Travels of THB: Torino Days 2 and 3

Torino Day 2

Weather: continues to be mild in morning to warming up during the day and thus very pleasant when dining al fresco in the evenings

Quote of the Day: Gee, grandma, how come we don't go for chocolate treats twice a day when you are schlepping us around?

Mini-breakfast in the hotel buffet area. Then up and at 'em: a decent walk (nobody is out, not too hot) to a locally famous place to have a bicerin (hot coffee, hot chocolate, cold cream) at at Caffe Al Bicerin, where they have been making the drink for 250 years. And, it is special: thick and creamy (don't stir it). With a croissant filled with Nutella and a plate of cookies, $23. A side note: for the last 15 minutes, we've seemingly have been following a young woman in a denim skirt. Yep, she's going where we're going!

More strolling around again now that our engines are primed with hi-test bicerin. It is lovely out and we are headed to the Egyptian Museum (Museo Egizio) for our 10:30 entry time. Turns out we have booked an Italian tour and the Museo graciously gives us two audio guides as there is no English tour at 10:30. The bottom floor (-1) is jammed and only 2 people are wearing masks. THB and DB head up to 3 (floor 4 of course in Europa) and work our way down through less traffic. THB gives up on the audio guide because he doesn't want to mislay his hearing aids and thus DB gives up as well.

Actually one of the few buildings undergoing remodeling

Almost nobody wearing masks, very crowded at beginning

The pics of objects are mostly oldest to most recent (5+K to 3+K years ago)

A mask drawn on much later after mummification

Trompy la oyl: THB combined the next two pics by taking out the space in between, MOVIE MAGIC! Not exactly: the draft shows no space, the published post does have a small break

A guide speaking English for a tour of one

A Madonna and Child well before the birth of Christ; oh no, that's a snake she's breast feeding

More strolling around while Comcast once again loses Italy and thus we revert to ... a paper map! THB gave up long ago on paper maps, his eyes couldn't read the small font (or the medium font...or the large font). Rather than wander in the streets of Torino, we go back to the hotel and with some research reject our lunch reco's.

Instead, we head to Eataly Torino Lingotto, a chain featuring meals and and Italian market full ingredients, wine and other sundries. THB has tortoni with cream and pepper, DB has crudo tartare and with excellent bread and agua, $30.

Just to make sure we don't miss out on anything, we snap up some chocolate next door.

DB then dips into Prada for a moment and misses a real fight outside, one guy striking another while a third guy tries to keep them apart. The guy is knocked down and bleeding from a cut on his cheek. The two guys fighting and two other guys then walk away from their lunch, tension so thick you could lose your chocolates in a heartbeat. THB doesn't really know how to take videos or this would have been one of those "news at 11, this just in" stories

Dinner at Tre Galli, a 20 minute easy stroll. Two pastas, one ricotta with thin sliced veggies on top (excellent), two Negronis, one glass of white wine, $68.

Prettiest dish of the trip so far

Department of Measurements and Standards: 15K+ steps, no gain or loss of altitude, Torino is pancake flat

Department of Observations: THB is becoming overcome by a weird form of nostalgia. The sight of ordinary people walking about a city or in a museum or dining in restaurants without masks is somehow disorienting. Mostly couples or small groups. Constantly. Not exactly shocking, more like a disassociation. Who are these people? How can they be out and about, seemingly indifferent to almost 3 years of a pandemic. Not really celebrating. Just walking around, on their way somewhere nearby. Dining. Has fashion change? Or, as more likely, has THB been isolated for too long in a Covid bubble. It seems different than going to a ballgame (admittedly, THB is seeing more people out at night in Torino than sitting down watching a grossly under-attended A's baseball game).

Torino Day 3

Weather: as the day wore on, hot, humid and very hazy compared to the prior Torino days

Department of Sanitation:

1. GAM has a men's with a large window over the toilet facing a blank wall (hidden behind at least two doors)

2. Caffe Fiore has everything you might need to fight off mosquitos coming off the nearby river. It comes in a hand plastic kit brought to your table, and we make use of it even though the aroma is not exactly enticing THB to enjoying a fine meal:

THB has pancakes, $7 extra, with off-the-buffet Greek yogurt, dried fruit and seeds, pretty good. Has to ask for his cappuccino to be reheated.

Another day of museums and strolling. Plus a couple of taxi rides (around $15 each) to cover the longer distances.

And, a bonus: on the walk to our first museo, DB spies a yarn/knitting store and gets a set of needles she needs for her current project (a sweater for one of the twins). An errand completed in under 5 minutes!

Both museums today we excellent, in different ways. The art at GAM was varied and exceptional; the Pinacoteca Agnelli was more fascinating for its architecture, in a Renzo Piano-design made in part of a huge abandoned Fiat car factory.

Between the museums we had lunch in a pizza place, then walked to a nearby repurposed train station to see a William Kentridge "sculpture" piece.

Here's the day mostly in pictures:

GAM: Penone is the Deborah Butterfield of Torino, he's in front of the two big museum (by THB rankings)

Having e-tix only allows you to skip the purchase tix line. After that, especially if you've bought tix to the special exhibit, there's still plenty of discussion and processing, usually in half Italian, have Ingles, and half in sign language. GAM is no exception.

Same with the bag storage: GAM hands you a token which goes on the inside of the locker and when you close up the door and turn the key, the token drops. Some places make you leave an ID, some don't require you to check your bags at all, and most cannot explain the process in Ingles

A selection of photos from the major temporary exhibit featuring top selections from around the world in the World Press Photography contest

3 Pics dealing with the disappeared of Colombia

Dresses on the graves of the children killed during war

The top award winner: a touched up photo, white spots refer to the sap that oozes out of opium flowers

One of a selection from photo opps surrounding the Jan 6th insurrection

This is a photo of pro-vaxers

A selection of work from GAM's permanent collection

Morandi, he of the incessant still lifes of bottles

Same woman, one with clothes on, one clothing optional

Saroni

Donghi

Cy Twombly

Fontana: the identical piece is in the Cerutti collection with a different frame. As long as the painter puts brush to the canvas, the works are both originals. Not so sure when someone slashes the canvas.

Another Pistoletto

More Penone's, this time photographs

Anselm Kiefer triptyck

Another temporary exhibit: An artist layers gold leaf over the telling portion of famous work by famous artists and then quizzes the viewer on who made the piece. Actually, for at least 100 of the test questions, you get to know who did the work. Here is a small selection to give you the idea....ready, set, GO!