Torino città

I spent the weekend exploring Torino with a friend and realized it's quite easy to navigate central Torino once you get the hang of landmarks in town and their placement in connection with each other. While Torino is a small city, I will still have plenty to see for a long time to come.

Friday I went to the National Museum of Cinema, it's in the Mole Antonelliana building, which used to be a church with this HUGE spire (will post pictures soon - didn't have my camera on me). I was with a deaf friend so we got in for free. ;-) We spent 4 hours in the museum, which starts at the ground floor and winds its way up the tower. The museum is set up BEAUTIFULLY, starting with the birth of photography leading to the movement of pictures leading to moving pictures, complete with hands-on activities and actual pieces of equipment that allow you to see how things worked way back then. :-) Then we went back down to the ground floor and took a lift, Willy Wonka style (glass elevator, wire shaft instead of box shaft) up the spire of the tower so we could get a 360 degree view of the city. It was awesome and really allowed me to understand better the layout of the city of Torino.

I'd been seeing HUGE ads all over town for a temporary exhibit at the Antiquities Museum called "Afghanistan: i tesori ritrovati" (Afghanistan - rediscovered treasures). So Saturday afternoon we went to the Antiquities Museum. I have to say, WOW. The exhibit was I would say maybe 1-2 hours long (pretty small) but the set up was SO beautiful. The exhibit was in the basement of the antiquities museum, so the architecture of the interior was barrel vaulted ceilings of brick, the lighting was set up in a specific way to draw the viewer's eyes directly to the pieces on display (the only light, actually, were the lights for the exhibits and a gentle atmospheric light so one could see their way around). It was lovely, a gentle slow feast for the eyes. The focus of this exhibit was to explain that Afghanistan was the meeting place of 2 cultures - the eastern (particularly India) and western (ancient Greek). This was obvious in the art of everyday things, including some items that successfully merged the two cultures into one. Absolutely beautiful. My favorite was a large piece carved out of ivory (about the length of my arm), of a 2-faced woman riding a leo-grif (a creature with the body of a lion and the head of a griffin). One face of the woman was happy, the other face was angry. It was very oriental in design, the details were very intricate, especially on the face, which was roughly the size of a 5 cent coin. It stood in its own case, in the middle of the room, and the light on it threw just the right shadows in the right places that brought the piece seemingly to life. Again we got in for free (Saturdays and Tuesdays are free admission). [I love when I can see culture for free! What more can you ask for??]

Also Saturday the market was even bigger than usual, even extended to the street that I live on! It was a feast for the eyes and I really enjoyed myself.

I can tell already that this year in Torino will help me balance my artistic nature, which I hadn't had for a while, similar to my experience living on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, but imagine a whole city! What I love about Torino is you see people here you might not find elsewhere in Italy... almost brings to mind a blend of Italy with Santa Fe/Boulder/Seattle. You can easily find young people with tattooed bodies, body piercings, and dreadlocks (some of my friends here in Torino fit this category, heh), at the same time dressed very Italian. It's hard to explain! On the other hand, it's easy to see the influence of Milano - well-dressed and well-presented individuals (also counted among some of my friends here).

I realized just how very few pictures I have of people here in Italy. I will try to take more pictures and post them on the web... I feel bad that you don't know who is in my life at the present moment!! SOON!

On Wednesday I'm taking a trip to Finale Ligure (3-4 hours from here, along the coast and near the border with France) for a week of climbing, swimming, and camping. :-D After that will be a few days spent with Amber in south of France. I'm really looking forward to seeing her. I realize now how much I appreciate my relationships with people, and am working to rebuild friendships with people I've met in the past. I've always tended to make friends wherever I go and then when I leave, leave them behind (maybe a bad influence from moving around so much growing up?). Now I want to rebuild those friendships again at least for the sake of sharing experiences and seeing how time has influenced these people. I very much wish I could contact some of the friends I had in high school (including some teachers) but not sure how to go about doing that.

Anyway, it's Monday, everything is closed (at least until 4 this afternoon) so I will take advantage of the day to reorganize my things and thoughts in preparation for September. :-)