year marks the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification, and there are Italian flags and colors everywhere! Even though Turin isn't known for being beautiful, it really is.

I've also been doing a lot of eating. I'd like to take a moment to mention one of my favorite things in the world: Nutella. It was invented right here in the Piedmont region of Italy! As a child, my first exposure to Nutella came at the house of one of my close friends, Roneet. My parents avoided buying it, since it's basically just chocolate spread. Still, I have always had a soft spot for it and now that I'm 25 and can make my own (poor) food choices, I've been indulging my Nutella cravings. How can something this delicious be wrong?

To balance my sweet intake I made gnocchi. OK, I didn't make the gnocchi. I bought them. But here's the crazy part: the gnocchi that you can just buy in a bag at the grocery store are about 10 times better than the gnocchi served in most restaurants at home. Here I mixed it with store-bought sauce (also delicious) and mushrooms.

The other night some new friends and I went to have some pizza in the city center. IT WAS SO GOOD! I'm not the hugest pizza fan, but I can say that the pizza at this random cheap place was way better than anything I've had in the states. The first picture is of a pizza meant to serve 6 - it was huge! Probably at least three feet across.

Over the weekend we took a trip to Pragelato, a town in the Alps where the Olympic cross country skiing and ski jump competitions took place in 2006. On the way up we amused ourselves by singing. It was fun trying to find a song that everyone know. Apparently the Backstreet Boys and "My Heart Will Go On" transcend country lines! The little town was beautiful, but chilly at night. Jenn ate a lot of cookies.

When we got there, most people went to take a walk around town. Joan, Jenn and I stayed at the hotel to enjoy a bottle of wine and a game of cards.

In the evening, the hotel provided us with a home cooked meal. Pasta with ragu, then pork served with peas and cauliflower, and a dessert of fresh fruit (peach eaten before picture possible).

That night there was more wine and a few heated games of ping pong. Team USA didn't fare so well despite our distraction techniques. The rest of the night was spent in staring contests and pronunciation lessons ("would you like a ham sandwich?").

The next morning we went for a hike. Yes, I hiked. OK, not the whole time. The whole hike was set to take 6 to 7 hours (!!!!) and I only made it about halfway before it got REALLY steep. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. I didn't have many athletic clothing options so I looked a liiiittle bit nerdy.

Today was one of my happiest days yet in Torino, because my box from home finally arrived! HOORAY! here I am celebrating with gelato. We've gotten pretty addicted to GROM.

Classes have started, and I'm looking forward to getting to know the city better.

xo,
R