Sunday, 9 September, 2018 30C
It’s Sunday and the church bells were taking turns to let us know about it. I’m pretty sure they ring them by hand. Either that or they’ve recorded some pretty shoddy stuff! No lovely pealing melodies, like in the movies, but out of tune clanging, normal, sometimes very slowly, and sometimes speeded up like someone is in a hurry. It’s amusing…I think. Not sure how I’d feel if I was here permanently.
Liat rows on Sunday but she called me when she was done and asked to meet for brunch. I thought this might be interesting. Italians don’t really eat breakfast – their version is an espresso, maybe a milky coffee drink instead, and a sweet pastry or six. Liat suggested somewhere in San Salvario – 15 or 20 mins by bus and I thought, why not – it will be an adventure, my first trip by tram so far.
I walked over to the Borgo Dora tram stop and waited for my tram. It arrived quite quickly and was jam-packed. As usual, there’s no offering of seats in here. Even the young men who were seated weren’t giving up to their spots to those less able. It’s a bit puzzling every time. Besides, it’s a dilemma. Do I feel good that they don’t feel I need a seat or do I feel annoyed for the same reason? Liat met me at the tram stop near the restaurant.
We ate at a place called Slurp, recommended by Liat’s friend. They immediately asked me if I was American and we sat at the back where there was air and light. It’s a bit dark in there but the menu looked OK. I completely puzzled the server by asking if I could have sausages with my pancakes. Then she was even more puzzled when, delivering four sausages and six very small pancakes, I asked if there was something to put on the pancakes. She said something about not thinking I wanted syrup (or jam or nutella) with them if I was having sausages. I suddenly felt like an ugly American and asking for something just too bizarre in an Italian’s eyes. But she took away my pancakes and came back with them, now with some syrup on top.
I figured I could eat two of the sausages and donated two pancakes to Liat. Verdict: sausages were as advertised, pancakes were very sweet even without the syrup – oh well. Oh, and a cappuccino was only €1.50 – nice surprise – and not as strong as they like it in London. Liat ordered two fried eggs, bacon and toast. The eggs came in two separate little frying pans, each topped with some bacon – cute.
I’m glad Krish didn’t come to Slurp – dogs are freely allowed and one (maybe belonging to the chef or owner) was wandering around among the tables. My bill was €15. It’s quite a lot, I think.
I decided to walk back with Liat. She’s staying not that far from the flat these days. By the Porta Nuova station it’s a bit rough, like most major cities in Europe. The road beside the station to the east is called Via Nizza. It goes all the way down to Lingotto and the first bit is very straight and somewhat abandoned, but I like the view of the porticoes all the way down.
On the way to the market, where we’ll separate, we go into Lidl for some pastry – I’m going to experiment in preparation for making butter tarts for her Thanksgiving feast – and then to a store that sells toiletries. Not quite a drugstore, since I didn’t see any drugs, but a good place to look for toiletries and sundries.
In this part of town, just south of the centre but still central, there are a lot of courtyards and grand buildings and churches. We walked under the porticoes and tried to stay in the shade as much as we could.
A word about the Risorgimento. It’s a massive and impressive building, something my photo can’t show you. It is the museum of Italian Unification. Il Risorgimento means “the Resurgence” or “revival” and was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century between 1815–1871. I believe several revolutions and uprisings (are they the same thing?) were involved and so this history is bloody and not quite as neat and glorious as depicted. The museum occupies about 3500 square metres across 30 rooms. Pretty impressive.
We walked through the Quadrilatero from the Piazza Carignano, where these two large buildings are found. So far so good, once I’d bought some icy cold water and changed to my sandals. Then we hit the market square of Porta Palazzo and Liat and I parted ways.
The market square is large and wide open, and I needed to cross it, two main streets, one smaller street and then wind my way round to Via Carlo Noe. At first there was no way to avoid being in the open sun, then if I skirted around I could avoid being in the open too much. However, I was starting to flag, badly. My face was burning, I was breathing pretty heavily and I felt quite anxious about it. My choices were to keep to the planned route and get some possible shade but take longer, or to walk across the open parking lot shortcut. I chose the latter. The longest, maybe hottest, walk of my recent life! Somehow I kept going, dumping some of the water on my head and finally got inside our building. Phew. I called Krish to see where he was and he said he would make his way back so I waited in the lobby cooling off and very glad to be inside out of the sun.
Krish and I cooperated on dinner tonight. We are using up what’s in the fridge since Sunday and Monday there are no markets. He cleaned and cooked the shrimp in butter, garlic and chili. I cooked some bok choy, some plantain, and made a salad with what’s left of the lettuce and beetroot. It was a lovely and relaxing dinner.
I fell into bed around 11:30pm then out again as Krish called me to watch some fireworks out of the window. I love fireworks!
I got a few mosquito bites so I covered myself in Skin So Soft, then renewed it for the night and started praying I wouldn’t wake up as a bug’s midnight snack.