Torino Italy 23/09/2011: Fiat Headquarters

Today we were going to Lingotto which is home to Fiat headquarders and the former Automotive Engineering faculty of the Politecnico. Since it was so far away, we decited to try out the train system.

Here we are all waiting for the train to arrive. The glass is there to protect passengers awaiting the train, much like Singapore.

Departing from the Porta Susa (Southern Port) train station. If you look at the map, it's actually North of the Porta Nuova (Northern Port). Why are they named like that when geographically it's not true I have no clue.

This is just an attempt at taking a picture of the train arriving.

Out we are at Lingotto, which is the last stop of the underground train.

There's the entrance to the Lingotto station.

Here's the Fiat headquarters! Actually we didn't know that this small building was the headquarters, we always imagined that it would be bigger, but I guess it's mainly administration.

Here's inside the Lingotto building. Historically, this building was a car factory! Cars will start construction on the bottom floor, and work their way up to the roof of the building, where a massive car track would await the car for testing! If you watched the original Italian Job with Michael Cain, the building they drove into was this one. Currently, it has been converted into a retail area with many shops, hotels and restaurants.

Here we are climbing up the stairs of the old Politecnico campus.

Only a series of windows separates us from the shopping area.

This here is Eataly, if you want really high end food, you come here.

Another shot of the city from within the Lingotto Fiat building.

Upstairs we found some old FSAE cars! The top floor where they resided was blocked off, but zoom works quite well on my camera.

Here's another one.

The last FSAE Car, which was canabalized for parts.

Torino Italy 22/09/2011: Lunch somewhere near the Porta Susa

So after wandering around in the afternoon we figured we'd go somewhere for lunch. The great thing is that all the small cafes and restaurants always have some sort of sign board outside to show you what's their specials. This one was big and bright, so we just went in.

Here's the menu, basically, there's the starer, main and the side. The combo for 7 Euros was one each plus a drink and a coffee.

Here's the restaurant outside.

And here's the menu again.

There were only two starters of pasta, the white with some variety of ham, and the red was some meat with tomatoe (totally don't remember)

Here's my main of veal and grilled zuccini and eggplant.

Tyler had deep fried pork cutlet with potatoes and parsley

Finally Matt had the beans and chicken in tomato sauce. This plate was a jumble of all three because we wanted to try all of them. The meal was nice and filling, and the owner was really nice and patient with our non existant italian. Thankfully, he had a computer with Google translate up on the screen to help :P.

Torino Italy 21/09/2011: The intense political, and culinary debates over a simple dinner

Italians love their food, which is great because I love food too! Dinner is quite the facinating past time because it's a relaxing time to have really intense discussions and debates. The conversation table is open to anything, and at the end, there's no hard feelings. Dinner tonight was with our two main professors at the Politecnico and their three main administrators.

For the appetizer, this was called Ligurian Farinata. It's a chick pea pancake, that's very crunchy and full of flavour. I personally thought it was really good, but Dr. Genta said that this was ok, the best stuf is from a region near Genova, along the sea side where he's from. He said that it's the best there. I can't imagine how much better it is because this was already really good. I already feel like my taste buds are going to get trained.

Here's a pizza that Tyler and I shared.

Here's the Quail Risotto that I ordered. It was delicious, nice and creamy. It's yellow because they added an egg yolk to it.

Here are the Professors!

And here are the administrators.

Of course here's the kitchen.

This was the Tiramisu, I'm excited because one of the administrators gave me their recipe for tiramisu, which I am itching to try. I just need to buy a large bowl and a whisk. The debate here was really funny because there was an intense discussion of which savoiardi (the cookies, apparently they're not ladies fingers, not sure because I haven't figured out what they are yet). And also which type of rum to use.

Here's the whole group picture!

Torino 19/09/2011: The market!

The spoils of visting the Carrefour and the market!!!!

Here's a wheel of Bel Paese. It's actually young ricotta cheese. So it's not that strong. Very tastey and nice and gooy when it melts.

This is a shot of the center garden area of our residence from the third floor.

And here's our residence from the outside. I'm actually on the top row of windows with the balcony on the right side. I'm like the third from the corner.

I don't really remember what this was, I just saw it at the market for a Euro, and I wanted breakfast. It was flaky and cheesey.

I got some fresh long beans and snap peas.

Artichokes are in season here too.

This set of red currents was really appetizing. I actually didn't know what it was when I bought it. The greatest thing is buying things when they're in season. The market is always changing, with people rotating in certain spots. I got to know a few of the vendors even with my spotty Italian, it's a really wonderful experience. There's a man selling plant, and he gave Tyler and I chilli peppers four our Pizza (we were munching on it for breakfast). He got us to try two different peppers, and they were great, Tyler walked away with a plant. I don't know if I'll get one as I am terrible with taking care of one....but they're so delicious. Untill next time! Ciao!

Italy 19/09/2011: It's day!

So here's the first day of Italy, and things are so bright. Today was orientation day, thankfully it was at 2:00pm, which allowed us to sleep in. It also allowed us time to figure out how to walk to school! The orientation was split into two groups, and Simon and I were in the 2pm group. So we had to wait, and what better place to wait at but at a coffee shop! Which was what we initially thought, untill we got our drinks.....

Here's an abysmal cappucino (the only drink I know in Italian at the time). It was a bit gritty, and not very good on flavour....still better than Timmies (wonders how I'll be able to go back to that stuff).

Here's what Simon ordered, and once of our first of many lost in translation moments. We saw Coco in the name and we both thought it was a drink, the waitress twittered some really quick questions in Italian, and we were clueless so we just said "Ci" to everything. And this gritty thick and un appatizing instant chocolate pudding arrived. It was amusing because we initially thought it was going to be hot chocolate or something. Anyhoo,

Here's the main campus of the Polytechnico di Torino on Corsa Abruzzi.

Here's one of the many buses that take student to and from school.

Here's the tram as well.

this is a Barabus Smart Roadster. I wish we could get this thing in Canada. The steering wheel is on the left side, and it's a real looker! *sigh*

Here's the large hill on the way home. It's our landmark to get to our residence, as long as we walk towards it, we'll always be walking towards our residence.

This is a yogurt promo, with someone walking on a non Newtonian fluid....corn starch and water.

Here's the guy attempting to run across the corn syrup! I think I should have jumped in! Btw, it's no Newtonian because when you exert a force on it quickly, its reaction is to solidify and stay still, instead of moving away and splashing like you would expect a fluid to do.