A Night in Torino

Mike was helpful and took a family picture for us.

We all slept in a little bit this morning after getting home late from Milano last night.

After hanging out, eating some breakfast and packing up (us and them), we said goodbye to Mike and Rita.


Mike and Katrina


Mike and Rita

We love having visitors. Please, if you want an inexpensive trip to Italy, come visit us. We can offer a free place to stay, a few meals, laundry, and some travel advice.

We left the house around 1pm and headed toward Torino. The drive west to Torino was mostly dry with some fog. Not too bad considering it never really got above 0 degrees for the day.

Our first stop was to drop Katrina off at a photography museum. Brandon and I dropped her off and headed towards a model train shop we had visited last time we were in Torino. We found it and did a little shopping. I put off buying what I really wanted, a German commuter train.

We picked Katrina up at an art museum, near where the photograpy museum was supposed to be. Apparently it didn't exist, at least not where she thought it was. Thankfully there was an art museum nearby that she had also wanted to visit. Did I mention how cold it was?!

With Katrina's navigational skills we made our way towards the old city and found a place to park. We bundled up and went walking in search of Christmas lights. We made our ways to Piazza San Carlo.


Streetlamps in Piazza San Carlo



Piazza San Carlo

From the piazza we headed down Via Roma and ended up eating dinner at McDonalds. I know I've said this before, but its funny how often we eaten at McDonalds since we moved here. Far more than we ever did in Corvallis.


Lights on Via Roma.

After dinner we continued down Piazza Castello, then down Via Po until we arrived at Piazza Vittorio Veneto.




Lights on Via Po.

From here we headed down some side streets to find the Mole Antonelliana. It was designed in 1863 as the temple of the Jewish community in Turin. The Jewish community handed the building over to the city of Torino in 1877. The building was completed in 1900. Today it houses the National Cinema Museum.


The Mole Antonelliana.


I love how she looks with that hat on!

I was so cold that I ended up buying a cap to try and warm my head up. I'm sure it was several degrees below zero.


An 8 year olds eating never seems to end. He was hungry and I spotted hot dogs.

We ended up at Piazzetta Reale, then turned down Via Geribaldi to look at more lights and peruse the Christmas market...as they were packing up for the night. It was time to find where we parked the car.


Another shot of how cute Katrina looks in her new hat.


Palazzo Reale


Via Geribaldi

A few blocks before we reached the car we stopped at a little cafe for hot chocolates. We were just about frozen by this time, so hot chocolate sounded fabulous. This was not your ordinary Swiss Miss. It was real hot chocolate. Thick and rich and warm. Brandon was not fond of it. He only had a couple spoon fulls and decided that Swiss Miss tasted better to him.



Enjoying some hot chocolate and trying to warm up, at least a little bit.

Our car was only a few very cold blocks away. We found, plugged in our GPS and headed to the our room at the Novotel. What a relief to finally be in a warm building and a warm room. Brandon was ready for bed. I watched a little TV while Katrina read. I guess Brandon and I fell asleep first and Katrina read until she finished her book.

We had a great time, although the 'famous' lights of Torino left a bit to be desired in our opinions.