Torino 1

Boy, we were so lucky to have figured out how to best get to Turin, because we were just about to go and buy the tickets for the ferry Civitavecchia (Rome), that would have been a big mistake.

Just woke up from a afternoon siesta. . . . 

Back from our dinner outing, we finalized our flight to Turin and printed out our boarding passes.  We are ready for Italy and our RCI condo.  

Transitioning is always a pain, at least for me, packing up, trying not to forget anything, figuring out the next move.  Without breakfast, we rolled with all gear, on a short walk to the Rambla to catch a taxi to the airport bus about €5. away. The airport bus was €10. ea.   ½ hour later we found ourselves in this huge, rather bland airport building, and with our boarding passes in hand, found out where the gate was.  We checked our small roller suitcases at the Ryanair counter, they were FREE, and provided to find something to eat.  I opted for BurgerKing since it was easy to eat.  Geneva had the fries and I the whopper.  Boarding was easy, the plane was full, and after 1 1/2 hours flight, our 11am departure landed in sunny Italy.  

Now here is the stubborn mistake I made by not booking a car either on line at home or when I had a chance to book a car when I booked the flight in Barcelona, thinking that I could just walk up to a car rental counter and get a cheap car, HA !!

We must have talked to at least 5 rental counters . . . . no cars period. . . . Until we came to the last counter, they had a car !!!  Yah, but not heap.  They even rented us a brand new GPS in English, TomTom, one that my trusty GPS navigator called Geneva, was very familiar with.  Before too long we found ourselves on the exit roads from the airport and on to the Autostrada in the direction of Sestriere, a winter vacation place in the For-Alp region of Italy.  Our little British-voiced GPS gal often said . . . then after one hundred yards take the motorway. . . it always sounded like "take the moat away".  After all those motorways, we started climbing on a very scenic road into the mountains.  We stopped for ice cream and finally wound up at the huge ski town of Sestriere, thanks almost entirely to TOMTOM and it's fearless operator.  I mean I had to pay attention to the road and count the number of exits of as many Round-Abouts we encountered.  Once we blew it, but it was immediately corrected by our trusted Brit lady's voice coming out of that device.  

Here is what it is like.  We arrived here at the about 5pm.  The town consists of condos after condos, one of which is the RCI condo.  It is PRIMARILY a winter ski resort town with lifts and green ski runs all over the place !!  But at this time it is mainly DEAD.  Nobody is here except for  some crazy hikers. 

Here comes scary part #1:  We checked in at a very empty check-in desk and the lady could not find our reservation.  It turned out that after a few phone calls she found us listed under FITZGERALD !!!!!!  WorldMark will never be able to completely separate us from our dear friends, we will be for ever joint at the hips.

By now we were hungry.  Luckily a pizza joint was open but no more pizza today, so we had a nice pasta dish with mushroom sauce.  

Now here comes scary part #2:  We came back from our nice dinner and I parked at the place I thought was where we parked before.  We went into that big building and could not find our room!  It's a four story long building and we must have looked a solid half hour for our apartment  #5.  We were beside ourselves and thought that we might have to sleep in the car !!!!  There was nobody here, we have no cell phone yet, and it was cold !  So we looked outside once more and it looked just like where we parked when we first got here. . . .  but upon further examination, as they say,  we found that we were at the wrong entrance, the wrong end of the building, there was another one that looked exactly like the first one.  We breathed a sigh of relief, and yes, there was our apartment #5.  We pretty much went to bed on this converted sofa made into a bed.  It's mattress was actually quite comfortable.  During the night the Valley was completely fogged in, you could only see about 20 feet in front of you.   This studio apartment of ours has a large picture window and a balcony, very nice.  I got up around 7am and started to write, still totally foggy, the temp at this time is 6°C or 43°F and we are at 2,000 meters elevation or about 6,500 feet.  We made a short list of breakfast stuff we needed and I went off into this little town in this little car (it's a Lancia Y, stick shift), to this little store like they all are, called "Jolly Market", it had a little bit of everything, nicely displayed on shelfs and in the back behind glass, the fresh meaty stuff.  While I was gone we asked for help with converting the sofa bed back to sofa mode, Geneva said two people came, and did that, it seemed hard.  This way,

gives us a comfortable place to sit as well as more room.  I cooked b'fast, with fresh buns, beautiful deep yellow eggs, fresh butter and thin ham, made coffee on their little Italian coffee machine on this little gas stove, (but we have a dish washer !!!).  The front desk only staffed in the morning and in the afternoon/evening, remembering that this town is totally OFF-SEASON now !!  One really has to gauge one self with questions and help with those hours in mind.  

This RCI place is high in a mountainside town called Sestriere, and mainly known as a skiing destination, 2,000 meter above sea level.  We had our radiator heating system on when we went out for dinner last night and it made it cosy warm.  

Why did we chose this place you might ask ??  Well there was not much else available with WorldMark/RCI for this time frame and in this direction.  Because we wanted to go back by ship again rather than flying and the ship we considered turned out to be too expensive.  And now that we are going back with same one, The Oasis of the Sea, it is more appropriate about the timing.  After our stay in Barcelona, we needed to fill up about two weeks before and after our friends in Salzburg.  So next stop Salzburg, specifically our friends in Saint Gilgen, another real nice apartment there.  This is really the hi point of our trip.  We stayed with them twice before, so we know what to look forward to.  

Right now it's  the middle of the afternoon, 9-17-Wednesday, and we are waiting for the two little washing machines to finish so we can put it into the little dryer, then we'll have our clothes washed.  Washing doesn't cost anything but the soap is €1.  As I'm looking out of our window I see the fog rolling in, there is nothing to see, in fact the fog is passing right between our window and a fir tree about 20 feet from our balcony.  And of course the town on the little valley is not visible at this time.  It looks like that the long 4 story building, with at least a hundred apartments is mostly empty, perhaps a hand full of guests, judging by the cars.