Forza Italia - Part 1

The day after the wedding Wife, daughter 2 and Son-in-Law 2B, head off to Italy. It was a pretty groggy crew that slogged the bags out to the car and headed out.

It is a loooonnnggg way from where the wedding is just to get to the main expressways. It was a Sunday and for the most part the roads weren't too bad. We'd gone by Lyon France without issue and as we headed into the mountains traffic was pretty light.

Because we left so late it was dark by the time we reached Turin it was dark. For this trip I bought a Tom Tom GPS system and added some proprietary technology by interfacing it with a biological computer named Tim. The resulting Tim Tom system would be our main navigation system through the trip. It took a little while for me to get used to the system and we took many circling of the block where our hotel was before finally got to it. Circling, backing up, and U-turns were to become SOP for all of our trip.

Out first destination was Turin. We needed somewhere to spend the evening and 2B wanted to see the locale of the Shroud of Turin. One of the guests at the wedding was from Turin and insisted that we had to go to this one restaurant so we decided go through lunch time. However lunch didn't start until 1:30 on Monday (nothing in Turin opened in the morning on Monday for some reason - maybe they party all weekend and need to recuperate).

We had a very nice first experience with Italian Pasta at Da Michele. Thanks Andrea and Amy. Then it was on to driving to Pisa. Getting out of Turin and finding the place in Pisa were all a challenge. And it turned out we had to park on the street in Pisa which was fun as well. However our host at the bed and breakfast was wonderful and he sent us to a very well respected Tuscan restaurant in town. Of course we got totally mixed up trying to get there but finally found it. After dinner he recommended our going to a gelatto place that was actually recommended by Michelin. That was pretty good too. We finally got back late and crashed.