Today was the day I was going on my first tour – of the Costadoro Coffee Factory. I walked through the Piazza Reale grounds and arrived at the tourist info with half an hour to spare.
Through the Porte Palatine
When no bus materialised at 9:20 I went into the office only to find out the bus was waiting somewhere else than described. What started out as a leisurely morning was now a bit of a rush!
Piazza Castello in the morning
At the bus I was introduced to my translator. Strapped in and off we go! The translator had no idea where the factory was – saying she didn’t know all the neighbourhoods of Torino (‘You know how it is when you live somewhere.’ Um, no!) However, the unknown neighbourhood was more or less my own but about a mile further east.
Torino Porta Nuova is a pretty easy station to figure out. There’s a metro entrance, a station hall, and the platforms. Trains are sitting in plain view all in a row with this station being the end of every route.
There’s an arrival and departure board around the middle area and it’s pretty clear when your train is leaving and from what platform. I’ve allowed plenty of time to make sure I have room for error but it’s pretty straightforward.
The trains travel very quickly – the speed is up to 300kmh and this actually doesn’t feel as fast as it sounds. You’re travelling smoothly with minimal jolts and that’s all that counts. There’s not a lot to see outside – countryside and the little towns along the way. The toilet is pretty smelly again. Hard to avoid on these trains, I suppose…but I wonder, since the train has been cleaned while we were waiting to board, with no one else using it first. But enough toilet talk! I’m happy enough in my slippery narrow seat, watching Fantastic Beasts, with my bottle of water and bar of chocolate. I’m there in about 2.5 hours.
Bologna Centrale is a confusing station compared to Porta Nuova, with multiple levels, long corridors and more than one exit but I take a chance on the City Centre exit and off I go with my suitcase and Google guiding me.
Bologna looks familiar now, after I leave the station area – with its ruins and marble staircase close by. The rest of the town is a very cheerful blend of yellow, ochre and terracotta colours.
On the evening I arrived, we went to a birthday party for one of the teachers Esmeralda works with. They were sitting at a very long table together with several bottles of prosecco at hand. It was aperitivo hour and at some time a food buffet would appear – one extra euro when you buy the prosecco. But I’m hungry and when I hear one teacher say she’s leaving to get some ‘proper food’ I ask if I can tag along. The teacher, her sister and the sister’s boyfriend and I hurry across the food to a restaurant inside a market but it’s closed for 45 more minutes and we’re all hungry.
As a rule, restaurants are open for lunch from 12-2 or 3 (I’ve seen a couple that open just for one hour at lunch) and then don’t reopen until 730 for dinner, much later than I’m used to. But some are open earlier for tourists or don’t close at all so we find one that will let us in. I order a gnochetti with clams and rapini. It’s not bad – the rapini is cooked far too long, as usual. But it fills a hole. I talk to the teacher who has arrived six weeks earlier from her last job in Dubai. She says her long apartment is 600 Euros a month and that she’s just getting used to the pace of life here – not rushing, just like the Italians. I’m mostly struck by how different her life and her sister’s lives are. They’re from Liverpool and their idea of going out is to cafes and restaurants. After a while, I’m happy to get back to the noisy pub.
My gnochetti wasn’t a large portion so Esmeralda brings me a plate or two of green beans and chick peas, some eggplant and potato. It’s decent, cheap food to serve along with drinks and I’m glad that I had some clams earlier.
We get along well in the flat. There’s plenty of breathing space but no internet! So glad my phone has plenty of data. I enjoy the independent and girly feel in that flat. I think I miss it. It’s been a long time. Wistful.
The next day we go for brunch and I shock myself by having a burger. It’s been ages since I had meat! It’s not bad at all. Then we wander around the various markets – stalls are selling vintage clothes, housewares, clothing of all sorts, antiques, old stuff. I buy three old scarves for a euro. They’ll do for fabric for my next doll when I get around to it.
Later that night we went for dinner. The menus look pretty similar everywhere. I choose a predictable tagliatelle with ragu (or bolognese, as everyone else calls it) and can’t finish it. We are both stuffed to discomfort so collapse at the flat.
Today was an interesting day! In the morning I went to the market – we were out of food! I bought a nice cauliflower and then realised I’d been overcharged by a euro. I also got stewing beef – that was a real challenge to ask for but it’s done. At the back of the farmers market was cheese stall and I had an interesting conversation with the seller in French. At the market some people do speak French and a lot of the Arabic speakers will do that to make sure you get what you want. It’s fun. Oh, and Liat recommended that I try a Nebbiolo (red wine) from the region so I will open that when I can.
When I got home, I planned to start the stew. Was thinking about red wine and thyme and garlic in there… but once there Krish suggested we go see the original language version of Blade Runner 2049 showing in only one small cinema in central Torino. I’ve been looking forward to it so – yes!
The cinema is in a part of Torino we haven’t spent a lot of time in so we can look around that a bit. The cinema is on a short pedestrianised street lined with cafes and little shops as well as a gated garden. And the cinema itself is easily missed, it’s so small. Not only small but also gated. With a padlock – less than half an hour before the show start time! Hmm. We walk up and down for a few minutes and when we get back we notice a half dozen people sitting around, most likely also waiting for that padlock to come off. At least this wasn’t a scam, then. Just a few steps from the cinema is a Turkish café. Neither of us is fond of Turkish food but this promises hummus and baba ghanoush and the like, and we’ve been desperate for some nice fresh flavours. However, it will be closed when the film ends. Ah well…
Today I went to Asti. I’d made a list of a few places I wanted to go instead of doing one big trip and four made the list – Alba, Asti, Bra, and Ivrea. After two and a half weeks I finally was doing one of them – the closest – Asti.
We got the train from the main train station of Porto Nuovo. On our previous two visits to Torino the station was under renovation – tarpaulins, scaffolding, general massive detours. This is the first time the station has been completely finished and it’s quite a lovely building on the outside in general, with its different coloured brickwork. The tram stops are also new and clean. Inside the station, it’s not totally clear where everything is – is there a station that does this well? – but after reading the instructions online on how to get tickets etc we found it easy to show up, use the machine (with English instructions) and collect our tickets.
All the trains start here and line up nicely on the platforms – a very open set up compared to either London or Toronto. Our train is very clean with dark blue vinyl seats, enough facing forward to make us happy, and no tables or power points. But the journey is only about half an hour.
Asti is described as a very pretty medieval city, known for its wines. Like most of Italy, it claims to have very good food. I’m a city person and always sceptical about anything that’s not very urban. But this is an adventure and I’m in for anything.
I really didn’t like Asti. I was willing to try and very optimistic. I’d pictured it being pretty like the Cotswolds, with charming restaurants and markets and smiley people. It just wasn’t. It wasn’t picturesque at all. It was a small town with a modern look, mixed in with some very old areas. There were two markets – a big one where we could see mostly clothes, and later we saw a little one with half a dozen stalls selling fruit and vegetables. In the large market square they hold a horse race called the Palio. This has been happening since the 1200s and attracts a lot of visitors. That was back in September. On our travels we passed a museum devoted to this race and a man hurried out to let us in. We declined and I walked about with the guilt of refusal for hours. (I know…) I don’t like horse racing. I think it’s cruel.
