Torino, Aosta, Courmayer, Spotorno

"Torino is never any shortage of opportunities for diversion, culture and amusment..."

This visit to Italy wasn't planned until a month before we left... which is quite wrong as we usually try our best to book holidays a long time before going for obvious reasons - it's cheap! We did plan Marocco in March or April and that's what we were looking forward to most of the time, but one day in July Piotrus said we should have done something more... and because we fell in love with Italy visiting it last year (Rome) there was no hesitation when choosing the place to go to. This time Torino !

Before we went to Turin we read loads of articles and comments about this city and found out that a lot of people actually considered it very mysterious and peaceful. Everyone was saying that there was something about Turin, something that makes this place very interesting, you can’t explain this something. And we found those comments true! It’s the mood, the people, everything about Torino that makes it a special place.
Even though we went to Turin in August which is obviously a very busy time, we didn’t encounter a lot of tourists. We then both agreed that everyone probably goes to Rome…
Back in Canterbury Piotrus planned the Torino trip very well. This time, instead of staying in one place whole week or so we decided to try to go lots of different spots in order to see as much as possible. And we tried our best to fulfil this wish. First three days we spent only in Turin:
We explored Torino wholly. First thing we saw was the centre of the Winter Olympic sports. It’s free to enter and believe us there is a lot to see! We found this place very interesting considering our knowledge about mentioned Olympic stuff wasn’t great; we only knew that they took place in Turin in 2006… that’s about it really! So as I said we found it very pleasant to be able to find out a little bit more. What we saw were two quite big buildings (which look very posh), they are separated by a fountain and surrounded with beautiful flowers and all sorts of plants. And inside those buildings there are posters, sculptures, toys, computers with available games and movies re: 2006 Olympic stuff etc. It all looks pretty amazing and really feeds you with a lot of information. There are nice ladies sitting there who speak million languages and are ready to give you info and advice both about Olympics and Turin (such as where to go, what to do etc., and they are very well prepared as they are Italian), you can also collect thousands of leaflets and maps on your way which you will then find useful.
At a first glance Turin looks very modest, and this is the secret of its beauty. And although women shop at Dolce&Gabbana, Channel or Gucci’s stores and men wear gold and expensive clothes, everyone is extremely polite and friendly, it seemed to us that Turinians love their city and are not trying to show off or follow some (western for example) trends.
Another amazing place on our list was the Egyptian Museum placed in the city centre. Even before you enter the museum you can admire the two absolutely enormous monuments in front of the entrance! Tickets to our surprise were very cheap (something about 6 Euros!). First few steps and we were shocked already… there it is in the middle of the first room - a glass coffin with an old skeleton and some pots and tools from ages ago! We were stunned! We couldn’t believe that those were actually real bones! It was soooo amazing! There were many more places and interesting spots that we saw in Turin! It really is a great place to visit. One more thing I was gonna mention is about our hotel. We stayed near the Olympic Stadium and our hotel was placed in such convienient area... there were supermarkets around, newsagents and of course loads of restaurants, pubs and bars! We spent so little money on food! We kept eating in one of the restaurants near our hotel, their pizza was for some 4 Euros! And it was like a proper pizza, massive with enormous olives and real tasty cheese! Lovely... Also a very important thing to see while in Turin is definetely the Turin Shroud kept in the church in the centre of Turin. To be honest, it really does look impressive. It literally makes you shiver seriously! When you get to the church there are lots of leaftets you can have a look at which describe the story of the Shroud and also talk about some scientific speculations about it (it says that apparently scientists managed to find out that the Shroud is not as old as people seem to think, it's been dated to the 12th century, but who knows...)...
Anyway... As I mentioned already, this trip was originally planned with a focus on moving aorund different places. Which means we didn't want to stay in Turin for a long time, but visit both mountains and the seaside, as we were not too far away. And so we did !! We started off with the Alpes! I don't think that there is anyone who actually wouldn't want to see Mont Blanc!!! We got on a train from Torino to Aosta first. W O W !!! seriously!!! Aosta looked fabulous! And we were so lucky to have a wonderful weather! The sun was shining and its light gave so much warmth and made the mountains look gorgeous... We had a bit of a wander around, had something to eat (here I have to say that we found the food quite expensive over in Aosta, but that's due to the tourism, Aosta lies near Switzerland and France and is of course on the way to Courmayeur where Mont Blanc can be both seen and visited, therefore lots of tourists stop in Aosta). Aosta, apart from the fact that it lies in the mountains so it simply has to be beautiful, has some ancient ruins and mysterious places which are definetely worth visiting! From Aosta we then headed to Courmayeur! Yes! Yes! Yes! I am still speechless!!!! A tiny town right next to MONT BLANC!! Oh it was outrageous!!! Totally!! We got there on a coach and on the way could admire beautiful waterfalls and generally the natural beauty. There is a path that leads to Mont Blanc itself, but of course only professionals can do the mountain hiking... I first of all wasn't wearing proper shoes, which Pete got a bit annoyed at, but oh well... women . We stayed there for a few hours and then had to get back to Aosta in order to catch a return train to Turin. We of course got some watermelon for out return trip LOL !!!!

Another further place that we visited was the seaside - more specifically - Spotorno (sounds familiar for some reason doesn't it? ) Again we took a train from Turin and had to change in Savona . When we finally got to Spotorno... oh man... this is waht we call proper holidays... lazing hours away on a boiling hot sand beach, extremely salty water and very hot sun... with of course amazing views!!! Yup, nothing better! Loved the water! A bit too salty for myself, but definetely warm and clean goody good!!!

Well, I think that's about it... It's quite hard to describe in words what we experienced... you know what I mean? It was another a really well organised visit, which we loved loads and only confirmed ourselves that we really like Italy!!! Everything about it!!! Food, people, language, weather... e x c e l l e n t !!!!

Ciao!!!

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