COVID19 lifestyle

Italy is in covid19 mood since February 23, when people emptied the grocery stores for the first time.
Italians stocked up on all the pasta shapes but smooth penne, all sorts of pasta sauces, canned foods, as many bananas as the 15th century sailors going to the New World, detergents and disinfectants, frozen foods and all the antibacterial products available.

After the first PM, Mr Conte's announcement, all of a sudden Italy discovered her love for Amuchina the main local brand of antibacterial gels and disinfectants.

San Carlo Borromeo church

Turin is the city of the Holy Shroud and even though our many churches spanning from 11th century to these days may look unassuming, once you get inside, you do get breathless by the gold, colorful marbles and especially by the architecture 😍

Piazza San Carlo, Turin's twin churches: San Carlo Borromeo on the right, Santa Cristina on the left

the emperor rice

Besides the Italian famous white rice, the Piedmont rice paddies also produce black and red rice.

riso nero integrale or whole black rice

Piedmont rices

Up here in Piedmont, rice is definitely one of our local passions together with wine, chocolate and coffee. Our passions have always grown organically and exponentially, till reaching the European royal courts, the most remote international markets, and have conquered the most refined tables of the world.

risotto alla milanese with Italian saffron, you can see the short gran rice

Mardi Gras season

In Turin though every season is a great season to visit and currently, we are in full Mardi Gras season aka il carnevale 😆

The Italian Holidays officially end on January 6th and that's exactly when in Piedmont we announce the beginning of the Carnival weeks. This is a traditional Roman Catholic celebration that officially ends on Mardi Gras or Martedì Grasso as the local say.

Coffee shop and pasticceria Tamborini, Via Garibaldi 31

the new year in Turin

Ideally the Holidays in Turin should last at least 2 weeks from around December 21st to January 7th to have enough time to do some Christmas shopping and organizing some days. Always consider that on the holidays and national days, most Italian businesses and museums are closed 😟

As we have already given you a preview of our very own Turin Christmas this post is about the days that straddle the old and the new year with a link to La Befana day aka January 6th, nobody would want to miss her, right?

in a downtown 18th century palazzo courtyard

Turin Holidays

Up here in Torino we get into our understated 'Holiday mood' on November 1st when, since 1998, we light up our luci d'artista - the open air art installations made of lights designed by 25 local artists. Understatement is a key word here because the Turinese dread 'like plague' (yes, that bad!) the showing off and boasting of the nouveau riches 😳 that have no manners 😂

Piazza Castello, one of our Christmas markets is on  the left