Turin - Kelly

With Sloane in back in the States to get his Visa, I set out on my first European vacation to spend my Easter with Francesca and her family. Francesca was my family’s exchange student when I was in college, and she and her family were wonderful hosts as they showed me around their city (and a little of the country too).

I finally got to Turin after a serious of unfortunate events including my plane being hit by lightening, which caused us to have to go back to London before finally getting to Italy. We spent the first day seeing the city and hanging out with Francesca’s family, followed by a night out with her friends. One of her friends described Turin as a peoples city...and I think that’s a great description. It was beautiful, but also lived in...unlike Venice and some of the other Italian cities that are primarily tourist destinations.

On Easter Sunday we drove out to the country to Francesca’s uncle’s house (I'm holding the kid below). Her uncle’s family live on a goat farm, they use the goats for milk but are going to start making their own cheese soon. All the goats had babies and they were so cute (the one I’m holding is only three days old)! I was treated to a homemade Italian feast while I was there. I don’t think any other Easter meal I’ve had compares!

Which brings me to the food...I loved everything there! I think I’m now officially obsessed with Italian food. Not spaghetti and meatballs or American/Italian, but real Italian food (and of course the wine). Everyone should try Brachetto, a chilled red desert wine (which Francesca said is best from the Piedmonte region)...it was fantastic!

Thanks so much to Francesca and her family for making my first European excursion such a great time!

Tourist Time

Today we decided to get out the guide book and go get our edumacation on. As you may know, London is chock full of history, museums and the like. There is no way we’ll see everything, even if we were to live here for 10 years. That said, we figured the British Museum was as good as any place to start.

Highlights included seeing actual mummy’s up close and personal, and checking out the Rosetta Stone (the priceless artifact, not the obscenely expensive language software you see advertised in airports).

To the left you can see me trying not to look too awkward standing in a public square in full American Tourist garb, and above you can see Kel gawking at one of Ancient Rome’s finest, uh... specimens.

Good times had by all.

Flat Hunting

After a couple of days settling into our temporary pad, it was time to put on the realtor hat and go find our home for the next two years or so.

Luckily Kelly’s company set us up with a nice but very intense old Irish lady who took us around about 25 flats in two days. Suffice it to say, she knew how the London rental market game was played, and by Friday afternoon, we had narrowed it down to two choices: a nice conversion style on the first floor of an old townhouse up north near Hampstead (see above right), or a modern flat down by Tower Bridge (below) that offered big windows and plenty of light (and a king sized bed!). If that just sounded a little too Home & Garden for you, I apologize and you can blame my mother for that ;)

In the end, functionality and closet space won over charm and we decided the river was to be our home. (And yes Mom, I will have more pics of the place once we settle in).

What Jetlag?

After a few minor delays our red-eye flight landed Saturday afternoon, and after a few more delays we got into our temporary housing in Kensington. We met up with friends for dinner that night and bed couldn’t have felt better!

The next day was a typical London rainy day. We took the tube up to Hampstead, one of our top potential areas to live, and walked through the Heath (think Central Park but not man-made). Even on the dreary day the park was beautiful. We’ll go back when (if?) the weather gets better.

After our walk though the park we went into the city to find our offices. Our offices are just a few minutes from each other in central london, that is until I move down to Canary Wharf once the Reuters merger goes through in a couple of weeks.

Not the most exciting of days, but nice to scope out the area where we would be spending 75% of our waking hours.