Blogs from Piedmont, Italy, Europe - page 13

It was a fairly slow start to the day as I was feeling a bit shady after last nights dinner! Headed into town around 2pm to look around before we had to marshall for the opening ceremony. Caught the train in and walked across the Po River to a large memorial, took some photos and then had a gelati. Wandered back to the Piazza Vittori Veneto and did a lap of the shops. The atmosphere was amazing with athletes from all over the world wandering around. The rest of the team arrived around four and we started taking photos of all the different teams and outfits. We all put on Australian flag tattoos and they were also very popular with the volunteers. There was entertainment till around seven when we were asked to make our way ... read more

We headed to Torino down a different route, every bit as beautiful the other roads we have travelled in this area. We arrived at our hotel, our home for the next eleven nights, around 12. Said goodbye to Emily, Jemima and Erin, who will head home in a couple of days from Milan, and checked in. Once unpacked, I sat in the lounge in the foyer and caught up on e-mails etc while waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. At around 3.30, 6 of us headed in to registration via the metro. Found our way a with a bit of help from a local and joined the line. Dad and John got taken off to the officials line and were done a little quicker than us. Despite the line looking long it did ... read more

Packed and trudged up the hill to the car, we were all soaked by the time we got there! After some tricky manoeuvring to get the car out we headed to Genoa. As we headed up and out Erin looked out and saw a whale. We decided not to go into Genoa as it had steep, windy, narrow roads! Kept on and stopped for lunch by the sea just south of Savona at Alhissola. We had, surprise surprise, pizza and pasta, except Mum who had a salad, which she didn't like. We then headed to Bossolasco where we had booked rooms at the Bella Vista hotel due to a review on the Internet. We chose Bossolasco as it was close to Alba, the home of Ferrero Rocher, which we wanted to visit. When we drove in ... read more

Our next campsite was Conca d'Ora near Verbania on Lake Meggiore. A really nice site with a small beach on the lake. We settled in for a week. We had done no washing since leaving home as we could not hang anything to dry. Conca d'Ora was our 'heaven'. Michelle was soon sunbathing on the beach and Terry washing and hanging out clothes. "the world has gone upside down" someone remarked. This was how we lived for the next few days. Then being advised from afar we set off on our bikes for Stresa which was nearly 6 miles away. We had never heard of it but what a lovely place. Some really exotic houses and hotels, none more than the Grand Hotel des Isles Borromees which was made famous by Hemingway's 'Farewell to Arms'. Stresa ... read more

Ciao belli ragazzi, Well tomorrows the big day of my move to Feltre!! Spent my last week in Ivrea eating cake, cake and more cake with Jo (the housekeeper) really going to miss both her and Adri who comes in the afternoons, as we all keep each other sane and cover for each other if needs be. Jo even bought me a little leaving present, which was really nice of her. Went to Balla with Jo twice this week and had the ‘Torta 900’ again, it’s soooo good. If I had discovered it 5 months ago when I first moved here I would definitely be morbidly obese by now. Looking forward to a new area, new people and new challenges. Although I did Google Street Map my new address and found that it’s in the middle ... read more