Tuesday, May 19 – Carignano (a marathon of a day!)

We left in the morning knowing we would not be coming back until after a Rotary dinner that evening (meaning not even getting on the road to come back until at least 11/11:30pm). The drive to Carignano was not long out of Torino. Our hosts for the day were Carlo, the president of the club, and Albino, the upcoming president. Two men with very different personalities – which made for a fun day. We started in modern, tiled buildings (white with bright accent colors) and met the vice-mayor of the town. She presented us with packets of books and brochures on the area, prepared by a local librarian/historian. The books are wonderful, visual examinations of Fascist propaganda from the time leading up to and during WWII. Fascinating.

Carignano's Vice-Mayor brings over beautiful gifts for us.

We were then joined by the librarian for our city tour. We stopped off by a nearly-completed theater/auditorium that Carlo, an architect, is working on. It is a nice space and fits the modern buildings it is with.

Carlo surveys his theatre.

Modern tiles on the municipal building.

Our city tour showed us the older parts of town – complete with the normal covered sidewalks around town and plenty of churches. The first stop, a municipally owned Duomo, was absolutely spectacular and unique. It has an odd shape, both inside and outside, and the marble, and play of light through high, clear-glass windows in the dark, imposing interior is breathtaking.

Albino in front of the municipal Duomo.

Our guide opens up the Duomo.

The majestic interior with light

Hearing the history translated by the altar.

Did Mary Poppins come to the church with us? No, just my shadow!

We continued through town past a tower which they informed us has a sister tower outside of the city that it is connected to by an underground tunnel. (we later in the day, when driving in the surrounding areas, saw the sister tower and realized what an amazing feat the tunnel was – they were a long ways apart!) In the city we viewed “The Great Bastard” house and a shrine / funeral pyre honoring the city’s Prince, who has been dead 160 years.

The "Great Bastard" house.

The altar to the long-dead prince.

Next we drove into the surrounding farm land and visited a grain/cereal processing business. Although a few similar businesses that size (owned by two brothers there) still exist in Iowa, it is still the norm in Italy rather than the differentiated, corporate size businesses that are all over Iowa. They work their product from start to finish there.

Kelli in a grain bin.

Jim with a Cerutti brother (owner).

Can't like it all! Sampling one of Gianni's favorite non-alcoholic beverages...BITTER!

Lunch was in a small, nearby town at a rustic and good small-town, local restaurant, joined by Rotarian and non-Rotarian friends and family of our hosts.

The restaurant's surprising and perplexing restroom. Multi-sex, foot-controlled sinks, and, um, frosted glass doors on the stalls.

Then we drove to a newly-opened Mint Museum in the countryside. The whole museum smelled absolutely wonderful and refreshing. It showed both the growing process and the end products, plus had a large room with many different herbs and spices to smell and see in their original-but-dried forms.

Touring the mint museum - oh what wonderful smells!

Ruth checks out some of the herbs at the mint museum.

Posing with the mayor of the mint-museum town.

Then was a surprise visit (well, they told us earlier in the day, but it was not on our original itinerary). We visited the Juventus football (soccer) team’s practice complex. We watched the end of the first-string practice from a roof surrounded by Juventus employees and reporters taking notes and taping/photographing it. We then moved inside the building and then toured around the practice fields outdoors (getting to stand on the lush grass which has an underground heating system so outdoor practice can continue year-round!) At the end of the tour we stood out in the parking lot, not realizing how many Italians would love to be in our shoes until later, when we were leaving and it was too late. We were there as the top players left (here, that would be like Kurt Warner or Dan Marino and the other top players – sorry some of those are outdated...I really don’t know much more about American sports than other sports...but you get the idea!). There were a few people getting autographs and we got a photograph taken with one of the players. After we were leaving in the bus we saw the mass of people lined up outside the entire complex hoping for a chance to meet the players – we should have while we had the chance!

Juventus practicing.

Rotarians leaving the spongy practice field.

Stephanie and Jim stalk the stalkers of the players...all by camera.

Our team with a player on the Juventus team.

We then peered at the outside of a closed-for-renovations royal palace, Stupinghi. The evening was spent at a tennis club near the River Po...where the mosquitoes found me and dug in for the best feast they’ve ever had...I was covered in horrendous looking and itching bites for days.

Stupinghi palace and some of the acres and acres of its grounds.

HUGE roses...they were EVERYWHERE!

Jim and Ruth relax near the Po.

The Po

We then moved onto the Rotary Meeting at a rustic, brick building just outside of Carignano. On top of the normal start-of-meeting playing of the Italian, European Union, and Rotary anthems they played the Star Spangled Banner for us. How thoughtful!

At the Rotary Club of Carignano.

I was still wound up and unable to fall asleep back at the hotel and watched the end of ‘Forrest Gump’ and the beginning of ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’ (both dubbed!) before sleeping. What a long but fascinating day!