Sunday May 23, 2004

We arrived in Turino (Turin) on the Sunday at 8:00AM. Turin was not at all what we expected. When we arrived we had a great deal of difficulty communicating with others, but we made due well enough. When we got out of the train station, we tried to find somewhere to eat/drink so that we could fill our bellies and collect our thoughts. We found a small cafe (Cafe Monte Carlo) that was open. Despite our stunning lack of knowledge of Italian, we got what we ordered. We had pastries fresh from the oven as well as espresso and cappuccino. It believe that the pastries we had there were the best of the whole trip.

When we were done, the owner/server took pity on us and helped Sarah use the phone to find us a hotel room. We got a room at Hotel Lux. It turned out to be a very nice place right near the train station. It had marble floors and a very large, quite comfortable bed. As with everywhere we stayed, it was very clean.

We got to the room and had a big nap. We got up between lunch and dinner, so finding something to eat was quite difficult. In any event, Turin wasn't my favorite city. I didn't write much there, but we did compose an e-mail the next morning. Here it is:

A message from Italy

Hi everyone,

We're sending this from an internet cafe in Turin, Italy as we wait for
our laundry to finish.  We arrived yesterday morning at 7:00AM after
taking an overnight train from Dijon.  The couchette was great.  (A
couchette is a set of 4-6 bunk beds in a small room on the train.)  We
both slept quite well, but arrived rather exhausted in Turin.

Turin is a rather strange city.  They're hosting the Olympics in 2006 and
it seems like the whole city is in a state of upheaval as they make
preparations.  There is a lot of construction and a lot of restoration
going on right now.  Despite this, the city feels much older than either
Besançon or Paris.

We happened upon a festival of sorts and lucked into some free cheese,
bread and honey treats.  We walked around the city until our room was
ready.

Our hotel here was absolutely fabulous.  We had marble floors, a huge bed
and our own balcony overlooking a small square.  Sarah even hung laundry
on a line off of our balcony!  (She was quite excited about this...)

We slept for part of the afternoon and then struck out into the city
again.  We'd missed the lunch hours, so we wandered around trying to find
something to eat.  (We'd only had a couple of pastries and the the food
from the festival.)  We spent some time in a park; people seem to let
their pets and children run pretty loose here!

Eventually we found a great restaurant where we had salad, excellent flat
bread pizza and wine.  Afterwards, we found some home made gelato.  Of
course, it was amazing!

We walked around again and then retired for the evening.  Today we plan
more sight seeing; churches, piazzas (squares) and the shroud of Turin. 
We're going to try to meet up with Pat and Yandu (Two friends from Ottawa)
at the shroud.  We're also planning to consume a huge plate of pasta at
least once today.  (Oh, and more gelato, of course.)

We're heading out on an overnight train to Naples this evening. We plan to
spend a few days there visiting islands and seeing some Roman ruins. 
We'll then head back to Rome where we'll be flying out on Sunday morning. 
Dad Hall has graciously offered to pick us up at the airport, it'll be so
nice to see a familiar face.

As you can surely tell, we're having a fantastic time.  Thanks for all of
the messages we've been receiving, it's really been great to hear from you
all.

Ciao,

Ben and Sarah

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