Weekend in Turin, Part 2

Today, Fernando and I were planning a visit to the Museo dell'Automobile.  We were quite excited about seeing this museum because we've been seeing some really nice cars over here (of which I will later blog about).  Downtown is north of us, while the museum (which is closer to the Olympic Village area) is southeast, so we had planned a separate trip to the area to check out the museum.  Sadly, when we got there, we found out that it was closed for restoration!  Che peccato!  Instead, we just stopped by a local trattoria and had some pasta.

Fortunately, I still have lots to say about our trip yesterday, starting with Turin's metro system.  For a city of its size, Turin has a very extensive metro system consisting of buses and above-ground trams (think San Francisco trolleys or the Boston Green Line).  You can pretty much get anywhere you want to go, but there are so many lines that you really have to do your research before you travel.  For €1.00 (about $1.50), you get a trip to anywhere on one line, plus a transfer onto another one.  You can get a ticket at any local tabaccheria (tobacco store) or edicola (newspaper stand).  In reality, however, the ticket validation process is so un-enforced that the overwhelming majority of people here don't actually end up paying for the metro.  Anyway, we hopped on the #4 tram, which took us downtown.

On the way to the Egyptian Museum, we passed by and took a brief look inside the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano (National Museum of the Italian Unification), which is housed in this ornate, imposing building.

Of course, there are many other great buildings to see in this area of Turin, which I will write about later.

We stopped for a quick lunch at a caffè on the Via Lagrange, which is a large, pedestrian-only street lined with shops and eateries.  It is probably one of the most touristy areas of Turin (though Turin is not nearly as big a tourist area as Rome, Venice, Naples, and Florence), and we indeed were able to spot many non-Italian speakers, which is not the case in the area we live in.  For lunch, Fernando and I each had a panino freddo (cold sandwich) with prosciutto cotto (cooked ham), lattuga (lettuce), and formaggio (cheese).

Several things to note:

• Many (probably most) people here like eating outside.  Most of the eateries I see here have tables set up outside, sometimes with shade, if there is room.  It's certainly different from the US, where most people prefer staying indoors.
• Panini is the plural of panino.  If you ask for panini here, they'll either be confused or will give you two sandwiches.
• What we call "prosciutto" in the US is called prosciutto crudo (spiced ham) over here.  If you ask for prosciutto, they'll generally ask what kind of prosciutto you want.
• The trademark grilled flatbread in the panini back in the US exists over here too, but only if you order a panino caldo (hot sandwich).
• In the photo you can see that although we got bottled water, it is poured into a cup.  In Italy, beverages are only seldom consumed straight from a bottle or can (e.g. if you get a soda from a vending machine and no cups are available).

After lunch, we headed to the Egyptian Museum, where we were able to get tickets for the reduced price of €3.50 (about $5.25) for being under the age of 26.  The Museo Egizzo has the largest collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts outside of Cairo, and it is at or near the top of every list of attractions in Turin that I've seen.  They had all kinds of things in their collection, including a lot of mummies, of which I will not post the possibly disturbing pictures.

Here are some highlights:

Impressive sculptural displays

The Book of the Dead

A stele with hieroglyphs

A mummified crocodile.  Eek!

Overall, I think the visit to the Egyptian Museum was a great experience.  I didn't know much about Ancient Egypt to begin with, but still found the museum impressive and informative.

After our visit to the Egyptian Museum, we went to the beautiful Mole Antonelliana to see the National Museum of Cinema.  I've described that visit in yesterday's post.  For dinner, we each got a slice of pizza, patatine (French fries), and a Pepsi.  It was my most American meal during my stay so far... in fact, we completely forgot that Italians eat pizza using a fork and knife.  We must have looked either very strange or very American to the people passing by, folding our pizza slices in half and eating them with our hands!  (N.B.: You can probably expect a future blog post devoted to pizza.)

Tomorrow, we go back to work, where we will get to catch up with Kristen about her trip to Paris.  I'm sure she will have a lot to talk about.  Fernando and I will also have a lot to plan for over the course of the week about our trip to Lyon, France, as we just bought our train tickets today.  I'm excited!