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10/24/2009

This morning the kids slept in late, which meant that we also got to sleep in late. Claire’s family has a typical Saturday morning routine that consists of running errands, going to swimming lessons, having a big fantastic lunch, and then taking a two nap afterwards due to the food coma that the lunch induces. Once everyone was up, we all left to start the errands. First we dropped Susan off to get her hair done while we ran the errands. The errands included picking up the food for the week. Susan had already called into the boutique shops and places the order of what she wanted so that we just had to run in, pick it up, and pay for it. I think that this is an awesome was to do grocery shopping and really enjoyed seeing the shops. First of all you get extremely fresh and great quality products from the boutique vendors, and second is that anyone can pick up exactly what you want in a very efficient amount of time because the order has already been called in and placed. Today we went to the meat and cheese shop and then the vegetable guy.

After running the errands, we went back home because the kids had swimming lessons next and they needed to pack their bags for it. Diego took the kids to swimming lessons while Claire and I stayed home, unpacked the groceries, caught up on things I needed to do with the internet (the internet connection at the last hostel was terrible because the walls were thick concrete and the signal couldn’t get through them) and started to get ready for lunch. On their way home, they picked up Susan from her hair appointment (she tried out a new stylist and they did a great job and it was cheaper than what she used to pay so a double win for her). Diego had plans to go with some of his friends and buy a lot of wine so he did not stay for lunch. I mentioned before that Diego is studying wine, so when he goes out to buy wine, he does it seriously and came back with cases of wine! As all the meals I have eaten with this family in Torino have been, lunch was fresh, delicious, and hit the spot. Pasta, veggies, cheese, deli meats, the works! I over ate, which I expected to do because it really was that good, and then went to take a great afternoon nap.

Miles’, Claire’s brother, train was getting into town around 7:45, so we left the house around 6:30 to take the buses and meet him at the train station. He was coming into a different station that we had not gone to before, so it was an experience getting our bearings around the area. The train was a little delayed so Claire and I played got a quick coffee and then played cards as we waited for him. Once we met up with Miles we had a heck of a time figuring out which way was the right way to exit the station and then where we should get on the bus, but eventually we figured it out and were on our way. While we were in the process of doing this, we saw some other Americans trying to do the same thing, so Claire went over to see if she could be any help to them. Turns out they went to school in Virginia, which I thought was kinda of a crazy coincidence.

We had plans to meet up with Claire’s friends the twins, Manuel, and some of their other friends and were a little bit late getting there, but it all worked out in the end. These were the same people that we had dinner with my first time in Torino and I was excited to see them again. We went to the great pizza place, Donna Rossa, that we went with them before. I ordered a four cheese pizza and added onions to it and it was better than I remembered it being, which is a great experience to have at a restaurant. I also had a half liter of wine to accompany my meal and was seated in a spot where I could watch a soccer game if I wanted to, all of which in addition to the company made the dining experience extremely enjoyable.

Everyone was pretty tired (Miles had been traveling for 30 hours from his business trip in India!) so we went to get a quick gelato and then headed home. I got nutella flavored this time because I am making a point to try as many gelato flavors as I can and it was delicious, as expected. The main piazza was so crowded because it was a Saturday night and there was crazy traffic everywhere. This worked to our advantage because we thought we had missed the bus we needed to catch in order to get up to the house and the next bus wouldn’t come for another hour. Luckily the bus we needed was also stuck in traffic and pulled up literally two minutes after walked up to the bus stop. Talk about good fortune. The bus ride home was pretty funny because there were all these punk teenage kids on it and it just amused me to see Italian teenagers and compare and contrast them to American teenagers.