Torino - Tutto a Posto

Saturday morning I left Sanremo on an 11:45 train. I was traveling with Bethany who is at my camp and three other people. The first train ride was about two hours and it was fine. We were traveling through the mountains and all the scenery really reminded me of the bus ride I used to take between Ascoli and Rome. The greens of the mountains and the houses in the valley were just too amazing to sleep through. We had to transfer in Cuneo and my second train ride was pretty interesting. It was only an hour but I was sitting across from an INSANE person. This guy was definitely a drifter or something along those lines. When an employee came around to check everyone’s tickets this guy obviously didn’t have one so he started getting into an argument about it being ridiculous that people pay to use the trains and that he is a citizen of Italy and lots of weird things that I only half understood since he was yelling in Italian. Some woman he had been talking to offered to pay for him so he could stay which really sucked because I did not want to sit with him anymore. He also got into an argument with some old guy that was trying to help the employee and he shouted to everyone that the show was over after the woman paid. He also kept making comments about me because he didn’t think I could understand. He said a few times that I’m not in England so I should speak the language and other weird things like that. He also must be a drug addict because he kept getting up and moving around, taking things in and out of his bag, and was really ancy the whole time. And he had a dog with him that was literally cowering under the seat the whole time and looked really malnourished and mistreated. It was terrible. But finally after an hour I was free of him.

I got off at the Torino Ligotto station where my camp director Pino and my host family were waiting. My Italian family consists of Yuk the dad (it’s a nickname), Simona the mom, and Graziella my 14 year old sister. Before I went to their house Pino took me, Bethany and Elizabeth who also met us at the train station to a park to discuss the week. At the park we also met with Barbara who is a new camp director starting in two weeks (who I may work for) and Greta who is an Italian high school student that will be our “helper” for the next two weeks. After our meeting I went to my host family’s house which is pretty great. They gave me Graziella’s room for the next two weeks which has a balcony off of it and I have my own bathroom. They have a really big terrace with lots of plants and vegetables and we have been eating out on it for every meal so far! That night they made me dinner and we went a lot between speaking Italian and English. Simona speaks English fluently and Yuk and Graziella both speak pretty well. It’s fun speaking with Graziella because she gets nervous and doesn’t want to try but as I encourage her to keep going and we keep speaking she gets better and better. It’s pretty much how I feel about myself speaking Italian. After dinner we met Bethany and her host family and Elizabeth in the center or Torino to get some gelato. We went to this really delicious place called Grom and then walked around for a bit.

Torino is absolutely beautiful. The city is referred to as “little Paris” because it has a lot of influence and similar architectures from Paris. There is even a “mini Versailles.” After gelato my family drove me around to see some different piazzas and a really beautiful area near the river.

Today my camp director - who is awesome - took me, Bethany and Elizabeth to Bardonecchia which is about two hours outside of Torino. This is where all of the skiing, snowboarding and other mountain sports were held for the 2006 Olympics. We drove up the mountain and met two of his friends - a really really nice couple named Marinella and Alberto. For the next four hours we hiked and walked through THE ALPS. I can’t believe I can say that. At one point they even pointed to a mountain and said “that’s France.” It was pretty cool. We even saw a shepherd on a motorcycle herding cows through the mountain. After we finished our journey we went to Marinella and Alberto’s vacation home which was right near us and had a few snacks and enjoyed the AMAZING view.

I didn’t get back to Torino until around 7:45. I ate dinner with my family on the terrace again and we played some Wii after dinner. I’m really happy that I’m staying with them for the next two weeks because they have been so nice and generous to me so far. I’m also really happy that Pino is the camp director because he is incredible. He was even joking with me today about how I’m pale so I can tell he isn’t going to be a very serious person.

Tomorrow is my first day of camp so wish me luck!