Category: italy

after sadly dropping ann off at the milan malpensa airport, i made the game day decision to drive the 2.5 hours west and visit torino for a day! torino is the capital of the alpine region of piedmont, and hosted the winter olympics in 2006. it is a very nice city filled with wide streets lined with arcades, and surrounded by mountains.

near the main square, i visited the church which holds the shroud of turin, famous among many catholics who believe it to be the actual shroud in which christ’s body was wrapped when he rose from the dead, and which now has an imprint on it resembling christ. it is now hidden away, but was last out for public view in 2013, when ann actually came to torino to see it! in the church courtyard is a nice clocktower that can be climbed for 2 euro for amazing views over the cityscape!

i then walked down to the po river and chanced upon a gelato festival that was touring around europe! there were about 40 different gelato purveyors from around the continent, and one ticket let you try all of them!

i then took a long walk along the river po, to the base of a nearby mountain, atop which is the imposing superga cathedral, which provides amazing views over the torino valley. i took a little, once-per-hour train up the mountain, which takes over 30 minutes to get to the top. immediately behind the superga cathedral is a touching memorial for the grand torino professional football team, all of whom were killed when their plane crashed into this mountain during a blizzard in the 1950s. one can climb to the roof of the superga cathedral and look out over the sunset.

a great day in torino!

we had two main reasons to come to italy – a wedding, and ann used to live here! the wedding was in the city of brescia, east of milan. it belonged to my friend matt from college and his new wife adeola, and i was one of the groomsmen! it was great time. it was at a little estate out in the countryside, and the reception was composed of at least 16 courses of amazing food and lasted from noon to 3 am, which is apparently the italian way! it also had some nigerian flair! it was really fun; congratulations matt and adeola!

another day we went to the city where ann lived for 2 years, vicenza! it was great to see where she lived and what she liked to do around the almost perfect old city streets. we hung out with one of her italian friends laura and her parents, who run a small coffee shop across the street from ann’s former apartment. they provided us with copious coffee, took us to a nearby museum, and took us out for a passegiata (walk around town at dusk to see and be seen), which is the italian way! even though i made a fool of myself by mistiming the goodbye italian cheek kiss, accidentally making it into a kiss on the lips, hopefully they remember our visit fondly. they were really nice to ann while she lived there and really wonderful people.

one more place we visited in the area was a touristy town called sirmione, on a the very large lake garda. a very nice town to walk around, without any shortage of gelato!

en route from umbria to lombardy we stopped in ravenna, a town with four famous churches filled with awe inspiraing mosaics!

ann and i got to spend about a week in italy, which was really nice! we had a rental car, which is definitely the way to go when traveling around italy, though the highway tolls do add up pretty fast. first we spent a few days in the region of umbria, known as the heart of italy, partly due to its geographical borders which resemble an anatomical heart in the center of italy, but also probably because of how much character and soul it has. there are many hilltop towns with tremendous history. we stayed in a town called spoleto, known for its annual arts festival. the region is known for its truffles, which were really amazing on some perfectly cooked fresh pasta.

we went to one picturesque little town called spelo, perched on the side of a hill.

we also went to the main town in the region, perugia, which is on the top of a large hill. there was a special street market occurring that day with many samples of free cheese and meats!

near assisi, we visited a nice little winery for a tasting. we then hiked up into the walled town of assisi, which is also on the crest of a hill. this is the assisi where st. francis, one of the most venerated christian saints in history, lived. we learned about his franciscan philosophy which prioritized care for the environment, which sometimes conflicted with the benedictine philosophy which prioritized work for human flourishing; surely there is a good middle ground. in assisi there is an amazingly ornate st. francis of assisi church which was built shortly after his death.

we also went to a little town called panicale, where they have an annual cheese rolling competition! the men of the town form teams and roll a wheel of cheese around the town, seeing which team can get there with the fewest rolls. the whole town came out to watch, and it was a very festive vibe!

upon our return from the mediterranean cruise, we spent a day in venice!

my dad and i stopped in venice while riding rains around europe.

my dad and i stopped in milan while riding trains around europe.