Mantova

We were very lucky to have a guided tour of Mantova with cugino Michele and his suocero.  It was a great day and we visited  heaps of interesting places and learned much about this beautiful place.  It was very foggy (for us, but apparently it is often much worse) and in Palazzo Ducale it was very cold.  It wasn't just us who felt the cold -the staff were dressed in puffy coats, hats, gloves etc so I'd didn't feel like we were exaggerating.

For those of you interested in opera, in September last year there was a fantastic live telecast of Rigoletto, filmed over two days and set in  Mantova, it was an amazing technical feat.  There had been talk about a dvd being released but it never appeared.

http://www.operatoday.com/content/2010/09/rigoletto_live_.php
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/rigoletto-from-mantua/about-the-operatic-film/1148/

The approach to Mantova looked stunning in the fog

The house of the character Sparafucile in the Rigoletto live telecast

Rob with the Mantova experts

Mantova has a round church -the Rotonda di San Lorenzo built in the 1080s

Palazzo Ducale

Palazzo Te'

Mantova is a beautiful place and it was very quiet -we were able to see everything without heaps of people around. Thanks to our expert guides!

Milano

We arrived in Milano yesterday and are adjusting to the change in weather -extremely cold (for us anyway :) ) and a tiny, very basic hotel room.
It has been great wandering around Milano again.  It is incredibly busy -I guess that it is because it is the weekend. The piazza in front of the Duomo, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and stores such as Rinascente are absolutely packed with people -we had to shuffle along in parts of the Galleria.

 There is quite a different atmosphere than Torino, it is buzzy and people look as though they are having fun -even if it is really cold.  We've enjoyed walking around in the cold though Rob had to get a new scarf and beanie.  We're so glad that we bought puffy coats, they are brilliant even though we will never wear them at home.

We did a bit of shopping -well it is Milano :) and have found some good places to eat. We're only here until Thursday so will be wandering around as much as we can besides, it's warmer when you keep moving. Ciao ciao

Zuppa di cima de rapa e guancia di maiale

Shoes made from chocolate in Rinasciente

Shoes made from chocolate in Rinasciente

A snack at the mozzarella bar

How to ruin a perfect risotto: we went to a restaurant near to our hotel which now occupies the place where the Georgio Fedon shop was last time we were in Milano (the home of beautiful bags etc)

The risotto was well cooked and tasty but was served on a base of fried cheese.  At first that seemed ok, but the risotto was a large serve and quickly melted the cheese so the bottom of the risotto was swimming in oily cheese.

Risotto alla milanese

Risotto con funghi porcini

Torino catch up

We've wandered around heaps in Torino and checked out different parts of the city as well as going to a few museums.  We went back to the Egyptian Museum -to see the second and third floors this time.  The museum is fantastic and will be an incredible experience when the new part of the museum is opened in a year or two. If you are interested in things Egyptian, it is worth going to Torino just to visit the museum.

The second floor is completely black with  mirrored walls, it is very cleverly structured -I think that I read somewhere that the display was done by a set designer -it certainly has been done by people with that sort of expertise.  Sculptures etc are spot lit and positioned near angled mirrors to create an amazing scene.  We were lucky to have the place to ourselves a few times as  other tourists  seemed to make very speedy visits -they were probably burned out after the first floor.

During the week we've also visited the Mole Antoneliana which has the Cinema Museum.  It is an amazing building  -we took the lift to a viewing area and checked out what we could of Torino -it was a very foggy day so we couldn't see the mountains, etc but the fog gave the city an eeriness.

The museum has an impressive collection of historical exhibits covering the development of cinema  and these are all well displayed with many interactive exhibits. People interested in film and cinema would really love this.

Model from "Gremlins"

Set model from "Jurassic Park"

The are also a number of displays which are representative of film sets (a few of actual movies etc  the others just representative of their era). While the  sets are well done and the building itself is amazing, we were a little underwhelmed by the sets and were much more interested in the historical stuff. 

We've enjoyed Torino and after 10 days have a bit of a better understanding about the place.
We found that in general, people here aren't as welcoming or interested in tourists as other places that we've been and some of the people who have chatted with us have turned out to have come from other parts of Italy.  People are very polite but not generally engaging.

We did quite a bit of shopping but none of the places were set up for tax free rebates - we stopped asking in the end. Tomorrow we check out of our comfortable hotel and head for Milano, then on Thursday we  go back to Rome.

Il mangiare di Piemonte

Rob & I have tried heaps of different food while we have been in Torino and have had some great meals, plus a few ordinary ones but generally the food has been really good.  Neither of us like offal so we haven't tried many of the local specialties but we have tried lots of the others -like chocolate :)
 Below are a few of the meals that we've had.  We walk all day long (at least 5 hours) so are really hungry by the time that we get around to eating.  It is cold and dark at 7.30pm when the restaurants begin to open.

The highlight has been the fabulous chocolate and white truffles.

I've had a few requests for food pics so here they are:

Pasta with broccoli & salsicce

La cruda della Granda (raw minced meat with white truffles)

Insalata mista

Ravioli with sugo from roast meat

Pasta with ragu

Insalata del giorno -a new salad each day at Eataly

Cottechino with lentils (tastes way better than it looks :) )

Paccheri con vellutata di spinaci e scamorza affumicata

Discovered Eataly - part of the slow food movement -and became regular customers.  The food is very good and the menu changes daily.  They have had fresh white truffles for a few nights this week so we have had them a few times

Eggs with white truffles

At Barrati & Milano -famous for their Bicherin, hot chocolate and gelati

Bicherin -a layer of hot chocolate, espresso coffee & cream

Cioccolata calda con gianduia and panna :)

Delicious apple pastry

Walnut pastry

Tagliatelle with carciofi

Spaghetti with asparagus & speck

Porchetta at the marathon :)

pasta alle vongole con pesto

Laptop problems

We're having a bit of trouble with our laptop- the power connection is not working well.  We're trying to sort it out , just checking a few options. . We can't blog or email for a few days as we may not be able to recharge the battery .

We're going to Milano on Saturday and there is fine weather ahead which is great.