Torino - Canadians Rock!

It has been another very good couple of days for Canada here in Torino. First the Women's Curling team won their bronze medal match, and the next day the Men's Curling team won the gold by defeating Finland (scoring 6 points in one end)!

Then today, in the Women's 5000m Speed Skating event, Cindy Klassen set an excellent pace and was leading going into the final pairing (guaranteeing her a record 5th medal in Torino). The final pairing had Clara Hughes of Canada (bronze medalist in this event from Salt Lake) and Claudia Pechstein (gold medalist in this event in 2002, 1998, and 1994, with a bronze in 1992 for good measure)!

They were 3.5 seconds behind with two laps remaining, but Cindy had struggled through her final two laps, and Clara powered past Claudio to win the gold, while Cindy was pushed down to the bronze.

Two storys: Clara Hughes is only the fourth Olympian to medal in both the Winter and Summer games (in cycling), and is the only one to have done so twice! Cindy Klassen is Canada's most decorated Olympian ever, and used to play hockey, only turning to Speed Skating when she was devastated by not making the Women's Hockey team for Nagano in 1998.

Canada is having it's best Winter Olympics ever with 24 medals so far, including two more silver medals in Short Track tonight.

It was a good day for me too! Jamie Salé and David Pelletier were in the studio with NBC host Jim Lampley, and I walked over with my camera when they were done. Out in the hall, Jim introduced them to his daughter, while I waited patiently in the background. He lamented that he'd love to get a photo of them with his daughter, but that he didn't have a camera. Smelling opportunity, I piped up that I had a camera, and could email him the picture, which also gave me the perfect chance to ask for my own photo...



Jamie and David are working here for NBC on the show Olympic Ice hosted by Mary Carillo, which has been very good, and fun to watch. They were married last year, and I heard them talking with NBC Producer Molly Solomon about "twins and triplets". I'm not sure if that means what I think it means, but if it does, you heard it here first!

Later, Jim had figure skating analyst Tracy Wilson in for an interview. Tracy Wilson and her partner Rob McCall won the bronze in Calgary in 1988. I've heard people talking here about how she is always in a perky good mood, and she was certainly very nice with me today...

Torino - Would You Like Fries With That?

No more pictures of pizza, I promise, but I have to talk some more about the food. Almost all of my meals have been in the NBC commissary (by necessity), but this time that hasn't been a bad thing. The catering has been awesome! And we didn't just have pasta every night either. The food has been quite varied, and a lot of it isn't Italian in nature. One of the best lunches I had was a "BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich", on a bun, with coleslaw (IN the sandwich) and, at the recommendation of the head cook, a couple of shots of Tabasco for good measure.

Some of the best meals have been Italian, though. The manicotti, lasagna, and canneloni were very good, and the fish and veal have also been terrific. Here's a shot of the NBC Grill, where the pizza, wraps, burgers, and quesadillas are made...



The commisary also has the NBC Cafe, where you can get tea, coffee, cappucino, espresso, hot chocolate and other concoctions. Fresh off my coffee success story with the Bicerin, I got over-confident and thought I could handle a cappucino. Yuck! I'm just not cut out for coffee. However, the cioccololao con panna (hot chocolate with cream) is outstanding. The hot chocolate has the consistency of warm pudding, and like Chunky Soup, you can eat it with a fork or a spoon! It pours like liquid honey. On it's own, it has a very heavy, almost bitter, chocolate taste, which is why I like it "con panna", with a big heap of whip cream on top.



To the right of the Cafe, you can see the Pastry bar, just as you can see the Gelateria at the left end of the grill. I've basically thrown in the towel on trying to be good with my eating habits here. There's only a few days left, and the food is just too good! Here's what I'm up against...



The photo doesn't show it, but they often have fruit flan tarts and cheesecakes too. The ice cream and gelato is heavenly, especially the Hazelnut ice cream and Strawberry gelato. This photo isn't from the NBC Gelateria, but was taken downtown in Piazza Carlo Felice, and it shows how good the gelato looks...



... and you can imagine how good it tastes...



Then, just when it couldn't get any better, or weirder, I ran across this on my way through Piazza Castello...



OK, I lied, one more picture of pizza, but if you look closely, you see that there are French Fries on the pizza! I had to try this, as a matter of principle, but it really wasn't that good. But that can't spoil the otherwise excellent food experience of these games.

Hopefuly on Monday, the day after the games, and the day before I head home, I'll be able to get a couple more meals outside the NBC commissary, just to experience the ambience of some real Italian restaurantes.

Ciao!

Torino - A Walk Downtown

Someone noted yesterday that we are living the movie Groundhog Day here. Every day is the same; so much so that there are photocopied signs posted on the walls in the IBC daily that say "Today is Friday, February 24th", just to remind us, as it is so easy to forget. In a scary turn of events, someone else posted a sign today that read "Only 895 days to Opening Ceremonies" (in Beijing).

More groundhog imagery... every morning we get up and hope to see our shadows (meaning there is sunshine). Sadly, it was raining again this morning. Jeff and I went to see the Biblioteca Reale (Royal Library) where there was an exhibition of some Leonardo da Vinci drawings and a carving by Michaelangelo, but we were unable to take photos (even as Giornalistas). It was very interesting.

When I first got to Torino, I said it was old (and kinda ugly), but when you walk around downtown, there are many beautiful buildings that just pop-up out of nowhere as you walk down a road and come unexpectedly to an open piazza. The piazza (plaza) is the centre of the Italian city life, and even some of the "ugly" rectangular buildings often have "hollow" centres with a park inside.

I'm going to take you on a pictorial walk downtown, starting from the train station, which is where the bus from the IBC lets me off in the morning...



Note the portico (arches into a covered walkway) that runs along the front of the station. This architectural feature is ubiquitous here. It allows the public to walk and shop in shelter from the rain, snow, and sun.

The train station faces north into Piazza Carlo Felice, which contains a grassy park (unlike many of the piazzas, which are open squares), where I found a nice Torino 2006 sign...



At the north end of the piazza begins the most famous shopping street in Torino. Via Roma is home to the high-end stores for clothing, shoes, and leather goods. Note that the walkways on Via Roma are laid with marble...



Here's a typical store on Via Roma selling leather goods. Even the smallest wallet here costs about 40 Euro ($55 CDN)...



Via Roma opens up into Piazza San Carlo, a huge piazza where the TODAY Show set is located. The centre of the piazza contains a statue of Emmanuel Filaberto, and the entrance from the piazza to Via Roma is flanked by two beautiful churches...



The two churches are San Carlo, and Santa Christina (I will have pictures of both on Sunday). Santa Christina has the more elaborate facade, and was originally the church for nobility, while San Carlo was the church for the servants (who had mass before sunrise, so they wouldn't be late for work).

Via Roma continues north of Piazza San Carlo, and terminates in Piazza Castello, which is where the Medals Plaza is located during the Olympics. This piazza is where I sampled the Barolo the other day, and also home to numerous shops with some beautiful jewellry (Susan, that was foreshadowing, hint hint). The east side of Piazza Castello contains the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace), which is supposed to be beautiful inside, but is closed to the public during the Olympics (I think because the entrance is inside the Medals Plaza)...



The palace is also attached to the library where we saw the da Vinci exhibit this morning. I've spent most of my time exploring the outsides of these buildings by walking around (and the insides of churches when I can), but I've been told that the inside of these buildings are also something to behold. Based on my experience at Canada House (also located in a former Palace), I'd have to agree. Here is a picture of the ceiling in the stairwell at Canada House...



I still have yet to visit the Mole Antonelliana, because the weather hasn't been conducive to seeing anything of the city from an aerial view, but I do have some nice city shots from the hills on the east side of the city (across the river Po) that I'll save for another post.

Torino - Square Pegs

Ok, this is just a collection of photos that didn't really fit into a post of their own, but that I thought were interesting enough to write about (showing some of the craziness that surrounds the Olympics).

First up, if you've watched any of the Speed Skating, you'll know that the fans from the Netherlands are insanely supportive of their team, and always dress in orange (despite their flag being red, white, and blue), as the original royals were from the house of Orange. I ran into some fans on the street...



NBC did one of their "Chevy Moments" on the Orange Dutch fans, and afterwards, Tony slipped into the studio to put on the crown that Bob Costas had been wearing...



Things are going very well here, and everyone is starting to get a little stir-crazy. We have six television monitors on top of our COMMs equipment rack and they are difficult to control because they all use the same remote control, and they are located so close together that changing channels on one, often changes one or more other sets. The guys on the overnight shift usually find something creative to keep them going through the night, and came up with this solution...



Note the stylish detailing on the side, and the sighting scope on top! There's even a plastic diffuser cap on the end, and, incredibly, the thing works very well!

I'm beginning to be able to find my way around the city and have been using the public transit system. As I was heading downtown a few days ago, I came across the Olympic mascots in a piazza where I changed buses...



When I got downtown, I stopped by the set of NBC's TODAY Show, to check in with their COMMs manager and talk about a small problem they had the day before that appears to have been solved by swapping out one of their VOIP cards. Yes, I have another dorky hat...



Lastly, as I headed back into the IBC, I ran into another "celebrity" (well, I recognized him, even if nobody else here knew who he was, even after I told them his name)...



Do any of you recognize him? I will provide clues in the comments if no-one can guess. (No, it's not Borje Salming).

Torino - Italian Wine

As some of you may know, Susan and I used to make wine from kits at home before we moved to Newmarket. We had always stuck to the familiar; Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc... But one day while looking for a new varietal to try, the store owner suggested a wine called Barolo, about which I knew nothing, but that he raved about. I thought that before spending $80 on a kit, I would buy a bottle to see if I liked it. Well, the cheapest bottle at the LCBO was over $40, so I decided to skip the bottle and make the Barolo from the kit.

It turned out to be the best wine we had ever made, and became my favourite red wine. Barolo is known as "the king of wines, and the wine of kings". It's expensive because it comes from a very small region in Italy, which just happens to be Piedmonte, which is also where Torino is located. I actually didn't know this before I got on the plane to come here, but read about it in the Delta airline magazine.

In addition to Barolo, this region is also famous for Barberesco, Barbera, and Dolcetto. I have been able to sample the Barbera and Dolcetto (from vintner Fontannafredda, the official Olympic Wine Sponsor) at the Media Village bar, but had not yet had a chance to try the others. My gift package from TOBO (the Torino Broadcasting Organization) included a coupon for a free glass of Fontanafredda Serralunga d'Alba Barolo at the Piedmonte Food and Wine pavillion downtown in Piazza Castello (which is where the Medals Ceremonies take place).

This morning, at 11:30am (which is when they open), I went in to try their Barolo and was blown away. It is such a full tasting wine, without puckering you up with too much tanin. I am not a wine snob by any stretch, and certainly am no poet in describing the taste, but I've always tasted dark chocolate in the Barolo, and sensed vanilla in the aroma.



Fontannafredda used to be a very good winery that had been founded by the son of the first King of Italy. It had fallen on hard times, but was rescued by a Bank which now runs the winery. Recent wines from Fontannafredda have had good reviews, as evidenced by this review of a 1999 Tenimenti Fontannafredda Barolo "La Rosa".

I was thrilled to find a bottle of 1999 Tenimenti Fontannafredda Barolo "La Villa" (a gift from TOROC) in my room at the Media Village a few days after arriving, but I am saving that for Susan and me when I get home.

Torino - Galleria Sabauda

It was raining again yesterday, so I had to find another indoor site to visit. When I visted the Museo Egizio (the Egyptian Museum) last week, I didn't have time to visit the art gallery on the floors above it. Jeff from COMMs suggested that it was probably worth a visit, so that's where I ended up.

When I arrived, camera in hand, they told me that no photography was allowed (unlike the museum, which allowed photos without flash, a policy I understand). I showed them my accreditation, said "Giornalista?" as a question, after which we had several minutes of mis-communication.

At first they were prepared to show me the door, then suddenly, somebody else came out (who still didn't speak English), talked with the others, looked at my credential, and then asked for my passport. I think they photocopied my passport, but when they came back, they said, "OK, photos, but NO flash, and NO tripod".

I think I got quite the scoop here, because apparently nobody else here was allowed to take photos either, and I was (sometimes not so) subtlely followed by a docent for my entire visit. I could even hear them talking on their radios about the "giornalista".

The Galleria Sabauda is a group of art collections from various benefactors that orginally came from the collections of the House of Savoy (Italy's earliest monarchy). The dates of the works range from the early 1300's right through to the 1800's, with most of the works in the 1400-1600 range.

Here's a mid 1300's, Byzantine-like, egg tempera and gold leaf on wood, icon of the "Madonna con Bambino" (Madonna with Baby) which was quite the popular subject in many of the works of art at the gallery...



Most of the earlier works of art were religious in nature, and while many of the early paintings were on wood rather than on canvas, some of the works of art were actually wood carvings...



As the we got into the 1400-1500's, we started seeing the more traditional paintings on canvas (did I mention that there were a lot of Madonna con Bambino paintings?) ...



There were some very strange images as I progressed through the gallery; a semi-clad women standing on a turtle? hunting dogs tearing apart a fox? One of my favourites was this painting of a what looks like a Cherub Royal Rumble...



The were also many paintings of what appeared to be a woman named Lucretia stabbing herself. I found that there are references to this in history, mythology, and opera, where Lucrezia is assaulted, and commits suicide rather than live with the dishonour...



In fact, there was a propensity towards paintings showing acts of violence as I continued to progress through the gallery. Here's one showing the martyrdom of John the Baptist...



Another image I found interesting was one called "Il padre eternale" (The Eternal Father?), which apparently shows God himself looking down on creation. This was the only image I saw in which God was portrayed...



Later in the gallery, there were many, many portraits of Italian nobility (mostly unexciting, if you didn't know who they were), and then, lastly, some ecclectic collections of art from a more recent donor that included statues, jewellry, paintings, copper plates, and this frieze...



Some of the paintings were enourmous, taking up entire walls to themselves (I'm talking 8 feet by 20 feet on some of them), and I have plenty of other photographs that I took of paintings that caught my interest, but I'll save those for when I get home.

Torino - Golden Girls!

In a huge surpise today, Chandra Crawford won the gold in the Women's Cross-country Sprint, in a race that saw Beckie Scott place fourth. The sprint is a series of races where you have to qualify and work your up to the 4 person final. Chandra was dominant today, also winning her quarter-final, and semi-final heats before winning the gold.

In less of a surprise, Cindy Klassen won the Women's 1500m Speed Skating event, and was joined on the podium (more unexpectedly) by Kristina Groves, who won the silver.

This is Cindy's fourth medal of the games, making her the most decorated Canadian female Olympian ever. She and Anni Friesinger of Germany hold the 9 fastest times ever recorded in this event, and one or the other has held the world record for the last 7 years. Cindy set the current world record in November of last year.

Tonight, Canada took the silver in the Women's Short Track Relay. One of the members of this team is Alanna Kraus, who was also on the team for their bronze medal in the same event in Salt Lake City. I met Alanna at Canada House in Salt Lake, and remembered her to be very nice, so I was rooting hard for the team tonight.

The Men's Curling Team has also won their semi-final, so they will move on to play for the gold, but the women lost their semi-final, and will play for the bronze.

Curling, by the way, has been a big hit here in Italy, just as it was in Salt Lake. I always have fun educating the people here about the finer points of curling (especially the lingo), and I enjoy listening to the director and others in the control rooms trying to figure out what's going on, and then having them build their enthusiasm for the game as the days wear on.

Meanwhile, the Men's Hockey Team plays Russia in their quarter-final, and the US was eliminated by Finland in another quarter-final earlier today.

Torino - Pizza of the Week!

Ok, it's Wednesday, and Barry has been pleading with me to take pictures of the pizza, so here are this past week's contenders in order of preference leading up to the winner.

6th place: Chicken, Basil and four cheeses. Interesting, but not that exciting...



5th place: A standard pepperoni and mushroom pizza, nothing special, except that the mushrooms are amazing (as evidenced by last weeks mushroom and onion winner)...



4th place: Eggplant, spinach, and toma cheese. I'm not a fan of eggplant or spinach, but this was actually pretty good...



Bronze: A classic; meatballs, green peppers, and sweet onion...



Silver: Missed winning by a very narrow margin. Sausage and padano cheese, wow, this was very, very good. The cheese tastes kinda like sharp, old, white cheddar, and the sausage (I think) is the same as what I was raving about in my previous post about food...



Gold: This week's winner (and this is strange coming from a carnivore like me) was a vegetarian pizza that had brocoli, tomato, red pepper, sweet onion, and gorganzola cheese (I think it was the cheese that won me over)...



Are you happy now Barry? The cooks in the commisary think I'm nuts, but at least they expect me to show up with a camera at lunch time now.

Torino - The Medieval Village

It has snowed a few days ago, and it has been misty and rainy every day since, which is frustrating as I would like to try and get some pictures of the city from the hills across the river Po, which runs through the city on the east side. I would also like to visit the Mole Antonellianna, which is the tallest building in Italy (I'm sure you've seen it on TV, it is a beautiful, giant, domed building with a spire on top).

Instead, I've tried to do some indoor things, like the Egyptian Museum, and the art gallery above it (the Galleria Sabauda), which I visited this morning (pictures to follow in in another post). Yesterday, it was misty and foggy again, so I decided to try visiting the Borgo Medievale (Medieval Village) on the shore of the Po right behind the arena where I saw the hockey game last week.



The village is walled on all sides, but has shops facing out to the river on the east. Note how the two turrets appear to be so strikingly different...



The Borgo Medievale is actually a recreation, opened in 1884 for an Exhibition, that is a composit of elements from real medieval villages across Italy. This is why there appears to be such variance in each of the village walls and turrets...



They've painstakingly duplicated different types of buildings to create a small village, where you can stroll down the streets and courtyards to visit different stores...



The southwest corner of the village contains the Castle (or stronghold), in which each room is an exact duplicate of a room from a castle somewhere else in Italy. Here's a picture of the stronghold from outside the village. Notice how different the colours are from the other pictures of the village walls...



To walk through the village is free, but you need a ticket to go inside the castle. Fortunately for me, my accreditation gets me in without paying! As you know, I've been frustrated by how few English signs there are, even on major tourist attractions. You can imagine how pleased I was to discover that the only way to visit the castle is with a guided tour, and then to find out that my guide spoke English, and I was the only person on this tour!

The tour was terrifc, as was the commentary from my tour guide, Antonietta. She explained the purpose of each room, and where the original room was located in Italy. The castle was fairly dark inside, so it was hard to get good pictures, but here's one of the King's bedroom...



I saw defense positions, the soldiers quarters, the dungeons, the royal court, the royal bedroom, the kitchen and dining areas, and the church. It was interesting to note how they divided areas between servants and nobles. Here is where the soldiers would eat (and sleep, on beds of straw)...



The tour guide talked me into buying a book about the village, and actually it is very good, with some very nice photos from inside the castle. She had another book that she thought was good, but only had a French copy. Since she already knew I was Canadian, she asked if I spoke French. I told her I didn't, but that my son did, and that he loved all things medieval. She ended up giving me the French copy for free for Connor!

All in all, this was one of my best days doing the tourist thing in Torino!

Torino - Not Just a Ladies Man

So just to prove that I'm not just looking for photos with the pretty women...

Last night I walked out of the IBC and rode the bus back to the Media Village with Ian Hanomansing, host of CBC's Canada Now, and roving reporter here in Torino for CBC's Olympic Coverage.



He was a really nice guy, and chatted with me (and two other CBC staffers) on the way home about the Women's Hockey team, and all the other Canadian success stories so far.

We also talked about an incredible mishap during practice for the Men's Aerial competition, when Canadian Jeff Bean had BOTH of his skis fly off right after taking to the air off the ramp! I hope you got a chance to see the replay of this, it looked amazing. Fortunately, he was smart enough to continue with the moves, and landed on his rear end, but it could have been a lot worse.

There has been a steady stream of tours through the NBC facility, and most of the peer through the glass window that separates COMMs from the BOC. Dave Mazza, Senior Vice-President of Engineering for NBC Olympics was giving a tour this morning to a group of Canadians (either from the CBC, or from Vancouver 2010) and when they peered into COMMs, they saw the Canadian flag I got from Canada House and posted on the wall here...



Dave must have explained that I am Canadian, because the tour guests banged on the window, waved and gave me the thumbs-up, and then one of them slid open the door and shouted "You Rock, Sean!". That was pretty cool!

Torino - An Egyptian Museum?

An Egyptian Museum in Torino? Yes! And the second most important Egyptian Museum in the world, after the one in Cairo. I visited the Museum on Sunday morning, before my visit to Canada House. I got there just as it open at 8:30am, and was out by 10:30am, by which time there was a huge line to get in. The museum is organized as a path from one end to the other through 3 levels of the building, so I guess I was always ahead of the crowd.

There was some pretty cool art, artifacts, carvings, statues, drawings, tools, jewellry, mummies (both human and animal), and sarcophagi. As is becoming my typical experience in Torino, almost every sign was exclusively in Italian. Only a few items (presumably of the most importance) actually had English signs. Even in the gift shop, the only book about the museum was offered in two versions, both with the primary text in Italian, and then one version with English and German text at the end, and another with French and Spanish text at the end. For instance, I thought this was pretty neat, but have no idea when or where it came from...



When I get home, and I have more time, I will read the book, look at my pictures (and the pictures) in the book, and hopefully understand more the significance of what I got to see at the museum. That said, it was a great visual experience, especially the dramatically lit hall of the statues...



This is a statue of Ramses II making an offering to the Gods, which is a little unusual, I think, in that the Kings of Egypt seemed to equate themselves with the Gods in most of the other statues (often showing the King flanked by the Gods)...



There were lots of tablets with drawings or writings that are called "steles". Most were hard to photograph because they were behind glass, and there were lots of reflections, but I managed to get a few good shots of these too...



The Egyptians used hierglyphics for writing, as well as some kind of script later on. The museum has a cast copy of the Rosetta stone which was the key to deciphering the hierglyphs by showing the same text in Latin, Greek. Here is a shot of a piece of cloth with hierglphys on it...



Of course, no Egyptian museum could be complete with out some Mummies, and they had several, including their sarcophagi. It was interesting to see the various kinds of sarcophagi; including rectangular stone boxes, human form stone shapes, and an assortment of wooden ones that ranged from plainly carved, to elaborately painted, to gold plated. Here is the beautifully adorned sarcophagus of an Egyptian architect (buried with his wife, and all of their belongings)...



Lastly, I was surpised to find that they mummified cats, dogs, birds, and even crocodiles (as representatives of the Gods), but here is a photo of a human mummy (note that this photo is kind of creepy, so kids may not want to look at it)...