Blogs from Piedmont, Italy, Europe - page 9

Well known as the home of the Shroud of Turin, and the football teams Juventus F.C. still...not many tourist will come to Turin, in fact ...there are more to offer in this former home for the Italian Royal family. Turin also the headquarters of automobile manufacturers FIAT, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Iveco. And the view of snow cap mountain of the Italian Alps off in the distance. The city is full of renaissance, baroque, rococo and neo-classical architecture. It isn't the typical Italian city, but more French with wide boulevards that some called it "the little Paris"; There are so many statue, Piazza and Palazzo, the main sight are congested between Porta Nuova train station and Porta Palazzo, and the huge market there attracted big crowd during the day, and the general commercial area lay mostly ... read more

I would rate Italy the top choice to travel in Europe. you don't need to scratch your head to long to come up with a bunch of places in Italy, Rome, Napoli, Florence, Pisa, Venezia, Milan....the list can go on, even Turin would count as off the track destination. Then...what is Ivrea? ever heard of Vico Canavese? well...I got myself into a work exchange for stay program and got the chance to spend a few days in this quiet mountain region, dotted with many lovely village, they are with a small town square, a church with bell tower, cobble alley and medieval stone arc passage. But my main object is to experience the life in a farm, as a city folk, the most heavy job for me should be to reinstall the water bottle for the ... read more

It is lovely to be woken by the sounds of church bells. We miss these back home as less and less church bells are rung these days. Just high days and holidays. The little church in the valley floor sounded lovely as its haunting ring rang across the landscape. We left the campsite and drove back up over the rickety old bridge which sounded as if it were ready to collapse and throw us and Suzy into the raging torrent below. Up the narrow lane to the village above and onto the motorway which would take us through the mountains where we would say goodbye to La Belle France and Hello to Bella Italia. The cols were all closed and firmly shut with signs up advising travellers of the state of fermee. The scenery changed from ... read more

Three days spent in the Italian mountains with my first year classes has been....something I never imagined I would have the opportunity to do, and am so happy I had this experience, Andiamo ragazzi!.... Pracatinat can be described as a 'retreat center' nestled into the Italian mountains, and is used by the Piedmont region schools for overnight trips. For the duration of the trip the students do team building activities, hikes, and plenty of free time for 'disco teacha' each evening. (dancing). To make it clear....it felt like I had the role as camp counselor for 25 Italian students for 3 days. I especially felt like a camp counselor because I do not have top authority over the students, and more importantly, cannot communicate enough with the students. So, I brought two important E's with me ... read more

Hello and happy Friday! I have no huge blog for you guys about an big adventure I have been on, because it has only been 5 days since my last trip. I am here to share some things I have left out in many previous blogs thst are overdue for a blog. So sit back, have a rest (as my host mother always says!) and have a cafe as you read away my friends. One thing, in my opinion, and many locals opinions, everyone must experience in Torino is the view from the top of the Mole Antonelliana. Mole, for short, was used as a synoggauge at first and is the tallest building in Turin. It was later turned into a cinema museum. The Mole is an easy building to find in skyline photographs of Turin ... read more