Where in the World??: Torino

6:47am, Saturday morning, the alarm goes off. I was already awake, but just waiting for the official alarm to remind me to get up. I showered, ate my oatmeal, packed and then headed out the door for my walk up the hill. It was a beautiful morning, the best since I have arrived. The sun was already thinning the clouds and the skies were looking very blue at 7:30 in the morning. I began my drive to Torino with my faithful GPS pointing me south. This was the first big trip I have taken so I was a little nervous. It was also my trip through the Mont Blanc tunnel. This tunnel is over 8 miles long and cuts through the highest peak in Europe. It also costs $60 to go through it round trip.

I don’t know which was the favorite part of my trip, the drive to Torino or Torino itself. As I am driving I am going through small towns with old churches and ruins of castles on the hillsides.

I also see vineyards covered with snow and built into the sides of the mountains. I am in awe of the beauty of this place.

I want to stop every 500 meters to take a pictures of something new. Luckily I am a very skilled car photographer so I did get some good pictures of the countryside.

I make it to my hotel about 2 hours after I left home. I find a parking spot on the street, check in and drop my bag in my room. Move my car to the underground garage and find a good map. The Egyptian Museum is my first stop. This is stated to be the 2nd best Egyptian Museum in the world, only behind the Cairo Museum. It was very cool.

I had no real agenda, just 2 or 3 key things that I wanted to see. I spent the next 5 ½ hours walking around the city. It was about 2km from my hotel to the city center and I spent the rest of my day wandering the streets, churches, shops and markets of Torino. It was an amazing place with so many people walking about.

So many wonderful treats!! I checked everything off of my list of things to do in Italy list: Pizza, Gelato, bought some chocolate and wine. I took some great pictures of the city, the Palazzo’s, some churches and other amazing buildings.

I visited a cathedral called Duomo. It is where the cloth that Jesus Christ was buried in. The tan cloth is a lifesize photo of the actual cloth. The black and white version is an xray. If you look closely you can see the face of Jesus on the top of the left, black print. You can also see his hands folded across his stomach. It was pretty neat. The cloth was housed further down in the church in a large cement/glass case. The top had thorns woven all over it and there was a prayer written that each person was to read as they stood in front of the display.