A perfect Mother and Daughter weekend: Turin




Now I'm not the type of person that gets really home sick and needs to visit the fam every few weeks, but 4 months is a long time without seeing your mother!

Not even at Uni has it ever been that long!

The last time I saw her was all those months ago at the end of June as she waved me off at the train station, a tear in her eye as I started on my year abroad adventure (god that feels so long ago now).

I hadn't actually even spoken to her properly because she still lives in the dark ages and doesn't have skype...or the internet (sorry mum but it just had to be said!).

So I was really really excited that she was coming for the weekend!!

She arrived on Halloween, by train from Rome (thank god it wasn't the Friday before because there was a train strike...again), where she spent the last nostalgic week visiting old friends (she used to live there).

I was very tempted to hop on the train down to meet her the weekend before because Rome is my second home (ha it ryhmes!), but alas last minute trains are kind of expensive.

(I went to Verona instead though so I wasn't too upset).

But classic lack of organisation from mummy dearest (because obviously none of it is my fault...) she didn't tell me what time she was getting the train so I was a bit panicked when I finished work at 6 and still hadn't heard from her.

And you know it was Halloween...

so there were some creepy characters lurking about.

But unlike my other visitors she's fluent in Italian so I'm pretty sure she could have gotten herself out of any tricky vampire/werewolf/zombie situation.

A quick phone call (from me as it turns out I hadn't given her my Italian number oops) and short bus ride later we were finally re-united!

I thought it might be a bit weird, not having seen each other in so long but it was as if we had never been apart!

There was so much to catch up on.

We ended up spending all evening in the restaurant (well almost).

To be fair we did have a lot to eat.



Lets go in for a close up on that.

They do the BEST tiramisu here
And I was very much enjoying the Halloween vibes. Especially since, for possibly the first year EVER in my life, I wasn't doing anything for Halloween!


(Just because I'm a "grown up" now doesn't mean I can't still celebrate it!)

But no crazy night for me this year. We were tucked up in bed by 11 ready for our early start the next morning for Turin.

Luckily my mum doesn't mind getting up early.

6.45am on a Saturday anyone?

But it was definitely worth it because Turin is BE-A-UUUUTIFUL.





I think it's my favourite place I've visited so far (apart from Lake Garda obvs).

And possibly one of the most underrated cities in Italy.

I should also mention it basically invented chocolate and Nutella. (Oh and vermouth, randomly).

So err HELLO of course it's going to be an amazing place.

But my love for Turin is also partly because it was one of those days were everything was perfect.

Where for once you haven't made specific plans, taking some travel blogger's advice to "just get lost" and actually ended up stumbling upon the most amazing finds.

(By the way, this never happens to me e.g "getting lost" in Venice turned out not to be fun).

An Antique market on our way to the City Sight seeing bus, where I found The Picture of Dorian Gray  in Italian for 1 euro. Bargain!

I really hope that's not real fur...
Some weird, slightly worrying military memorabilia
Real Leather Boots (new) for 30 euros! which my mummy very kindly bought for me

Everything 30,00 my kind of shop!

The biggest food market I have ever seen in my life, where I bought some gianduja (Turin's chocolate specialty) at the cheapest price in the city.




Dark, orange, milk and coffee chocolate.mmm
The Shroud of Turin. Ok so technically this isn't a "find" because it's pretty famous but we found it unintentionally whilst wandering into the Duomo (I couldn't remember where it was, something about a fire that confused me). Unfortunately you can't actually see the actual shroud because it's rarely on display to protect it.
not quite as impressive as Milan's sorry Turin

But it's still pretty spectacular inside


hmm, don't be fooled it's not the real one


But the next exhibition is in 2015 if you're interested.

Even if you're not particularly religious (like me) it's still intrigueing. We watched a video that shows what the different markings on the cloth are could be (depending on your view point) giving some sense to those splotches that look like one of those buttefly paintings you used to do as a kid.

An amazing random Geleteria because there always comes a time where you need Gelato in your life again (which isn't long for me).

The Gelato conisseur I am now, I swiftly avoided mumma's suggestion to get one from a Geleteria just off the main square after noticing they a. used a scoop instead of a spatula and b. had flat ice-cream (that's how best I can describe it).

We held out for a little longer and managed to find by chance (one lucky day so far!) a very yummy Geleteria which I can't remember the name sadly. Even Google didn't come up with anything, but I know I've seen one in Milan somewhere...,Anyway name isn't that important just that is was up there with La Geleteria della musica and I cioccolati italiani (the creme de la creme of Gelato).
icecream selfie had to be done

Aside from shoes and Gelato and books, another reason why I loved Turin so much I'm going to put down to it's considerably less toursityness.

Although it was busy, I didn't feel like the city was swamped with people and I didn't see many of those tacky touristy shops either.

Although maybe it's because the tourists are more spread out as Turin seems to be a lot bigger than other Italian cities I've visited.
huuge!

It has these grand squares all over the city.


Very different from the narrow, cobbled streets of Verona and Venice which although beautiful doesn't give you much room to breathe sometimes!

Turin was also the first time I've been on one of those sight-seeing buses, you know the red-double decker ones.
mother enjoying the tour
I didn't really know what to expect but was so glad we went as we got to see things we never would've seen otherwise (cus Turin is so big and all) and the recorded tour-guide woman (who was extremely well spoken) gave us some history and facts about the city which is so much better than just wandering around not knowing what you're looking at (which is what usually happens). It also helped later on for finding our way aorund the city.

Which for direction lacking people like me is very useful (turns out my mum isn't great with maps either). We even managed to find the amaa-aaa-zing food market that the guide mentioned.

The river Po, yes like the teletubby
a medieval town


All in all, a rather lovely day, full of surprises.

The rare, very good kind.

And Turin's final treat was the beautiful sunset as we sped away on the train.




Comments

  1. Yes bella mia a truly great weekend ! Can't wait for next year and Vienna ! Mi manchi 😂 Co vediamo a natale. Ciao

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  2. Vienaaa I can't wait either! You're doing quite well with these trips out of me ;)

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