Our Italian Adventure begins

[Crankin]

No cycling involved, but still an adventure. Flights went well, we arrived in Milan at 6.30 AM. Got the rental car and headed for our apt. In Torino, about 1 hr 20 min. away. Freeway seemed very quiet; we know it's vacation time, but when we got here, it was apparent it was a major holiday. Nothing was open. Walked around and found a cafe, had coffee, and went to get in the car. It was dead and burning up. After some nice people tried to help us, the apt. owner and his wife came and saved us. They helped us get a tow truck, deal with the agency, and drove us to the Torino airport to get a new car.
By later, restaurants were open, so we did have a nice lunch and dinner. Just survived grocery shopping as an illiterate. Not a good feeling, but people are patient with the few words of Italian I know.
Off to have more coffee and shop. Hiking tomorrow

[OakLeaf]

Have fun! I'm jealous!

[thekarens]

Enjoy! Sounds like a great vacation.

[indysteel]

Have a great time, Crankin! Be sure to share some photos when you return!

[Trek-chick]

OMG sooo jealous. I am part Italian and dream of going to Italy one day. Please, please, please post photos--looking forward to hearing/seeing some more of the trip.

[ny biker]

Have fun!!!

[Crankin]

Posting photos might have to wait until I am home. The Internet in our apt. is slow.
We spent all day yesterday eating, walking, and went to the palace royale and the archeological museum. Much more is open as far as stores go, although some small shops and many cafes are shut. Had 2 fantastic Piedemont style meals and the bottoms of my feet feel the walking.
Today we ate going to do the cog railway in a city park, with great views at the top, and then hike down. Tomorrow we are visiting all day with someone who works for DH here, up at their vacation home in the Alps, about an hour away. Monday is wine touring.

[Crankin]

The railway/hike was quite an experience.
It's on the outskirts of the city, but not too busy today, as Italians are all up in the mountains or in Cinque Terre. We got some stares, as we were in very casual outdoor clothes and mostly everyone else was dressed up. Some men in shorts, not
women. The ticket seller looked at us like we were absolutely nuts when we said we were hiking down.
The ride up was quick, about 20 minutes. We stopped in the visitor center, walked up to the Bascillica, and then found the trail. It was quite challenging, rocky with switchbacks in about one half of it. I have my light hiking shoes here and I made the mistake of wearing some Tekko running socks, instead of my hiking socks. My feet were sliding around and the constant descending did not feel good. Let's just say my hamstrings are feeling it! I think it was about 5k, with the last 1.5 on the sidewalk of a road that looked like one you would see on the Giro.
Tomorrow is the real hiking!

[Catrin]

Nice place to go for vacation, have fun! Looking forward to seeing pictures whenever you are able to post them :)

[Crankin]

Well, the last 2 days have been busy. The drive to the Alps was not far. To sum it up, we drove to our friends' condo, then went to Sestrierre and took the ski lift to the top of a mountain. That in itself was an adventure for me. It looked like Alp Du'Ez. We hiked down the ski trails, stopping for a picnic lunch our friends had prepared, complete with a tablecloth. Further down the trail, it became a paved road, where of course, there was a bar/restaurant. Had an espresso and some kind of liquor, supposedly good for digestion. Another 2k and we got to the village, where I bought a sweatshirt that is really a jacket. Saw lots of crazy downhill mt bikers and several riding up the roads. Then, back to the condo for beer, dinner, wine. I think the hike was 10-11k.
Yesterday we went to LaMorra and Barolo and had the most awesome tour of a family owned winery. Just one other couple and the woman giving the tour. We also had a little adventure trying to put gas in the car!
Today we are staying in Torino and shopping. I swear, I feel huge compared to Italian women. There will be serious food restriction when I get home... I haven't had so much pasta in years. Of course, we get home Sat. and leave Friday for 3 days in CA.

[Jolt]

I swear, I feel huge compared to Italian women. There will be serious food restriction when I get home... I haven't had so much pasta in years. Of course, we get home Sat. and leave Friday for 3 days in CA.

Wow...Italian women must really be tiny then, if you feel huge in comparison!! Yikes.

[Crankin]

Jolt, they are skinny with no muscles. You don't see women riding here, only as transportation. Well, just a couple, compared to lots of men. Same with runners. I think most exercise gets done by walking and in gyms.
We are in Milan now. I can't find any clothes that fit me. Pants are too skinny (and I wear skinny jeans) and too long and the dresses are huge. I don't know where the people I see buy their clothes.

[Crankin]

OK, here's the link to all of our pictures. Unfortunately, they aren't in any order or labeled, but they still came out well.
My favorite ones are the juxtaposiiton of what we saw when we went to the Armani Hotel cafe. It was written up as a "must go to" place in Milan. We got there around 5 PM, and it was quiet. There was one other couple (I think they were having a business meeting) and a family with 2 adult sisters, a very newborn (one-two weeks old, by my estimate), the grandmother, and husband having drinks, all looking very stylish as the mom interspersed her sipping her drink with visits to take the baby out to nurse, I think. Then, two men walked in with a dog. Not a teeny dog, as you sometimes see in the US, but a medium sized one. Dogs go everywhere in Italy, even restaurants. All of this, with a view of the Duomo from 8 stories up. When we left, there was a parade of very large, black cars bringing patrons to the hotel. They looked like people you'd see on the society page of a newspaper... enough to give me the creeps! But, the mojitos were were awesome and we were treated nicely.
I'd say my favorite 2 things were the visit to our friends and hiking in Sestriere and the winery tour/visit to La Morra and Barolo. I did buy 2 pairs of shoes and a leather winter jacket, with a wool lining. It's probably the most expensive piece of clothing I've bought, and it was about 40% discounted. I never found any pants or dresses that even remotely looked like they would fit me, though.
Of course, the eating was in a category of its own!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevemaislin/sets/72157635222485923

[shootingstar]

Great photos, Crankin. I like that crepes-cocktail bike sign. :) It's a combination one doesn't normally think.. I love going into some of the cathedrals, etc. to see the architecture and artwork.

[emily_in_nc]

How lovely -- your photos are gorgeous, crankin! So glad you had a good time. Love all the clothes you wore and can't believe you felt huge (though I know the feeling -- I felt huge in Tokyo!)

Thanks for sharing....

[OakLeaf]

Looks like a wonderful trip!

I have to ask ... what's the Adam and Eve (?) diorama about?

It's been a while since we've been to Italy, but in the tourist areas it wasn't hard to find things that fit, and I outweigh you by at least 20#. You pay top dollar (top euro?) in the tourist shopping districts, obviously, and I still felt huge, but I did okay for three days in Cattolica before our luggage caught up to us. Except I've never again worn the weird pointy bra that was all I could find at short notice. It would have looked good on Sophia Loren forty years ago, I suppose. In a larger cup size. :p

[murielalex]

Oh my. If you considered yourself large. I'd be a whale. :eek:

Love the pics. You and hubby look really happy, and I certainly can't blame you. Looks wonderful.

[indysteel]

What a trip, Crankin. You and your husband do look happy! I'm so glad you had a good time.

As for size, I've never been to Italy, but I've always felt huge in Paris, even when I was arguably underweight. It's not just that they're thin, they're generally finer boned than most Americans. Even when I was a size 2-4 here, I couldn't begin to fit into their clothes.

[Crankin]

Oak, your comment made me laugh (the pointy bra). Yeah, I still am not sure where all the short, extremely skinny women I saw buy their clothes; we did go into a huge department store (the one that has a large food/wine/coffee tasting eating area on the top floor... that's where we took the pics of the chocolate shoes) and I did not see any petite sized clothes, even in brands that I know have them.
OK, so the Adam and Eve diorama was in the first room of the museum about the history of wine, in Barolo. The theme was sort of how wine has been integral to many aspects of society since ancient times. I have to say, this is the strangest museum I have *ever* been to. Even stranger than Mass MOCA, where we once saw an exhibition labeled "Balls," which was a bin filled with children's playground balls. The wine museum was inside a castle and not at all what I expected.
This trip confirmed (what I already knew) that I prefer to look at the architecture of Renaissance buildings from the outside (churches, castles), but I really don't enjoy going through them. I like to walk around cities and get a "feel" of the culture, stopping in smaller shops and historical places. We did enjoy going to the Palace of the Savoys and the Archeological Museum in Torino, but when we got to Milan, we walked to the Castle and it was just mobbed with groups of American and Japanese tourists. We had already decided we would not go inside the Duomo there, which was a good thing, as even the major shopping area around it was filled with throngs of tourists. We decided after seeing the courtyard of the castle, that Milan would be focused on shopping.
Renting an apartment for the week in Torino also gave us a really good take on what it's like to live in Italy. Even though DH has been there a few times for business and was totally familiar with the city, we had to negotiate the grocery store, toll booths, highway signs, etc. in Italian. Let's just say, I have even more respect for any immigrant who has to learn a new language. I am pretty good at languages, but I relied on my knowledge of Spanish and a few expressions I know in Italian to get by, as well as I Phone apps. Quite different from when we went to visit our son when he was studying in Siena, and we had a personal translator. However, the people were very friendly, epecially if you tried with just a few words.
Indy, you hit the nail on the head. The women and men are very fine boned. Every time I saw a 30 something guy, I thought I was seeing my older son, who is 5' 6.5" and weighs about 120. He certainly fit right in there.

[shootingstar]

Cool, didn't know those shoes were chocolates..maybe I didn't look closely.

Maybe you were situated in more tourist areas where the clothing that you saw were sold. After all, those fashion cities are also catering to other European tourists, who are bigger boned..from Netherlands, Germany, Scandanavia..Italy is a very different country for them also.

It is noticeable when trying on cycling clothing from Italy, it most definitely.....fits smaller boned people.

As for wandering inside those architectural monuments...true, especially if overrun with crowds it really is harder to contemplate, even see the artwork.