Turin Friday

I had no plans for today. I woke up and looked at my list of like to do’s. I had not had coffee under the covered arches so set off. I looked at one of the fancy places, ummed and ahhed for ages then sat down. There werenot many people around. The waitperson did not come and did not come so I upt and left. Normally I have coffee in the morning at local places where you stand at the bar or order and then ask to sit down – and they never charge you more to sit down. An espresso is E1 and a cappuccino is usually E1.2 and a croissant is E1. This fancy place charged E4.5 for a cappuccino. I went round the corner and along the street – still under cover and found another place. I sat down, she came straight away, I ordered a cappuccino and a croissant and after a while of watching the world go past in a far more comfortable setting went in and she said E2.20 – what I normally pay. The place has been around for a while – the first time I have seen squat toilets in Italy since we were travelling in the south in 2003.

I walked to the river and then a brisk ½ walk up a hill took me to a little church on a hill. I walked down again and had lunch at a restaurant over the road from me. For some reason I have not eaten there before, but it was very good. I had a few specialities of the area that I have been looking out for. - Tajarin – an egg pasta in fine strips. They had it with butter, sage, a few anchovies and slices of hard cheese on the top. I had a salad and then bonet – the chocolate and almond traditional dessert. It was a slice of a log. The bottom half was rich , moist, chocolate cake, but lighter than it looked and the top was chocolate mouse. It had crushed amaretti biscuits sprinkled on top.

In the late afternoon I walked into the centre and had a non alcoholic aperativ at the nicest of the 3 places I had been to. She asked if I like lampone – raspberries I thought but I wasn’t sure- so I said I think so but I would like a surprise. At least that is what I wanted to say. She thought it was hilariously funny so I am not sure what I actually said. It was crushed raspberries, lemon,lime and soda. Delicious. Not sweet.

Some odds and ends:

I have kept to my resolve and not eaten in any restaurants for 2weeks which have a menu translated into English. The tricky ones are the ones with no menu at all.

There are lots of thigh length knitted coats, knitted pochos, shawls, wraps, in the shop windows but still I havenot found any good pattern books. Black, grey and more grey mainly.

Many of the buses in the centre are electric.

I think going to places for 1 week each , on my own, in different countries, is too hard. To be fair , I did have a busy few months before I came away and then 3 places in 10 days before the 3 separate weeks. At the end of each week, I have thought – I have just found or mastered the washing machine ( no easy feat when half of the symbols mean nothing to me and there is no book) , light switches, where to eat comfortably , when to eat, where to drink, the bus system, the supermarket, which key goes in which lock, etc etc and it is time to leave. I cannot decide if 5 weeks is too long or if it feels like it is too long because I have been on the go and not been disciplined enough to take a day off here and there or does it feel longer because I have been on my own, except for the people in Ferrara who I had a couple of meals with, for 4 weeks.

Maybe my next trip should be 2 weeks in one place, 5 day walking trip with a group, 2 weeks in another place. Or maybe I should SKI faster and just go to 1 place for 3 weeks and do day trips and then 6 months later go to another place for 3 weeks.

Tomorrow I start for home. Walk to nearby station,wait for train, one stop, walk to bus stop, wait for a while, bus ( 2 hours) to Malpensa (Milan) wait more time, check in, etc etc. Dubi, Sydney, bus to Canberra. I am not good at waiting. I will try very hard to be restful while waiting.