Un Cumpleanno e Due Castelli

Friday night I went with friends to apertivo in Piazzo Vittorio. I will never get tired of sitting out side chatting with friends in a piazza hundreds of years old. I really enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the Italian apertivo. Of course after our light dinner we headed to find some gelato which is not really that hard! I ordered strawberry and chocolate (you get at least two different kinds here in Italy) which I was later made fun of for. Apparently, you aren't supposed to mix chocolate with the fruity ones. I am still not sure why Gianluca and Gianluca were allowed to mix cream and fruit flavors. Just another reason Massimo calls me a crazy American!

Gianluca, Gianluca and I enjoying our gelato (even if mine was not "proper")

Saturday I headed to the open air market in Porta Palazzo to get ingredient for salsa. It was Piero's birthday on Sunday and Elena requested I make salsa and guacamole. The market is HUGE. It has both food products and nonfood products.

I have walked through it a couple times but never dared buy anything as I was too intimated. People are shouting their prices so that you come to their stand instead of the stand next door. I thought about how many tomatoes I needed and decided I needed about two pounds (which I thought was about four cans of the chopped ones I usually use). I passed a few stands, looked at the prices and the products and decided to make my purchase. "Due kili" I say. The vendor packs some up and weighs them as I hand him four euros. I think he has put a lot of tomatoes in...more than two pounds and when he hands me my TWO bags I realize my mistake. One kilo is 2.2 pounds. I now have about four and a half pounds of tomatoes! On to the next thing. I approach a stand looking for a few red onions. Two I tell the woman. Two kili she asks. No, only two I reply. She laughs at me (literally) and says she can not sell two onions but will sell me a half a kilo. I left with over a pound of red onions. My next stop was jalapenos. Same drill. I wanted four, I ended up with more than a pound. Luckily I was able to buy one clove (a giant one at that) of garlic. I have NO idea what I am going to do with these extra things. I guess I'll just fry them up and put it in my nightly pasta sauce!

After I made the salsa at home (I mean what party would be complete without my salsa) I met Massimo to go to the castle in Rivoli which is now a museum of modern art. The castle sits atop a hill overlooking Torino. The museum was interesting as they left some of the old decorations in the castle so you could see how it used to look in addition to the modern art on display. We had a coffee at the castle and Massimo and the cameriera tried to answer my question about two different past tenses of verbs (still confused).

Rivoli Castle

Mountains from Rivoli Castle

Sunday I walked to Piazza Castello and visited San Lorenzo which was the church of the royal family. It is absolutely beautiful inside.

San Lorenza Chiesa

Next I went to Palazzo Madame which used to be both a castle and a palace. Two of the original towers were constructed in the first century BC (although they have been restored) as part of a gate to ancient Torino. The gate was enlarged to a castle by the Sovoia family in the early fourteenth century and in the early seventeenth century the castle became a palace for the Savoia family. Today, the castle is a museum of ancient art. I strolled through the museum and had a coffee (two castles, two days, coffees). Climb to the top and you will be treated to a panoramic view of Torino.

Palazzo Madame

Ancient teapots

Torino from the top of Palazzo Madame

Mole from the top of Palazzo Madame

Superga from the top of Palazzo Madame

Cafe in Palazzo Madame

Sunday evening we had a great time at Piero's birthday party. He grilled wonderful meats and we also had salads, bread, and chips, salsa and guacamole!

Salsa and guacamole at the party!