Torino, Italy

Well we finally made it into Italy after a very long travel adventure and the loss of Anastasio's luggage. But we were so happy to finally be there and enjoy some bike racing, good food and lots of sightseeing. What we weren't expecting was for there to be such a HUGE festival happening the same weekend we were there!

It was the Unification of Italy & creation of their Alpini Army 150 year Anniversary Festival. In a town of 1 million people, they were estimating an additional 500,000 people to arrive for the festivities. There were lots of parties, lots of drinking and best of all lots of singing like this group:

It was great to walk town and see so many people enjoying life and randomly bursting into song which would then bring groups of people to a stop and join in!

We had decided to visit Torino to see the fist stage of the Giro D'Italia, which was a team time trial event, and I was lucky enough to book our hotel right on the course! Problem was, the crowds were so HUGE that we never really got to see too much of the race, but we enjoyed it just as well.

Here we are at the 2k to the finish banner:

Here's Anastasio trying to catch the race teams as they fly by:

The partying never stopped. There was a bar outside our hotel window and guys would stay up drinking and singing till 5 in the morning! We couldn't be mad though cuz everyone was so happy! It was even funny at times.

What made up for the all hours singing was the amazing food in Torino. Probably one of the best cities we ate in, there was a restaurant by our hotel that we dinned at both nights there cuz it was that good. Spaghetti carbonara, asparagus risotto, breaded chicken, parmesan risotto, and yummy salmon. We were in heaven!

As mentioned in my previous post, the baby started kicking big time during our flights over. Well he never stopped! He's been kicking pretty hard and Ana has finally had the chance to feel him a few times!