now in torino...

arrived in torino via british air and taxied in to hotel urbani...as i registered at the front desk, these two gals who sat next to me in the plane entered the hotel...if i had only known they were headed for the same hotel, i would have shared a ride...but they made it sound like some far-out hotel like in the boonies...checked into my room and returned to the lobby to enjoy a glass of red, waiting for my travel buddies to arrive from st. moritz by train..after we were all settled in, we went next door to Trattoria De Felice where I started with zuppa di fagioli con crostini, bruschetta, veal, and vodka limon gelato. The dulce was excellent.

after breakfast in the hotel, we caught the tram to san giovanni battista to the chapel of the shroud of turin...although the shroud was not on display, it was hidden beneath the chapel's altar...after we left the duomo, we headed for the reale piazza for picture taking...torino is famous for its many piazzas and reale piazza is the most magnificent...we then headed to mole antonelliana which was originally commissioned as a synagogue, although it has never been used for this purpose, changing ownership before completion...at over 167 meters, la mole was the highest brick building in the world at the time of its completion and remains the tallest building in turin...it was a white elephant until the museum was placed in it...the layout is awkward with an elevator that goes to the top of la mole for a bird's eye view of the city...it was a hot day and the layout wasn't too appealing so i found a great seating area and watched a compilation film about dance in the cinema...

we returned to the city center to have lunch at blah blah, a restaurant/club/meeting hall...the name was cool but the food was awful...i had a penne that was a bit overcooked...

we headed for the museo egizio, the second largest collection of egyptian artifacts in the world, next to cairo museum...it was an impressive collection with items ranging from tabletop-sized  to mummies and sacophagi...i enjoyed the crocodile mummy, not knowing why any pharaoh would want such a mummy...the hall of sekhmet was very impressive...the main problem with the museo is its double entry point, thus the need to keep the ticket handy.

we headed for stratta on the piazza san carlo...it is one of the better pastry shops in the city...the frutta gelata (passion fruit, rose, and pear) and cannelloni zabaglione, washed down with prosecco...we returned to the hotel to rest up for dinner at la locanda di sorriso (smile)...its specialty was cucina regionale, calabria...our host was filipo...mama runs the kitchen, even prepping the dinner dishes...we started with complimentary pollo bruscheta washed down with menabrea beer; then antipasta parmesan a la calabria with a bottom layer of potato, aubergine, ham, eggs, all thinly sliced (one of the best dishes of the trip); papetelle (wide noodles) with aubergine stuffed with bread crumbs; veau blanquette; bottle of ramole, a red nebbiolo; espresso; and vecchio amaro del capo, a digestif...what a great way to end our day in torino...now on to genoa...