The Italian Job: Part 1 - Dolce Fare Niente

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Charles Dickens was probably looking into the future and describing my recent trip to Turin when he wrote this famous opening line for A Tale of Two Cities. If he was, he was right on the spot!

There were 2 completely distinct periods during my short stay in Torino: BH and AH (that's Before Hospital and After Hospital...). For the time being let's just focus on the BH period, ok?


So I went to Turin a couple of weeks ago on holiday and also to visit a friend who live there (who shall refer to as Superheroe friend for privacy sake). Seemed like killing two birds with one stone, visiting Superheroe friend and eating some nice italian food. Of course, me being one of the luckiest people alive (note: sarcasm), just the day before I got a nasty cold sore and the weather forecast was for rain for all 5 five days (yeah, in Italy in late May...). I thought that was just bad luck, but little did I know that was nothing compared to what was heading my way... But I digress.

It all started with what seemed like a really loooong day: I worked all day (having just returned from Birmingham), came home to get my luggage, went to London where I had a date with a guy I'd met the previous weekend (yes, with luggage trailing behind me and I don't travel light!). Then stayed at Tatiana's house, where I slept for a couple of hours and then headed to Stansted airport (which is just horrible during the night) and got on the plane to Turin. Met Superheroe friend just outside the airport in Turin and from then on I was on holiday, yay!

After settling down, I was treated with a guided tour around Torino and what a beautiful city it was! This was also the one morning when it was warm and sunny and everything looked even better. One of my favourite spots was Piazza Vittorio (future set of humillliation, but lets leave that for later), such a large gorgeous plazza with a river nearby.

Piazza Vittorio: beautiful and look, they're setting the stage for my "performance"

He also took me to this very cool place called Eatily, where I bought the biggest breadsticks I'd ever seen to bring back to office (and they absolutely loved them, disappeared in one day!). Another treat was some of the best ice-cream I've ever tasted, so creamy, so delicious! Of course being me, I made a mess eating it (yes Sara, napkins, napkins...) as it was huge and it started melting all over my hands, face, arms, well, all over! These are just some of the highlights of the BH period. Of course there were more sightseeing, some shopping (under lots of rain) and partying as well, just as holidays should be. What went wrong then? Lol, cliffhanger here, stay tuned for Part 2! In the meantime, some more Turin sights, enjoy!