Getting Settled

Since we have finally moved in, gotten past most the awkward stage for roommates (I’m sure that more moments will come), and begun to try to figure out Torino, I can say that this has been an interesting experience thus far at the very least. The first night for dinner, we walked around Torino for a half hour starting at 7pm and everything was closed! Thinking we had missed dinner, we began to head back to the apartment thinking we weren’t going to get to eat that night when we saw a Ristorante and Pizzeria that was open. We headed on over and saw the door was open so we walked in. We were seated quickly and were the only people in the restaurant. We got handwritten menus because they are getting new ones printed (I came to find this out later) and it had some of their specialties and most popular items on it.

the Wine Room in Eataly

One thing that I had learned in the past is that pepperoni pizza in Italy will not come with a spicy salami type meat on it but a bunch of peppers. Knowing that whatever base I had in pizza knowledge was gone, I was forced to pick blindly. I don’t know how well you know me but I am one of the pickiest eaters on the planet. I wouldn’t even eat salad when Molly and I started dating and was forced to by things like the 3 or 5 bite rule. Though it was a bit of a pain at first, it likely was one of the more beneficial things (food wise) that have happened to me in the last few years because I'm now able to eat more things. Thinking this was going to be one of those situations, I just picked a pizza off the menu that had a word on it that I recognized, chips. I ordered a coke, thinking it would be a cheaper beverage and helped my roommate order his food.

Inside the Lingotto Mall

An interesting thing  I found out about the way you order wine in Italy (not the touristy restaurants but the more local places) is that it’s not by the glass but by the part of a liter. When my roommate ordered wine, she kept asking him un quarto, un quarto? I knew it meant a quarter but a quarter of what I did not know, quarter bottle, quarter glass… so I just told her that would be perfect and we sat and waited for our food, continuing our chat about our lives back home, girlfriends, sports, family… things of the like and just got to soak up the first night in Italy on our own in a fairly relaxing manner. As we chatted, the restaurant began to fill up. Little did I know, the Italians don’t even start dinner until about 8 to 9, which is completely different from home, where my parents tend to eat around 5.

Olympic Arch with the Alps in the background

We got our drinks and I got a can of coke, 12 oz for €4.50 (not exactly a steal) and my roommates quarter liter of wine (which came out to a little over two glasses for €3.00) showed up (looks like I wont be drinking much soda for the next six months and my wine intake will increase even more than originally planned).

Wine Casks at Eataly

Next came my roommates pizza, which had cheese, onions and pesto on it (which was about the size of a medium pizza at home), and it looked like a quintessential Italian pizza. Next came my pizza, which would have easily been any 5 year olds dream pizza. What was on it might you ask? Cheese (of course) and papitti friti! Yes that is right, my pizza had French fries on it. It was quite possibly the best pizza I have had in my entire life. It was so amazing! It was so amazing that I didn’t bother to stop and take pictures for you but I will be doing that here soon (I hope). I think this is something I’m going to bring back home (not the pizza itself, that might get nasty while traveling, but the idea) and continue to have and I will use the excuse that it reminds me of Torino (until I get really fat from this not-really-healthy-in-any-way-shape-or-form-but-good-god-it-is-delicious pizza). We finished our pizza and my roommate wanted to get gelato so I helped him order and at the last second, decided to get me some as well. My roommate got vanilla, which looked pretty tasty but nowhere near my gelato. I had chocolate gelato, which was easily, hands down the best ice cream/frozen yogurt/gelato I have ever had. I would go back and have it every night if I could! It was perfectly sweet, not too sweet where you couldn’t eat much of it but so sweet enough to that it was amazing, and it wasn’t frothy but a perfectly velvety smooth concoction of pure magic. 

After an amazing meal, we hung out waiting for the check. Oops, you don’t really do that in Italy (I guess). After about a half hour, we finally asked where to go to pay the check and I guess we just pay at the bar. So we paid and went home.

The next morning we got up and walked to school (which is about ¾ of a mile away, on the river. The Po river has made for some intense fog these last couple days, making it impossible to see much more than a block in any direction and keeping the air very moist, making breezes extra cold. It also seems to have this tendency to make things look extra eerie, adding an extra element of the unknown in a foreign city. But that will pass as the weather starts to warm up… in April. Our classroom looks fairly cool, with this old school set up that looks like it could have been used a long time ago for trials or something of that nature. The school also has a bar, which is pretty good. Its probably a good time to mention that a bar in Italy is more a place that serves coffee, sandwiches and things of that nature and is very family oriented and also serve Aperitivo at night (ill talk more about Aperitivo in a moment). Since we don’t have Internet at our apartment, we hung out at school and used their free Internet for a while (which is when I got to make my last post).

Classroom

For dinner that night we went to our local bar and had Aperitivo. Aperitivo is something that they do here that is pretty cool. You get, for no more than 7 euro per person, get a glass of wine and all you can eat food (which includes mini pizzas, sandwiches, pastries, breadsticks, meat, cheese, antipasti…). We both got the bartenders favorite wine since most wine they have is different from what we have in the states (I have yet to see a familiar type of wine) and began to snack at the table while talking to a couple locals. These locals mistook us for British and found it very comical that the Italians go to the UK for beer while the English come down for wine. These gentlemen left the bar after a good chat and we were stuck in another strange position. We didn’t know if, with aperitivo, you sit down at a table, how or when you pay, how much you take and if there are plates available. We watched a group of local women come in and get aperitivo and they headed toward the back room with their wine. 

 

We followed and I’m so glad we did. When we sat down, the bartender brought us a plate of sandwiches as well as a couple plates for snacks from the table out front. Before we could even finish the first plate of sandwiches, she already brought out more, different sandwiches as well as antipasti. We worked out way through that plate and, before we could get up, had a plate of meat and breadsticks on our table with a plate of mini pizzas shortly thereafter. After about an hour and a half, we were stuffed to the brim and needed to call it a night, paid and went home (pretty much across the street).

The next morning we made our first trip to the local open market. This was a pretty cool experience, conversing with the locals as much as possible. I purchased some sausage (I believe when you get sausage in Italy, its all Italian sausage), eggs, bananas, and some bread. And it was a lot cheaper than I would have originally anticipated, which was a pleasant surprise. Another thing I noticed was the complete lack of sales pressure, which was also extremely nice and unexpected. I had thought that there would be tons of people saying try this buy this type thing so to not see that was very nice.

Today we made the Journey to Asti which will be the topic of the next blog (as soon as I can upload the pictures from the camera! Hope you enjoyed this! Hope you had a great weekend!