Saturday, October 4, 2008

It's all coming back to me now...

Back in 2002 I went to Torino, Italy to help pack my sister up and move her back to Chicago. Her company had sent her there for work for about a year and I got to go with to help move her there and back. Sweet!

Because Torino is in the North of Italy, we were able to easily take day trips to France and Switzerland. We also went down to Florence and Venice for overnight jaunts. Can I just say that Venice looks absolutely nothing like it did in the Scooby Doo cartoons of my youth?

These statues are in the main thoroughfare in Florence.

Why do I tell you all this now? Because I just got some of the film back, and I have about 20 more rolls to develop! Some of which are from my 2001 wedding and honeymoon in Scotland! Yes, I did say film! I didn't even have a digital camera back then! As my friend Peter would say "Pah-the-tic!" (to be said with a Michael Caine-like disdain in Miss Congeniality sort of inflection).



But I digress, I was in Italy. I spent 2 sweet weeks there with an apartment, car and translator! It really is wonderful to have a sister who is gifted with languages. I wish I were. I only dabble a bit in Spanish these days. I have found that I can sort of read both Italian and French though. And I totally mastered how to say "Gianduja gelato per favore!" (If you want an absolutely hysterical tribute to Gianduja, visit the Bon Appegeek. I'm totally with her in the second paragraph.)

Torino is the home of Gianduja, so it's a great place to be based. It also has Fiat and the Shroud of Turin, but really, can that compete with chocolate hazelnut heaven? I think not. There's a fabulous photo of those delectable, mouth watering, mound shaped chunks of chocolate hazelnut goodness wrapped in gold that we ate plenty of, on David Lebovitz's blog. He also tells all about it's history and how it's made. Very fascinating stuff. Makes me really want some Gianduja about now.
This is my sister eating some kind of tasty Swiss pastry we found in Mont Blanc (I'm pretty sure it's Mont Blanc at least.) Mont Blanc is the mountain behind her, I think.

Since the photos are like new to me I thought I would share them, because couldn't we all use a European vacation right about now?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

aahhhh italy. how nice. more importantly, where are the photos of the NEW DOG?!??!?!

(ps - bill has required me to add: "and what about my pillow?" to any sort of communication we have.....)

Anonymous said...

It's Torino, not Turino.

BuggletQuilts said...

Thank you anonymous, who I have a sneaking suspicion may be my sister, for pointing out that I combined the English and Italian spellings of Torino making it incorrectly spelled 2 out of 3 times. I have since changed the error of my ways. Do you know that spell check can't spell either Torino or Turin?
And Amy, my editing guru, how did you now catch this complete and total faux pas?