Miralanghe Cuneo

Both Torino, and Carlos home town of Monastero Bormido are located in the region known as Piedmont, or 'foot of the mountain'. From Carlos top floor apartment, I look past a prominent bell tower and catch a glimpse of the distant mountains, and the name seems fitting. As we drive out of the city and along the rolling hills to his hometown, the full glory of the Alps come into view. At 3800m Monte Viso (face mountain) stands head and shoulders above any of the surrounding peaks. From this ...

... hang next to rabbits split down the middle to reveal the health of the internal organs. I'll spare you my rant on boneless skinless chicken breast. Let us never forget that to eat meat we have to kill animals.

Another building houses the fish section. Ever since visiting Tsukiji market in Japan, few fish markets have managed to impress. Compared with Tokyo's 57 acre monstrosity, this market feels to be about the size of a postage stamp. But ...

... of my cooking, thanking me everyday. As we talk now it feels as if we've known each other for ages.

After a coffee and a shower at his place it's time for dinner.
"What do you want to eat? Pizza?"
"Whatever's going"
We join his friend Tanya and go to eat the best pizza of the city.

It seems so simple, why can't we get it right back home? The crust is thin, but not too crispy, light and fluffy, but not doughy; topped with ...

... tyre rubbing against the wing evertime we turned right.
What a view as we came in to Switzerland towards Martingz, the town was bathed in sunshine as we emerged from the cloud amongst the seemingly endless Apricot sellers.
It was then that we heard the the WAG'S had arrived in Turin.
Rich was beginning to regret not stretching out after his chariots of fire attempt the previous evening, leghs beginning to seize up from sitting in the back of the pooper, decided ...

... br>we were busy minding our own business when we saw a Giant Coq, looming menicingly above us!
After ignoring Doris yet again, ready to take on the Mountain for the first time, Rich at the helm with gay abondon, ignoring the acrid smell of burning rubber and hot brakes, Kev was strangely quiet in the back. as we edged our way towards Chamoinix for the promised night in a hotel room with its own bathroom!

... painted car (completely broken down) that could sit 4 or 5 people and was a great, well.... i will just say it, smoking spot.

Theo boat was the pale green which almost resembled that of an old penny, but with a little more green tint to it. On board there was a comfy common room and too dorm styled rooms upstairs and downstairs. It had all the amenitites, shower, toilet, beds, lights, etc... but if I had just been given a spot on the ground I wouldn't have ...

... is fantastic; I wish this was acceptable in America. Americans view food much in the same way they view everything else: one part of an endless series of steps to satisfy their insatiable cravings. They wolf down hastily prepared-over-salted fatty processed garbage while they drive massive wasteful cars paid for on a credit card they can’t pay off. The Italians seem to recognize the result of satisfaction as being more of a process; you don ...

... winter coats, we went for a drive. Although gray and having limited visibility, we had a grand tour of the countryside. We drove up, in and around some old towns, and made our way up the mountain to the French border. Snow is surrounding us on all sides. We parked, waked up a snow covered path (Janet and I in tennis shoes) and about ten minutes later we had crossed into France --no passports needed, no border guard. The only way we knew we were in France is because Papito told us ...

... they left for McDonald's. I met with Ricca at about 7pm but Mom and Janet were gone. Ricca and I went around to look for them. Later they returned to the plaza. After that we had a long meal in Shanghai Restaurant with Ricca's papa and his gf. They don't speak Cantonese. Food came really slowly and they weren't authentic.

Ricca ...

... Highlight yellow... I don't think it
matches with the city. We visited the top of the Mole but the view was
hazy because of the weather. Turin is a gridded city but I didn't pay
attention to that up there. We went inside a church named San Lorenzo and
I thought that's the cutest church I saw in Italy. It isn't described in
the tour book, and ...