Turin

On Tuesday and Wednesday we traveled to Turin, the site of the 2006 Olympic winter games. Turin is to the west of Milan and very close to the Italian/French border. We had another early morning to catch the train which took about 2 hours, but it went by too quickly for me because I wanted to nap longer.

Once we were all checked into our hotel we headed over to the Museum of Cinema, which was unlike any other Museum I have been in. Turin is kind of like Hollywood in a way. They film a lot of movies here and host film festivals. We even got to see one of the sites from a movie we watched in class, Deep Red. The museum was really interactive and our tour guide helped to explain a lot of stuff since most descriptions were in Italian. He took us through the evolution of cinema and we got to watch the very first silent movies ever made...each of them was about 10-30 seconds long with no plot or actors.

The museum also housed some cool movie memorabilia like masks from Star Wars, Marilyn Monroes shoes and jewlery, and sketches made for actresses dresses, such as Elizabeth Taylor. After touring the museum we rode up what I like to call the Willy Wonka elevator. It is an elevator that runs right up the middle of the museum, supported only by cords, and is completely made of glass so you can see everything above and below you. The elevator takes you to an observation deck where you can see all across the city of Turin and the Alps.

After the museum we stopped at a cafe to get a drink special to the city of Turin called a Bicerin. It is chocolate, warm espresso, and fresh whipped cream-delicious! It was a little pricey however, 5 euros for a small glass but it was so worth it to try it. The chocolate was amazing. Some of us then did a little shopping and tried to find somewhere to have aperitivo. After eating a very cheap meal (only 6 euros for a drink and unlimited food) we met up with more of our group and grabbed one more drink before going back to the hotel to sleep.

Bicerin

The next morning it was very cold and very rainy- I never thought I would want to be in jeans and a hoodie in the middle of July. Luckily I packed my umbrella, otherwise I would have been downright miserable. Why? Because we were having a walking tour of the city. Despite the rain and cold though we learned a lot about the history of the city and got to go into the old castle/palace and the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptiste that houses the Shroud of Turin, thought to be the cloth that covered Jesus after his crucifixion. You cannot actually see the shroud itself as it only comes out every few years and there is no way of proving that it is the actual cloth that covered Jesus but it was still very intersting to see.

Roman ruins of the city, we actually walked on top of them

By the end of the 2 hour tour in the rain, the tour guide was nice enough to bring us to a place that served the best soup and salad to help warm us up. I got a carrot/melon/curry soup that hit the spot. The soup was even served in little mason jars-so cute! After a long day in the rain and cold however I was ready to head back to Milan to a warm bed to take a much needed nap!