Back from vacation in Italy - Turin

I'm back! I've spent the last couple of weeks visiting my husband's friends in Turin. We had a wonderful time, and I learned things this trip that I hadn't even noticed on my two previous visits, as well as discovering some great Italian wines.

First, Italians have great teeth: white and even and straight. I only saw one old boy who didn't have good teeth--and he had ONE tooth, quite impressive. We asked for directions and I could not keep my eyes off that tooth. Don't move to Italy if you want to make a killing in orthodontia.

View of a church in Pocapaglia

The other thing I discovered is that Italians love to discuss things. Especially food. The next days' meals were discussed in detail, as were politics, the other favorite topic. It was very relaxing to talk about everything instead of rushing around doing things and working. Italians don't seem to talk about work much. Some of the discussions seemed to get very heated (I could follow them pretty well because of my rusty Spanish, but I don't know enough Italian--yet--to participate), but there were no hurt feelings at the conclusion of the debates. People are passionate about their opinions, but they don't hold it against others if their opinions differ and can't be changed.

Posing in front of a castle in the Alba region

These are generalizations, of course, and may not apply to Italians in other regions. All our friends live in northern Italy near the Alps, and although I've been to Florence (my favorite), Rome, Siena, and Venice as well, I didn't know anyone there.

So it's nice to be back, but I've added the Piedmont area to my list of possible retirement places.

My ideal future retirement home

Ciao!