A Better Italy

January 29, 2007

On Friday, Ben and I took the train to Torino. It is a great city and much more tourist friendly than Milan. The city, first of all, is set up like a grid, which always makes thing easier. The buildings are clean and bright. It's a pretty big city and you can see the mountains and hills from it. When we arrived, we walked around and realized that while we were there, it was the Winter University Games (like a university level Olympics). So there was tons of stuff going on and we went to an outdoor concert that night. Also, there at this time was a light art show going on around the whole city. So on each major street, there were different designed lights covering each block. We went to the big Egyptian museum there, which has one of the biggest collections in the world. It was very well done and we saw huge statues, human mummies and mummified cats and crocodiles. Torino just had a relaxed, but orderly vibe and I enjoyed it very much.
After that we took the train to Aosta, which is north of Torino on the border of Switzerland, in the Italian Alps. The train ride was beautiful the whole way as we watched the rugged landscape become snow capped mountains. The town was very nice and full of Roman ruins, which was neat to see. They were having a local festival that day and we saw lots of wood workers selling their furniture designs and also a huge tent of cheese, chocolate, wine and grappa. It was great to see parts of Italy that we prefer to Milan and to appreciate as an observer, rather than trying to integrate into a culture that is so different than our own.
This month has seemed so long, and I am glad to be moving into February.