When it came to flights, we knew we wanted our final
destination to be as close to Torino as possible. Could we have flown into Milano and then
taken a bus or train to Torino? Sure we
could have, but Torino has a nice little airport that is a 20 minute drive from
the center of the city. We chose to book
on AirFrance which services Torino airport.
We were fortunate to book premier voyager seats (the AirFrance version
of premium economy) but as so often with flights, what you purchase may not
always be what you ultimately get. And
so the trip report will continue….
Saturday, August 30, 2014
I knew it was a sign when before we left for the airport I
got a text message, a voicemail message and an email from Delta about our
flight from JFK to Paris. Although we
flew AirFrance, I booked our flights through Delta since they service Savannah
(our “home” airport) and we are members of the Delta SkyMiles program (which
now sadly is becoming worthless for sporadic flyers like us). The email said our JFK to Paris flight had
been cancelled, so I made a call to Delta.
The agent assured me the flight was not cancelled, there was just a
change in equipment. Knowing this mom
and I are now thinking, our seats will probably get re-assigned, but at least
we had a heads-up about it and we also had a 6 hour layover at JFK, which would
give us plenty of time to sort things out.
At the Savannah airport I asked the gate agent about the equipment
change on the JFK to Paris flight and asked if we would need new boarding
passes. Try as she might, the system
wouldn’t allow her to print new boarding passes for us and her recommendation
was to go the AirFrance desk as soon as we got to JFK.
The flight to New York was uneventful and we arrived at terminal
4. Being the “thorough” trip planner I
am and having not been to JFK for several years I studied the airport maps and
found that AirFrance flights departed from terminal 1. With some more internet digging I found we
would have to transit outside the security area to go from one terminal to the
other. It wasn’t a big deal, but I’m
glad we checked our bags because it did entail exiting the front doors of
terminal 4, walking across the street and up a level to the plane train which
would whisk us to the front doors of terminal 1.
Once at terminal 1 we got in the line at the AirFrance
check-in desk and this is where things get interesting. We hand the agent our boarding passes and
explain the situation. She is typing
away on her keyboard and the system isn’t letting her print new boarding passes
for us. She then escorts us to the
AirFrance ticketing counter and another agent.
More typing on the keyboard. It
turns out our 9:50pm flight has been rescheduled to depart at 2am. We start to think, “ugh…now a long 6 hour
layover has turned into a 12 hour layover”.
But fear not, the agent has re-booked us on a 6pm departing flight! Yay!
The only wrinkle is that instead of having the 2 seats we selected on
the original flight which were located on the side of the plane (it was a 2-4-2
configuration) we had seats in the center, but at least one was on the
aisle. And we were leaving 3 hours
earlier, which was good because the security line we had to go through at JFK
took almost an hour.
 |
| We Love Premier Voyager Seats on Air France |
The other concern we had was our checked luggage, which was
now tagged for the flight leaving at 2am, the AirFrance agent helping us
through all this could not have been nicer. She called the baggage department several
times to try and speak with someone and get our bags re-routed. She was
unsuccessful, no one was answering. She
did call the AirFrance lounge attendant (we were able to gain access to the
lounge since I have Gold status on Delta and we were flying international) and
explained our situation and asked her to continue monitoring our baggage
situation. By this time mom and I were
resigned to the fact that our bags would probably not make it to Torino with us
but that was ok, we did have a change of clothes and we just weren’t going to
worry about it.
Once we got through the security line we made our way to the
AirFrance lounge. I read on FlyerTalk
the lounge at JFK was going through refurbishment and was scheduled to open in
late August. I guess August 30th
wasn’t late enough, they were still using the JAL lounge, but at least we got
to sit for an hour, have a few snacks and relax before boarding. The flight to Paris was uneventful and we
landed in Paris on time and now had a 4 hour layover before our flight to
Torino.
Sunday, August
31, 2014
I knew our connecting flight to Torino would be out of
terminal G at CDG. We’ve flown out of
that terminal previously and when arriving from the states into terminal 2E or
2F we always had to go through passport control at either of those terminals
then go out the front doors of the terminal to catch a shuttle bus to terminal
G and go through security there. I’m
happy to say things have changed. We
were able to get on a bus (on the secure side of the airport) after
disembarking and go to terminal G immediately where they have a smaller
passport control area with fewer crowds, actually when we went through there
was no one else there and since we never exited the secure airport area we didn’t
have to go through security again! We
made it to terminal G in less than 30 minutes.
Now we had close to a 4 hour wait, and we were really
starting to “suck wind” as my dad used to say when he got tired. But we were able to access the AirFrance
lounge here too and although much smaller than lounges in the other terminals
it was nice to sit, and “rest our eyes”.
Eventually our flight was called to board and we had a short
flight to Torino, just over an hour and we were landing at about 2:30pm. As we waited at baggage claim for our bags,
we were not very hopeful with the flight change that occurred, a miracle
happened. I spotted mom’s bag at the top
of the baggage carousel and mine came out shortly thereafter. We thought we were seeing a mirage but were
thrilled we would have clean clothes!
 |
| Very Comfortable Room at TownHouse 70 Hotel |
After booking our hotel in Torino I contacted the staff and
they arranged for a car service to pick us.
It was worth the €50 cost.
When we arrived at the TownHouse 70 Hotel we were greeted warmly and the
check-in process was quick.
 |
| First Aperitivo in Torino |
We had a short nap and a shower and then took a walk to get
oriented with our surroundings and then made our way over to Caffe Torino (here
is the website: http://www.caffe-torino.it/Caffe_Torino/Intro.html
) in Piazza San Carlo for aperitivo. I
had my first negroni sitting outside at a stunning caffe in a beautiful
piazza. Life was good and the caffes in
Torino are really something to see! Since
we were pretty tired from our travels after a couple drinks and a few nibbles
we toddled back to the hotel and crawled into bed for some much needed sleep.
Monday, September 1, 2014
First on the agenda today was a visit to the Torino tourist
office in Piazza Castello, which is conveniently located around the corner from
our hotel. When researching this trip I
came across information about the Torino + Piemonte Card and I’ve got to say
this is probably the best tourist card deal in any city I’ve ever visited. We bought the 3 day gold card which included
a 3 day transit card for travel on all buses, trams and metro. The card was €38 and for that you
get free admission into almost every museum in Torino. The brochure says free admission into 200
museums, monuments, exhibitions, fortresses, castles and Royal Residences in
Torino and Piemonte. We definitely got
our monies worth out of it, especially when we went out to La Venaria Reale, a
Royal Palace, 15km outside Torino, but more on that later. The card also gives discounts to the
Hop-on/Hop-off buses and a tourist boat, which we didn’t use.
My plan was since we purchased the cards on Monday and many
of the museums were closed we would buy the cards, but not activate them until
Tuesday. This worked out perfectly
because Friday we had plans to go to Milano for the day. So we would have the three days in the middle
of week to use the card. I was happily
surprised with the woman at the tourist office when we purchased the cards, she
made sure I knew many of the museums were closed on Mondays and that it would
be better to activate the card on Tuesday when most places were open.
 |
| Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Torino |
With our tourists cards tucked away in our bags we set off
to visit the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist to see the replica of the Shroud
of Turin. There were several other
people there and there was a video loop in what had to be 10 languages set up
next to the shroud display. When the
docent saw mom and I sitting there waiting to watch the video in English, she
came over and asked what language we wanted and advanced the cycle to the
English version, just another Torinese who was being very kind to us.
Our next stop after the cathedral was the Porta Palazzo
Market. The market is said to be the
largest covered market in Europe and I believe it, although Monday probably wasn’t
the best day to visit because some of the food stalls (the seafood vendors for
instance) were closed up. This makes
sense, because I’m assuming they are most busy on weekends. But we did get to meander through the flower,
fruit and vegetable stalls which is always fun for us.
 |
| Delicious Café Bicerin |
It was getting to be early afternoon and we decided to set
out on a mission to find Cafe Bicerin where we could sit and have the cafe’s
namesake drink the Bicerin. This is a
coffee and chocolate and whipped cream beverage that after one sip I thought I
heard angels singing, it was the perfect combination of chocolaty goodness with
strong coffee. Of course, with the sun
splitting the sidewalk and the temperature in the 80’s, maybe the weather wasn’t
conducive to this warm beverage, but we enjoyed it all the same. Here’s a link to the Café Bicerin
website: http://www.bicerin.it/eng/
 |
| Santuario della Consolata |
While sitting outside at Café Bicerin we noticed the church
across the piazza. It was the Santuario
della Consolata (you can read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santuario_della_Consolata
). Once we were finished with our caffeinated
beverages we ambled over to the church to have a peek inside. Oh My Goodness! The interior just took our breath away, it
was very ornate, which you would never guess from the outside, but we find that
to be the norm with many of the churches in Italy. Along with the ground floor alter there was a
stunning underground chapel. We thought
the elliptical shape of the interior was very interesting.
Next on our agenda was a visit to the Museum of the Shroud. But first we wanted to get stamps. Yes, even in this age of Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram mom and I still send a few postcards back home. We had about an hour to “kill” waiting for
the museum to open at 3pm and as luck would have it there was a post office
just down the block from the museum.
With my previous experience in Italian post offices, I
figured it may well take us an hour to buy stamps! I continue to try and understand the
ticket-taking system in effect in Italy’s post offices and I think I’ve got it down
now, but part of my difficulty is I can never remember which letter on the
ticket machine is for the stamps only window and not being fluent in Italian I
almost always have to “puzzle-things-out”.
So I usually stand around for a few minutes to watch how this finely
orchestrated process works. Inevitably I
still get it wrong on the first try, but eventually I manage to get the
correctly coded ticket number for the stamp window. When I’ve tried asking for help in the past I
usually got an “eye-roll”, so sometimes I feel it’s better to observe before
proceeding!
Once we have our ticket we wait for our number to be
called. I’ve got to say, we have
purchased plenty of stamps in Italy at post offices and we have never been
treated so kindly in all of our experiences.
We stepped up to the counter when our number was displayed on the screen
and the woman helping us was a pleasure.
I managed to ask for the number of stamps we needed for postcards to the
U.S. and she acknowledged she understood what I had requested. Then there was a “conference” between her and
another woman and lots of smiles and nodding of heads at me and mom. More confirmations the stamps were for the “Stati
Uniti”…Si, Si, Si. Then she proceeded to
lovingly tear off the number of stamps we needed. More conversation with her co-worker and then
scanning the barcodes for the stamps into the computer to come up with the
amount we owed.
With our stamps now tucked into our bags next to our tourist
cards we were ready for the Museo della Sindone, known in English as the Museum
of the Shroud. (Here is the museum
website: http://www.sindone.it/#band_en&LL=en
). Since we didn’t want to activate our tourist
cards just yet, I paid the €6 entry fee and mom scored the senior
citizen discount, I think it was €4.
Although small, this museum was very interesting if you are
into the story of the shroud, which we were.
The museum is operated by the confraternity of the shroud and the men
and women working the day we visited were very proud of the museum they are
entrusted with operating. We were given a
handset which was queued up for the English language audio and ushered into a
large room with a video screen. The
video of the shroud was fascinating and after the video was finished we were
directed down to the basement level to a large room set up with displays of the
history of the shroud. We took our time
looking at each display and after about one hour we had made our way completely
around the room.
We went up to the ground level to return our handsets and
thought we were done, when the nice woman working asked us if we had seen the
adjacent chapel? Oh, my, how did we miss
that! She walked us back to the entry for
the chapel happily chatting away about the history of the building. Of course, our Italian isn’t the best but we could
understand every 8th word or so.
The chapel was lovely and I’m glad we were re-directed to go see
it. During our visit there were only 4
of us in the museum.
 |
| Aperitivo at Banco |
By the time we exited the museum it was getting close to our
favorite hour of the day…Aperitivo! I
had a recommendation from a wine-loving friend in Rome of an enotecca called
Banco, so mom and I strolled over and took a seat at one of the tables outside.
Banco Vini e Alimenti (Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/bancoviniealimenti
) is the “little sister” of Ristorante Consorzio, where we would be having
dinner. But just because it’s an “off-shoot”
doesn’t mean it’s inferior. Quite the
contrary, the wine list (more like an encyclopedia) is excellent with a depth
of wines from Italy and also France and Germany. The by the glass list is limited, but the choices
are excellent. I chose to have a local
Gavi wine and mom had a Riesling. We
were both very happy and would make repeat visits to this spot over the week.
 |
| Aperitivo at Neuv Caval'd Brons |
Since we are big-time aperitivo lovers after our glasses at
Banco we decided to pop over to Piazza San Carlo again and try out another café. This time it was Neuv Caval’d Brons (website
here: http://www.cavallodibronzo.it/en/
) We settled into a table outside on the
piazza and enjoyed glasses of the local Piemonte Arneis wine. There is a wide spectrum of Arneis wines, and
we tasted many ranging from average to exceptionally delicious. The glasses at this café were average, but it
didn’t stop us from enjoying the little snacks brought to our table. You could say our motto is any wine tastes
good with a little food…LOL!
 |
| Grizinni at Consorzio |
As the sun started to set we knew it was time to walk over
to Ristorante Consorzio for our 8:30pm dinner reservation. The restaurant website is here: http://www.ristoranteconsorzio.it/home_en.html
. From the moment we walked in I knew
this was our kind of place. Very rustic atmosphere,
wooden tables covered with red and white striped tablecloths and on a Monday
night every table was full. Finding this
restaurant was not pure luck, as I had read about it from Rome blogger Elizabeth
Minchilli and since its location was within walking distance to our hotel the
choice to dine here was simple for us to make.
 |
| Carne Crudo at Consorzio |
We were greeted warmly when we entered. The staff was very
accommodating in helping us decipher the menu, although we did manage to
understand much of it without help. If
nothing else, we do knew our Italian food words! Mom and I decided to both have the degustation
menu and we let the owner select a wine to go with our meal. There was an amuse bouche of rabbit in a
savory marinade and of course, being Piemonte, there were grissini on the
table, this region’s version of breadsticks.
The first course was carne cruda, now we’ve had steak tartar before, but
it never came close to this. Yes, it’s
raw meat, but it is so delicious we hardly realized we were eating raw meat, it
simply melted in the mouth. The next
course was an egg croccante (it was fried goodness on the outside and creamy,
eggy goodness on the inside) with spinach and cheddar cheese sauce and
pancetta. Mom proclaimed this her
favorite course. The third course was
agnolotto gobo, which was a local ravioli stuffed with pork, rabbit and
beef. The pasta was cooked to perfection
and the meat stuffing was delectable.
The last course was brasato di fassone with seasonal vegetables. This was local beef cooked to perfection with
a sauce that had so much flavor I wished I had more vegetables to sop it up
with. With 2 espresso and 2 glasses of
the dessert wine, passito we could not have been more satisfied with this
meal. Everything about it was
top-notch. The flavors, the portions,
the wine, the service. I will heartily
recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Torino. The cost of the meal was
€110. We liked it so much we
went back later in the week and our hotel concierge really came through for us
with getting a reservation for us there on a Friday night with very little notice. As a side note, just a few weeks ago, I
noticed this restaurant has received 3 Gamberro Rosso, which is a high accolade
in the Italian restaurant world.
 |
| Egg Crocante with Spinach at Consorzio |
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
 |
| At La Venaria |
Originally we planned to stay in Torino this day and see
some of the museums, but the weather was beautiful so we decided to make our
visit to La Venaria Reale (website here: http://www.lavenaria.it/web/ ). This complex is a former royal palace of the
Savoy kingdom. It is located
approximately 15km from the center of Torino and easily reachable by public
transport. It’s included in the Torino +
Piemonte card and with a regular admission price of €25 having the card
really paid off and because the tourist card also included a 3 day
transportation ticket the usual €6 roundtrip bus ticket was also
covered. Depending on traffic it takes
about 50 minutes to get from the center of Torino to the gates of the palace
complex.
 |
| La Veneria |
La Veneria Reale is sometimes referred to as the Versailles
of Italy and we thought it was truly a spectacular site. It was built in the mid-17th
century as a place for royalty to hunt.
It fell into disrepair over many years and in the 1990’s became a large
restoration project. In 1997 it was placed
on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
 |
| Gardens at La Veneria |
Not only is the palace interesting to walk through but the
gardens surround the complex are lovely and the backdrop of the mountains on
the clear, cloudless day we were there made it all seem simply
breathtaking. I should note that although
there were other people visiting the palace and grounds it felt like mom and I
were the only ones there. Several times
we found ourselves to be the only two people meandering through the labyrinth of
rooms, or crunching our footstep over the gravel pathways in the gardens. Some of the space is used for temporary
exhibits and when we visited, there was an exhibit of opera and theater
costumes by Italian designers, which was entertaining to see.
At around 4pm we caught the bus back to Torino and were
ready to enjoy our aperitivo. We stopped
back in at Banco for a glass of wine and then made our way around the corner to
catch a bus to the neighborhood where we would be having dinner, just a 15 bus
ride away.
 |
| Aperitivo at Enotecca Rossorubino |
We were too early for our 8:30pm reservation but I had the
name of another enotecca in this neighborhood I wanted to try and it was
strategically located right across the street from the bus stop we got off
at. I love Google maps when reaching and
planning trips, to scope out what’s in areas I know we’ll be visiting and that’s
how I found Enotecca Rossorubino. It’s a
well-stocked wine shop in front and a nice little wine bar with a few tables in
the back.
As we walked in, I could see the rear of the space was
crowded, but there were a few empty table so we sat down and let the nice
server recommend a local white wine for us.
We were pleasantly surprised with the wine, which I now realize I
neglected to write down the name of, but I know it was not an Arneis, or a
Gavi, but the server did say it was a local grape. When she first put the glasses down I was a
bit hesitant because the color seemed dark to me, and in the past I’ve been
wary of dark golden colored wines, but one sip and both mom and I were in
heaven, it was delicious and so were the wine crackers they served with it.
When our glasses were empty we knew it was time to walk to
dinner at Scannabue (website here: http://www.scannabue.it/
) Not knowing anything about this area,
I would have to say it felt like an “It” neighborhood. The street we walked down to get from the
enotecca to the restaurant was full of crowded restaurants with customers
(mostly the young-ish looking set) spilling out the doors and onton adjacent
patios and sidewalks.
 |
| Delicious Vitello Tonnato at Scannabue |
Scannabue was another recommendation from a friend and I’m
glad we followed her advice. It was a rather
warm night and we sat outside under the restaurant awning. I’m glad we did, because as pleasant as the
interior looked, even with the floor to ceiling doors open it seemed like the
diners sitting inside were pretty steamy.
We took a look at the menu and it offered the typical
Piemontese cuisine, which we were more than happy to see. After selecting what
to eat we decided to have a bottle of local Arneis white wine, which quickly
became a new favorite for us.
 |
| Gnocchi at Scannabue |
For a starter I had the vitello tonnato, which is veal with
a tuna sauce, I’ve had this before but never like this, I found it to be
delicious. I will say it was the best
vitello tonnato I had in a restaurant on this trip, we also got to experience several
homemade versions during our time on the wine tour and they were
outstanding. Mom selected the tart tatin
with onion and gorgonzola which was tasty, but even she said the vitello
tonnato was the “winner” of that round.
For my main dish I had gnocchi with a local cheese sauce, this gnocchi
was pillow light, unlike some versions I’ve had which can be like little lead
balls. Mom had the amberjack fish with
hummus and caponata for her main dish.
We ended the meal with 2 espresso and 2 glasses of the dessert wine,
passito. With a bottle of water the
total cost of the meal was €80.
This was a great way to end a lovely day.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
It was another great weather day, in fact,
during this entire trip we only had rain twice and each time it was at night,
when we were tucked away fast asleep.
Maybe this contributed to why we loved Torino and the Piemonte region so
much. We were told by many people we
encountered the summer was a very wet one in Piemonte and by early September the
nice weather arrived, just when we did!
 |
| Mole Antonellianna |
We spent today visiting several museums and
the first was the National Museum of Cinema located inside the Mole Antonelliana. The website is here: http://www.museocinema.it/index.php?l=en
. This building has an interesting
history and has an unusual square dome with a thin spire. It’s Torino’s landmark building (it was
emblazoned on tee shirts all over the city).
We decided to take the elevator to the top of the building to see the panoramic
view before going through the cinema museum.
The elevator whisked us right up through the interior center of the building
which was a fun experience. Once at the
top and outside the views over Torino and to the Dolomite mountains were gorgeous.
When we had our fill of the beautiful view
we took the elevator back down and took a spin around the cinema museum. There were several interactive exhibits on
the history of film, which were amusing to play around with, it made us feel
like kids again.
 |
| At The Top of Mole Antonellianna |
It wasn’t a far walk from the cinema museum
to the Palazzo Reale where we spent some time walking through the rooms and
soaking in the history of the House of Savoy royalty. The museum website is here: http://www.ilpalazzorealeditorino.it/
. More on the Palazzo Reale can be read
here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace_of_Turin
Thursday, September 4, 2014
 |
| The Kitchen at the Decorative Arts Museum |
Today was an easy-going day, we slept in a little and then
went to the Fondazione Accorsi-Ometto, Museo di Arti Decorative. Here is the website: http://www.fondazioneaccorsi-ometto.it/en/. In my pre-trip research I knew visitors to this
decorative arts museum had to take a guided tour, but could not find times the
tours started, so mom and I arrived at the museum just after 10:30am and joined
a tour that had just started. Actually
the nice lady taking the tickets was very concerned that the tour had already
started and she came around her desk and ushered us into an elevator that took
us to the floor where the guide had begun the tour. We were maybe 10 minutes late and only missed
one room on the tour.
This tour was only in Italian, but the staff gave us an English
language translation guide with photos of specific pieces in each room. There was an Italian family of four on the
tour with us who knew some English, so if the guide was very animated about a
certain piece or there was a new piece in the collection, that wasn’t in the
English guide, the father of the family was kind enough to give us a little
translation. And, frankly it was good
for mom and I to hear Italian being spoken (the guide seemed to be speaking
especially clearly and slowly) to us, so we could practice our language
comprehension skills!
This is the type of museum mom and I love to see. The palace where this museum is located is
owned by the family of the original curator of this phenomenal art collection. The pieces of artwork and furniture are
displayed in the rooms as if they are being used for their intended
purpose. Mom and I enjoyed seeing it
all, but especially the kitchen with all the cooking and serving utensils on display.
Since this museum is just a few steps from the large Piazza
Vittorio Veneto, when the tour was over and we said our thank-yous and goodbyes
we walked across the street to an outdoor café to get a cold drink and enjoy
the warm weather.
Later in the afternoon we stopped at the Egyptian
Museum. The website is here: http://www.museoegizio.it/pages/hp_en.jsp
. The collection is quite extensive, but
we aren’t much into Egyptian art, so after about an hour we called it a day and
went back to the hotel to catch up on emails and had a little down time.
 |
| Aperitivo at Tre Galli |
For our aperitivo we headed to a wine bar/restaurant called
Tre Galli, located just a short walk from our hotel and the “little sister” of
the restaurant where we would be having dinner.
I had read several reviews of Tre Galli, each one extolling the wine list
and they were all true, the wine list is massive. Since we were there for aperitivo we ordered
from the wine by the glass list, which of course, had a smaller selection, but
still a very good variety. We also had
the Piemontese cheese plate, which was excellent. We sat at an outside table and watched the
world go by and the tables around us fill up.
In hind-sight, we probably should have stayed here for dinner.
 |
| Red Pepper Risotto at Tre Galline |
Our dinner reservation was at Ristorante Tre Galline. The website is here: http://3galline.it/en/
. As we walked in we felt like we were
stepping into an elegant “old school” establishment. We were greeted warmly and seated at a lovely
white table-clothed table. The service was
attentive. Some of the food was
hit-and-miss. Mom and both had the same
dishes (two nights in a row!). We
started with a red pepper risotto with black olives, which was very good and
had lots of flavor. I think our mistake
was ordering a local fish dish, but on the menu it was marked as a specialty of
the house and we thought since we had been eating rather heavy Piemontese
cuisine maybe a fish would lighting things up.
It was lighter, but it was also fairly dry and the potatoes served with
the dish were very uninspired. They
looked like little boiled potato footballs.
The highlight was the local Arneis white wine we had with dinner. I tried valiantly for a recovery by ordering “deconstructed”
tiramisu for, and it was creamy, but if I’m being honest, I’ve had better
elsewhere. But every meal can’t be a
winner. The total cost of the meal was
€103.
Friday, September 5, 2014
 |
| Fast Train to Milano |
Today we did a day trip to Milano. For as long as I can remember mom and I
wanted to see the Last Supper by Leonardo DiVinci, but we had never made a trip
to Milano. We figured this was the
perfect opportunity since Torino was only a one hour train ride away on the
fast train.
Even with waking up early on the day the tickets for September
viewings of the Last Supper became available in June and immediately jumping on
the website, I still didn’t get my preferred day for the week I needed. Friday, September 5th was one of
the last days available for the week we were there. The tickets can be purchased here: http://www.vivaticket.it/index.php. Sure, we could have booked a tour that would take
us there, but those tours didn’t interest us and buying tickets directly from
the website were €8 vs. the full price of some packaged tours.
Our train from Torino to Milano departed at 9:50am and it
was an easy tram ride from near the hotel to the train station. At that time of day, the train was not
crowded and we were in Milano by 10:50am.
Our first stop was at a newsstand at Milano Centrale train station to
buy metro tickets and then we were off too see the Duomo (cathedral) of Milano.
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| Milano Cathedral |
We enjoyed seeing this beautiful cathedral from both outside
and inside and after about an hour we were ready for lunch. We didn’t want to stray too far from the
duomo area, so we walked over to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and grabbed an
outside table at Il Camparino, a café on the corner of the galleria and the
Piazza del Duomo. Was it crowed and full
to tourists? Yes, of course, the location
was adjacent to one of the biggest tourist sites in Milano, but we had a couple
really good sandwiches and a couple cold beverages and we had great seats to
watch the throngs of people shuffle by.
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| Lunch in Milano |
Even though I purchased the Last Supper tickets online, we
had to pick-up the tickets at the museum prior to our assigned entry time. So we got on the metro and made our way to a
stop near the museum. It’s a good thing
I allowed for a little extra time for this, because the metro cars were very
crowded and by the time I realized we were at our stop, the doors closed and we
were off again. Fortunately we got off
at the next stop, and were able to get to the platform going back in the other
direction and we went back one stop. It
was about a 15 minute walk from the metro station to the museum and even with
our little misstep, we were about 20 minutes early. No worries though, I was able to get our
tickets and then sit and wait on the benches inside for our time to be called.
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| Church of Santa Maria della Grazi |
Mom and I really enjoyed viewing the Last Supper, we feel it
really is an extraordinary piece of artwork.
An oversight on my part was not purchasing the audio guide. There were interpretive signs describing the
painting, which we read, but I think the audio guide probably would have given
us much more detail. We enjoyed it
anyway and were happy that we made the trip to Milano.
Prior to the trip I had done some research on the public transportation
options to and from the museum and knew there should have been a tram stop
nearby which would take us back to the duomo area and save us the trek to the
metro. As we exited the museum I
realized the tram stop was right across the street, so we hopped on and in
about 15 minutes were back at the duomo.
We did a little more picture taking with the cathedral as our background
and then off to the metro to go back to the train station.
We arrived back in Torino around 6pm, which was just in time
for aperitivo! Tonight we decided to
have our pre-dinner wine at the hotel in the nice lobby area. A couple glasses of Arneis wine and we were
happy. Our hotel was able to book a
table for us at Consorzio and being a Friday night, I had the feeling this wasn’t
an easy task.
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| Tortino di Bacala at Consorzio |
We were welcomed warmly back at Consorzio and had the same great service we did earlier
in the week. Mom decided she enjoyed the
starter she had last time, the egg crocante, that she ordered it again and said
it tasted even better than the first time!
I had a bacala (cod fish) starter, which was delicious. We both had the same pork main dish, which
was tender and moist on the inside with a crispy skin on the outside, the
flavor was excellent. We selected a Gavi
white wine to have with dinner, which was a recommendation of a sommelier
friend of mine and it went perfectly with our meal. To end things we had the Piemonte cheese
plate, which was delectable. My notes
are a bit splotchy here, but I’m pretty sure we also had espresso and a digestivo,
but I don’t have that in my notes. The
total cost of this meal was €112.
We thought this was a great way to end a lovely day.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Today was the day we moved hotels, so we had a leisurely
morning, with a nice breakfast at the Town House 70 hotel. It was only a 10 minute taxi ride to the
Grand Hotel Sitea and we were checking in there just before noon.
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| Grand Hotel Sitea |
The hotel room was enormous and comfortable but we wanted to
get out and enjoy the beautiful day. We
left our bags in the room and went out to do a little window shopping. Later in the afternoon I had arranged to meet
up with a woman who has a food and wine focused blog. It was interesting to
speak with a local and hear about her efforts promoting food and wine in Torino. She also tipped us off to a new (to us) beverage,
the aqua di menthe. We thought it was
incredibly refreshing and so simple, a glass with mint syrup and sparkling
water, mix it together and ahhhh….cool and crisp! She told us there is an area in the Piemonte
region known for its mint and that is why this drink is popular there.
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| Aperitivo at Grand Hotel Sitea |
It was getting to be the time we would need to meet our tour
group, so we said our good-byes and walked back to the hotel. As we walked into the lobby we were happy to
see our good friend and tour guide Marcello.
We sat down and had a nice long chat and caught up with what had been
going on with him and his family. Then
we were to meet back up with him and the other couple on the tour, at around
7:30pm. That was perfect for us, because
we could avail ourselves of the bar at the hotel for aperitivo.
The bar at the Grand Hotel Sitea is small, but has lots of
atmosphere and the most elegant aperitivo we’ve experienced. Service was efficient and mom and I each had
a glass of Arneis wine and some really lovely little snacks.
We met Marcello and the others in the lobby at 7:30pm and
took a short walk to dinner. Our first
meal together was at Osteria degli Ottoni and it was another great experience of
typical Piemontese foods. Marcello made
sure we got a good taste of what the region has to offer.
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| Tajarin Pasta |
For starters we had several small tastes of different local specialties,
honestly, there were so many plates coming to the table I can hardly remember
them all. We tasted another good version
of carne crudo, some vitello tonnato, anchioves in a green sauce and a torte of
peppers. Mom and I split an order of the
tarjarin pasta and this was the best we had on the trip. For my main dish I had a deliciously moist
and perfectly cooked guinea hen with more of those delightful local peppers. I wish I could remember what mom’s main dish
was and I didn’t write it down, but I do remember she was pleased with it. For dessert mom and I shared warm peaches
filled with chocolate, which were not too sweet but had lots of chocolate
flavor. It was a perfect way to start
our tour!
Sunday, September 7, 2014
The breakfast buffet at the Grand Hotel Sitea was extensive,
there was so much variety on offer it was hard to choose. In the end, we had a typical breakfast for
us, cappuccino, some type of toast/bread with a little cheese and prosciutto. It was all very good. We could have indulged in some Prosecco too,
but our body clocks were telling us it wasn’t “time” yet for a bubbly beverage.
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| Palazzo Carignano |
Part of the group wine tour itinerary included a city tour
of Torino with a local guide and we met Laura in the lobby at around 10am. Having been in Torino for a week, many of the
places we visited with Laura we had seen, but it was interesting to hear more
about the city’s history from a professional who lives there. She also directed us to a church, just
adjacent to the Royal Palace, we did not see earlier in the week. I’m glad she took the time to show us this
small church, it was just beautiful inside, and we had been walking by it all
week without knowing what a treasure was behind the plain building exterior.
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| Aqua di Menthe at Café Mussalano |
The city walking tour ended around 12:30pm and mom and I
stopped at one of the famous Torino cafes (Café Mussalano) for a cool drink. We each had an aqua di menthe and relaxed in
our chairs under a portico and watched people walk by, it was a nice way to end
our week stay in Torino.
On our way back to the hotel to meet Marcello and head out
to our next destination mom and I happened upon an outdoor market and spent
some time browsing and picking up a few little mementos for family back at
home.
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| Banners for the Sagra del Dogliani |
By 4pm we were all in Marcello’s car and driving out of
Torino heading for the town of Dogliani in the Piemonte region. Dogliani would be our home away from home for
the next five nights. As we approached
the town center Marcello remarked that the Sagra del Dogliani was going on and
if we wanted to check it out he would drive us back into town after we got settled
into our accommodations. We thought that
was a great idea.
 |
| Relais Poderi Einaudi |
We stayed at the Relais Poderi Einaudi just a few minutes
(by car) outside the center of Dogliani.
The website is here: http://www.relaiseinaudi.com/ This was
a lovely guesthouse, adjacent to their winery.
The view from our room was gorgeous.
The accommodations were very comfortable and the staff was very
pleasant. There is even a swimming pool
shaped as a wine bottle and although the temperatures were warm enough to swim,
neither mom nor I ever took a dip, maybe that’s a reason to return!
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| In Dogliani with Marcello! |
It didn’t take us long to get settled in and soon we were
back in Marcello’s car and on our way to explore the Sagra del Dogliani. This was our first time at such a festival
and mom and I were glad that we got to experience it, even if at 6pm things
were starting to wind down. We poked
around at the stalls set up selling all kinds of local food specialties. Mom even bought some black rice, which we
still haven’t prepared, but I’m sure with mom’s great cooking skills and the
bit of advice she got from the rice vendor she will be able to whip up a great
dish.
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| Aperitivo in Dogliani |
As we meandered through the narrow streets of the center of
Dogliani, we came upon a wine bar full of happy people and there were some open
tables outside. Mom and I now looked at
our watches and agreed it was “time” for a bubbly beverage! We sat down for our daily aperitivo and
ordered 2 Aperol spritzes. They were perfect. Not long after, Marcello found us, and
gathered us together to go to dinner.
 |
| Dinner at Il Torchio |
Tonight’s dinner was at Il Torchio, which has a lovely,
rather larger outdoor patio that was the perfect location for our first dinner
in Dogliani. Here is their website: http://www.osteriavineriailtorchio.it/ Marcello and the wait staff conferred over
the wine list and selected a couple different reds for us to try. Seeing that we would be drinking reds, mom
and choose to go with meat main dishes.
But first we enjoyed delicious first courses. Mom had an asparagus and leek flan which was
creamy and was full of flavor and I had the local plin pasta. Both were good, but mom’s flan was the “winner”
for that round. For main dishes I had the
stracotto, which is similar to pot roast, with seasonal vegetables and it was
perfectly cooked, I didn’t even need a knife to cut it, it was so tender. Mom had grilled steak with the best carrots
she has ever had, or so she said! We
ended the meal with our signature, espresso and digestivo. Mom enjoyed her limoncello and had an
amaro. We then poured ourselves into
Marcello’s car (good thing he was the designated driver) and we were back at
the guesthouse in less than 10 minutes.
Monday, September 8, 2014
During this entire trip we had spectacular weather (lucky
us!) and today was exceptionally beautiful.
If we placed a special order for perfect weather it certainly was
delivered!
 |
| At Fontanafredda Winery |
Today we did a morning winery tour and tasting at
Fontanafredda located in Serrlunga d’Alba.
Here is the winery website: http://www.fontanafredda.it/web/en/home-eng/ This was by far the largest and most
commercial of the wineries we visited this week. The owners are associated with Eataly, the
giant Italian food stores that are now popping up in all corners of the globe.
The history of the winery was interesting and the wines we tasted
were very nice, but since we have wines by this producer available to us here
at home, mom and I choose not to buy any wine here. There were several other people on the winery
tour with us and we got to chatting with a foursome from Norway.
 |
| At La Rosa dei Vini what a view! |
Lunch today was
at La Rosa dei Vini in Serralunga. Here is their website: http://www.larosadeivini.com/index_ENG.html lunch was good, the food was tasty and the
accompanying wines went well with the meal but the real reason to dine at this
restaurant is for the view. It was a
stunner and with the cloudless blue sky we had, it was like heaven! For our 2 hour lunch I went “all out” and had
toma (local) cheese baked and wrapped in a grape leaf and then a deliciously
filling bowl of porcini mushroom risotto.
Mom decided to “go light” with a chicken salad with balsamic. We had our first taste of a local Piemontese
Sauvignon Blanc which we liked very much, followed by a Nebbiolo wine.
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| Poderi Luigi Einaudi Winery |
After lunch we took a scenic drive back to our accommodations
for a brief rest before doing an afternoon wine tasting right at our
guesthouse, the Podieri Luigi Einaudi Vineyards. Here is the winery website: http://www.poderieinaudi.com/en/
We tasted several of the red wines
produced here and 2 of their whites. All
very drinkable, but mom and still didn’t splurge yet on any bottles of wine to
bring home.
 |
| Le Case Della Saracca |
Aperitivo and dinner were at one of my favorite places on
the tour. Marcello drove us to Monforte
D’Alba to Le Case Della Saracca and all I can say is WOW! This winebar/restaurant (and they also rent
several guestrooms) is in a re-purposed building and it spans at least 4
floors. There was lots of brick, stone
and wood throughout and plenty of spiral staircases that seemed to never end!
The first area we entered was the wine bar area and
aperitivo was in full swing. There were
lots of tasty little snacks set up on the bar and lots of people standing
enjoying their wines. There were several
high bar tables/chairs for the lucky ones who could grab them. I let the owner select my wine for me and he
choose a lovely sparkling wine from the region, and of course, I failed to get
the name and write it down. Oh well,
that just means I need to make a return visit, and I’m serious about that statement,
I really liked this place a lot!
 |
| Rabbit with peppers at Le Case Della Saracca |
For our dinner we were seated at a table right in front of a
former bread oven, talk about atmosphere!
We started with a plate of culatello to share among the table. This is one of my favorite hams in all of
Italy, if I had to describe it, I would have to say it was soft and melted in
the mouth. For my main dish I had rabbit
with local peppers, we’ve found the peppers in Piemonte to be absolutely
delicious. Mom had vegetarian lasagna with
pesto and it was served “atomic” hot as we like to say, the steam was wafting
up from the dish in little puffs, it was another winning dish. We ended the meal with coffee and I had a
local amaro digestivo to finish the night.
Another wonderful wine-soaked day!
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
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| Vineyard near Alba |
This was our truffle hunting day! Marcello drove us to a village near the town
of Alba where we met Stefano, our truffle hunter friend. This was one of the things mom was really
looking forward to and I’m glad we were able to do this was Stefano. When we got out of the car, Stefano was
getting the dogs ready, there were 2 dogs.
The forest area we were to hunt in had a few inclines, but mom and I
took our time and we managed quite well to get to the bottom of the forest
floor. Now, when I say forest, I may be
creating an imagine in your mind of a Robin Hood or Harry Potter story, no,
this was more like a rather large wood adjacent to a park and vineyard, but “our”
dogs found 2 truffles within a matter of 20 minutes from the moment we arrived at
the bottom of the incline, so we were happy.
We got to keep the truffles and use them in our cooking lesson/dinner
later in the evening.
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| Toma cheese topped with truffles |
After our success with finding truffles, Stefano spent some
time telling us the history of the area and the park that was surrounding us,
and also some wonderful stories about raising his dogs and his family. Just when we thought we were done, a car
pulls up and out pops Stefano’s parents with a picnic lunch for us. This was another highlight of the tour! We spent the next hour eating lots of
homemade Piemontese food, here is where we had the best homemade vitello
tonnato! Not to mention a whole truffle
sliced over a plateful of local toma cheese that was heaven on a plate. Although Stefano’s parents are not fluent in
English, between Marcello translating, and my little Italian and Stefano’s
little English we all got along easily.
Besides being a truffle hunter, Stefano also has a truffle shop in the town
of Alba, mom and I didn’t make it there, but our travel companions did and said
it was a terrific little shop. If you
are in the market for truffles in Alba, you may want to check out Tartufi &
Co. on Via Pertinance, 12.
 |
| Caffe Shakerato in Alba |
After lunch Marcello announced it was time for a coffee and
mom and I couldn’t have agreed more. So,
off we go to the center of Alba. By this
time in late afternoon, mom and I are ready for not only a coffee break, but a
break to rest our feet too! After a
brief walk around the center of town, which made us want to put Alba on our, “let’s
return here one day” list, we found a café and sat down for a bit. Mom decided instead of coffee to have a cool
and refreshing aqua di menthe and I had a caffe shakerato. It was the perfect way to watch the world of
Alba go by!
 |
| Wines of Ribote |
In the evening we
had a private wine tasting at Azienda Agricola Ribote di Porro Bruno e Figlio. This is a very small operation and the
father, Bruno, has now passed on the management of the winery to his son
Fabrizio. We not only tasted 6 of their
wines, but we were invited into their home and had a cooking/pasta making
lesson with Bruno’s wife Irma and then dinner with their wines. Of course, we didn’t make everything we had
for dinner, if we did, we would have needed to arrive at noon to help cook,
with all Irma had for us, but we did spend plenty of time making the tajarin
pasta from scratch.
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| Handmade Tajarin Pasta with Truffles |
In addition to the tajarin pasta, with the truffles from
earlier in the day shaved over it in a meat ragu, we had another version of
vitello tonnato, peppers with tuna and artichokes (they were delicious!), torta
salata (a rustic torte), fried cauliflower, roasted veal and not one but 2
desserts, a chocolate bunet and an orange marmalade crostata. Do you think we
waddled out of their house? You bet we
did! All of it delicious and all of it
homemade!
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
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| Mom at Giuseppe Cortese Winery |
We visited two wineries today and both were just terrific. The first was Giuseppe Cortese in Barbaresco,
here is their website: http://www.cortesegiuseppe.it/index.php After a tour of the winery we got “down to
business” tasting 6 of their wines. This
was one of my favorite tastings, because I liked all of the wines! But when it
came down to it, the Barbera D’Alba Morassina and the Langhe Chardonnay Scpulin
were the top winners for me and mom.
Another nice thing about this winery was that they would ship wine to us
at home! Finally, mom and I succumbed and
we bought a case of wine, a mix of the two wines we enjoyed the most. And it was a good thing our trip was winding
down because the wine arrived at my front door the day after we arrived home!
 |
| Window in Barbaresco |
After our wine tasting we spent a little time in the town of
Barbaresco where there were more stunning views of vineyards. Just before lunchtime we hopped in Marcello’s
car and off we went for our next winery visit and lunch.
We were warmly welcomed at the Cascina Carlot di Mo Claudio
by Claudio and his parents. We toured
the vineyard and got a little history of this very small operation whose
specialty is Moscato d’Asti. But, he
also makes a dry sparkling wine that mom and I really enjoyed so at €6
per bottle we quickly decided to buy 2 bottles to bring home with us. Another of the wines Claudio produces is a Grignolino,
which is a local wine and is similar in color to rose wine. Since this was a wine we had never seen or
tasted before we bought a couple bottles. I was starting to calculate how heavy our
suitcases would be on our return trip home!
 |
| Wines at lunch |
Lunch, which was prepared by Claudio’s mother, was another
feast of local Piemontese foods. We had
a different version of carne crudo here, it was veal, and there had to be at
least 3 pounds of meat on the platter.
There was also lardo and salumi that was from the pigs raised by this
family, you can’t really get fresher than that!
We also had some of the most delicious gorgonzola cheese we’ve ever had
at this lunch. After saying our goodbyes
to the winemaker and his parents we toddled back to the car and poured
ourselves into our seats.
 |
| Happy to be in Nieve |
On the way back to Dogliani, we stopped in the town of Nieve
and what a cute little town this was!
And of course, more gorgeous views. It seemed to me and mom this area has some of
the most breath-taking scenery we’ve ever seen.
After a short break back at the guesthouse, we were on our
way to the town of Novello for dinner at L’Angolo di Rosina. The winemaker, Fabrizio, from the one of the
wineries we visited and his girlfriend joined us. It was nice to have a winemaker select the
wines to go with our meal and he selected a very nice Gavi for mom and me. Mom and I decided to have the same dishes at
this restaurant and we both had the mushroom tartine starter and porchetta main
dish, both were good, but the wine was the real winner of this meal. Mom and I had the good fortune to sit next to
Fabrizio’s girlfriend, Monica, who loves to cook, so between our limited Italian,
and her limited English, we managed to have a great conversation about cooking and
food. It was a nice ending to a
wonderful day!
Thursday, September 11, 2014
 |
| Now that's a wine glass! In Barolo |
Today we spent the morning in the town of Barolo wandering
about the narrow streets and visiting the wine museum. Here is the museum’s website: http://www.wimubarolo.it/en/ Was it a little “hokey”? Yes, but mom and I had fun there with some of
the interactive exhibits.
In the late morning Marcello arranged for us to do a tour of
the Marchesi di Barolo winery. Here is
their website: http://www.marchesibarolo.com/en/ This was another large, commercial winery,
but it has a very long history and it was an interested visit.
 |
| Exploring Piemonte with Marcello |
Not only did we tour the winery but we also did a wine
tasting lunch and I’d call this lunch extremely upscale compared to the winery
tours/lunch/diner we had with the other winemakers. The Marchesi di Barolo winery is a well-oiled
machine, and the lunch was spectacular.
We tasted four wines during lunch. We started with their Arneis, which was
terrific and served with vitello tonnato that was exceptionally good. The next wine was a Barbera d’Asti and that
was served with a risotto that was the creamiest I’d eaten in a long time. Then we tasted the Barolo, known as “The Wine
of Kings and The King of Wines”. This
was served with delicious roasted veal and purple potatoes. The dessert course included a Moscato d’Asti
wine, which was one of the best we had tasted along with a fruit gelle made
from the wine and a chocolate torte. Mom
and I were restraining ourselves and only eating half of the portions served
because tonight was our last dinner on the tour and we would be in for a treat
and we wanted to make sure we would enjoy it!
 |
| In La Morra |
 |
| One of the best views ever! |
After lunch we stopped in the town of La Morra, which has a nice
area to see some lovely views over the hills and vineyards. We also made a short stop in the town of
Castiglione Falletto. There is a wine
bar called La Terrazza located in this town with, what we thought, was the best
view of the area we had seen all week.
The proprietress of the bar was nice enough to let us step onto the
terrace for a peak and we were gob smacked by the beauty! After we took some photos I happened to
notice the bar sold tee shirts, since the woman was kind enough to let us stay
for a few minutes and take some photos, the least I could do was buy a
€10 tee shirt, it’s one of my favorites now!
Not long after our quick “view” pit-stop we were back at our
accommodations and we started to gather our belongings and prepare for our
return to Torino in the morning. When
the dinner hour rolled around we met Marcello by the car and he whisked us off
to Ristorante Castello di Grinzane in Grinzane Cavour. Here is their website: http://www.castellogrinzane.com/web/trattoria.asp
 |
| Ristorante Castello di Grinzane |
This place was a big “Wow”, the restaurant is located in a
castle and I believe they have one Michelin star. The dining room has about 10-12 tables, of
varying size, some seating as many as 8 or 10.
The food and service were fantastic.
After looking over the menu mom and I decided we would both have the exact
same starter and main dish, this seemed to happen more frequently on this trip
then on previous trips, but I’m glad we did, because we both really enjoyed
this meal. For our starter we had fried
zucchini flowers topped with red shrimp, it was a great combination and the
shrimp were very succulent. Our main
course was monkfish medallions wrapped in eggplant, it was light, yet had lots
of flavor. We had the sommelier select a
local Sauvignon Blanc for us, which went perfectly with both courses. We declined dessert but had espresso and
enjoyed a few mini-desserts they brought to the table. All in all, it was a wonderful way to end a
lovely trip to the Piemonte area. We
were two very happy ladies. We were glad
we would be returning to Torino for one more day, but sad to know the trip was
quickly coming to an end.
Friday, September 12, 2014
We packed all our belongings into Marcello’s car and left
Dogliani heading back to Torino.
Marcello dropped us off at the hotel and we were checking in by 11:30am. We had plenty of time to pop around the
corner to the tabbachi and buy some bus/metro tickets. Mom and I were on a mission to visit the
Eataly in Torino and do some grocery shopping.
It’s a joke between us, when we say the real reason we keep going back
to Italy is to go grocery shopping.
We took the tram from near the hotel right to the train
station and then jumped on the metro heading towards the stop that would take
us closest to Eataly. We were really
impressed with the Torino metro system.
We found it to be very easy to navigate with elevator access from street
level to train platform level, which would prove to be an even bigger asset on
the return trip when we had several hefty shopping bags! The stations and train cars were very clean
too!
 |
| Lunch at Eataly |
Eataly was about a 4 block walk from the stop we got off at
and I’m glad I studied Google Street View prior to this trip, it really helped
me get my bearings quickly. Since it was
just after noon, mom and I decided a quick lunch break was in order and we slid
into 2 empty seats at the salumi bar.
After a meat and cheese plate, a bottle of water and 2 glasses of wine
(cost was €16.50) we were fortified for a few hours of browsing and
buying. We really did show considerable
restraint and tried to keep our purchases to a minimum, but it was hard to
resist the Mandarino digestivo we had been looking for during our last several
visits to Italy, so we did make that purchase.
Before we knew it, it was 2:30pm and we retraced our steps and headed
back to the hotel.
Once back in our room the arduous task of packing our bags
for the flight home began. I’m happy to
say everything originally in our bags and all our new purchases fit without any
problem. But I will admit to bringing
along small collapsible duffle bags which we did use for some of our
miscellaneous items, good thing we could take advantage of the extra checked
bag perk I was allowed!
 |
| Cheese Flan at L'Acino |
Timing is everything they always say, and we finished our
packing just at the time we like to have aperitivo, so off we went to Banco for
a half liter of wine before our 7:30pm dinner reservation at L’Acino.
 |
| Pork Shank...aka..."Fred Flinstone" Food |
We had dined at L’Acino earlier in the trip and enjoyed it
very much. At the end of that first meal
we made a reservation for this meal and could not have been happier. We were greeted warmly when we walked in,
like we were old friends. For my starter
I had ravioli stuffed with ricotta, zucchini and mint, it was delicious. Mom had a cheese flan that defines
explanation, it was that good! For my
main dish I had the pork shank and if there ever was “Fred Flinstone” food,
this was it, the shank was huge and no knife was needed, the meat simply feel
off the bone it was that tender. It was
served with more of their crispy and tasty roasted potatoes. Mom had the grilled veal and it was perfectly
cooked to her taste. We had a bottle of
wine and a bottle of water, but passed on dessert, coffee and digestive tonight
since we had a very early morning wake-up call.
This was the best way mom and I could have ended a truly fantastic trip.
Saturday, September 14, 2014
We had an extremely early wake-up call and a 4:30am taxi
pick-up to take us back to the airport in Torino for our 6:45am Air France
flight. Check-in was a breeze and our
connections in Paris and Atlanta were uneventful. When
we arrived in Atlanta we experienced mobile passport control, this is not
Global Entry, we don’t have that. We
were ushered into a line that feed up to banks of computer kiosks where we
scanned our passports then checked off an electronic customs form on the screen
which then prints out. We took that form
and got in line for a customs agent to stamp that form. From landing to going through passport control,
customs, claiming and re-checking our bags to Savannah it took just under one
hour. And our bags came off the conveyor
belt in Savannah when we arrived, which is always a happy moment!
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