Gran Torino

What a fun weekend! Friday after work Elena and I went to the chocolate festival in the piazza by the Po River. There were a lot of amazing chocolates and it was fun to have people with me that could help me as when I went last Saturday I didn't really know what to get! We had chocolate covered nuts, chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate fruits (some had fruity liquor in them and some had chocolate that tasted like the fruit). I also learned that here in Torino they do not have a tradition of hiding Easter eggs for children to find. Instead, they have chocolate eggs with surprises inside. The eggs can be very small or HUGE...the size of a seven year old child (and a large child like Aidan). Here are some pictures are took last weekend of the festival.

Saturday I walked around the city in the amazing spring weather, it was in the fifties. I met Eliana and her husband Andrea for coffee and to devise a plan for the evening. We decided to see Gran Torino at eight and have dinner after. We arrived at the movie and it was sold out so we decided to have dinner before...which was great because we got to watch the first half of the Juventus game! We met Sabino (a coworker) and his friend Sarina for dinner and then met Anna (the instructor from the cooking school) at the movie. The movie was very good and although it was in Italian I understood a lot...thankfully Clint Eastwood is a man of few words! Plus there was a very adorable yellow lab in the movie! As we were leaving the movie I put my hand in my pocket and forgot I had a small piece of chocolate in their and due to the high temperature of the movie theater (totally opposite of the freezing cold American ones) it melted. Good thing Sarina had kleenex as there were none in the bathroom and that the mess was pretty much just on my cell phone!

Sunday I got up and went for a run along the Po. It was a beautiful day again. I then met Eliana, Andrea, Anna and their friends Silvia and Andrea and their son Nicolo for lunch along the river. It was a beautiful day to sit and talk (in my case mostly listen). We then took a walk along the river and back up to a great gelateria. I even got to see them making my stratcciatella (Stacey you are right it is the best flavor) on a video right before they brought it out! Also, it seems that you don't just get one flavor here. A small portion can contain two flavors and most people take full advantage of that. Oh, and another thing that made me obviously American is when I was discussing how I loved Nutella with peanut butter! Everyone at lunch thought I was crazy! I am pretty sure we walked for at least five miles all over the city and it was so fun as I got to see so many different piazzas that I had never seen before. It is so fun to walk around a corner and see a beautiful piazza. I also had a wonderful conversation with Nicolo about how English is a lot easier to learn than Italian and he seemed to agree with me...sure he is five months old but still I think he is on board! I went with Massimo and his friends for dinner at a pizzaria on the Po (wow I pretty much spent the entire day next to the river). I think I had my favorite pizza so far!

I also got to talk to my mom and listen to how crazy the dogs are which is nice. I do miss Cork!