Torino - A Friend And His Family

(June 21-23)

Me and Stefano atop the Antonelliana

Piazza Reale

Stefano and I

Inside the Torino Duomo, the light shines through ceilings int he windows and into those holes to reveal magnificent painting depending on the time of day

Torino Duomo

Palazzo Castello

Piazza Vittorio Veneto

Piazza San Carlo - hosted the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games

Stefano and I from the Abbey above Torino

Torino and the Alps

Stefano's abode

The city from Castello Rivoli

The Abbey from below

View from Antonelliana

Sunset from Stefano's backyard

Night time in Piazza San Carlo

Me and il mio amico

From the top of the Antonelliana

Last sight of the Alps

I had been going back and forth for a while on whether or not I wanted to travel during last week in Leuven. I had an ongoing debate between wanting to take one final trip and wanting to be in my “home” for three more days. Ultimately I came to the conclusion that I had an 11 day break and I wouldn’t mind taking one last adventure to redeem my Berlin experience. Thus, during my final weeks in Leuven I contacted a good friend from first semester and decided to travel to his home town.

Stefano took me in with open arms and was excited to show me around his hometown of Torino, Italy – something evident by the amount of places he had planned for us to visit over my short 2 days visiting him. We hit the ground running when I arrived as I threw my backpack full of clothes into the back of his car and headed out to see the city. Our goal on my first day was pretty simple – see everything that made the city of Torino famous.

Stefano guided me – quite sleepy from having been up for almost 24 hours – through the city of Torino to all the famous and favorite sites. We started at the Piazza Castello, which had most of the main sites of the old city. The brown stoned Castle in the center of the square was only one of the major attractions in the center of the city. In addition, to the Castle, the Palazzo Reale and the Torino Duomo where the Shroud of Turin (what is believed to be the death cloth of Christ) resides were also in the main town center. We ended our first day at an old Abbey on the hillside overlooking the city. The sacred grounds, which also served as a memorial to the 1950 Torino soccer team plane crash, provided a birds-eye view of the surrounding areas and were a perfect finish to my first day in the friendly city.

Torino was the site of the 2008 winter Olympic Games and as a result, the Olympics were a common theme for Stefano’s guided tour. He took me through most of the famous sites that were snow covered during the Olympic Games. The reminders of the games are still evident throughout the city as the famous 5 intertwined rings adorn many of the buildings new and old.

If there is one recommendation I have for future world travelers, it’s this: make friends, and then travel to their hometowns. There is nothing quite like seeing a city through the eyes of its inhabitants. It’s the best way to find the authentic back alley places and to see the favorite sites of its residents.

This point was probably best emphasized during my travels through Torino and its surrounding areas with one my amici Torinesi. Over the course of the next two days, Stefano took me out and about around Torino, going everywhere from the heart of the city to the medieval castles that protected it. The highlights among the areas outside the city which we saw were three Castles: Vanencia, Rivole, and Raccognigi. We spent my second day in Torino seeing most of these sites in addition to the FIAT factory (kind of redundant) and then heading into the city to look at it from above atop the high spire of the Antonelliana.

Perhaps the greatest allure of traveling to the hometown of a friend, especially an Italian friend, is getting to stay in their home for the duration of the trip (and getting home cooked meals). Stefano’s family welcomed me into their home for my visit. They live in a beautiful country home built into the hills across from the Alps on the outskirts of Torino. Besides the home cooked meals prepared by Stefano’s mother and practicing my Italian with his father, the view from their back porch was probably the most magnificent aspect of their home. The white tips of the Alps jutted into the sky and provided the perfect backdrop for the valley below which was coated in the red Mediterranean rooftops which characterize Italian countryside’s. The Alps, which played host to fog and sunsets while I was visiting, casted a magnificent aura out from behind their peaks.

I spent my last night on their back porch staring out over the valley and mountains in the distance and for the first time it hit me that this was really my last great adventure in Europe. I had a years worth of memories flash through my head as I stared out over the Torino landscape. Sure I would travel a bit more around Belgium, but not quite like traveling around the European continent. It was with great sadness that I left my friend early on Wednesday morning – my flight leaving at 9am – and as I flew over the Alps fresh in the morning sunshine, the reality sunk it. This would be my last time flying over that mountain range, this would be my last time flying “home” to Belgium.

Final(s) Weeks

(Weeks of May 31-June 20)

The flags over the Oude Markt

Playing instead of watching soccer

Playing some Soccer with Americans and Europeans

Can't decided if I look tough or frightened

Me and Liam

The Nachbahrhuis Spring 2010

The Italian Fans

Tim, Ginger, and I

The Match

The Flares

Watching Soccer in the Oude Markt

The big screen in front of the Eiffel Tower

Kevin and I

The Final Bro-Night

With the departure of Monique, my attention was quickly refocused from fun to finals. She departed leaving at the start of a 2 week break period before finals season started. For most people in the group, the break served as an easy travel time to take a nice week off. However, I spent the 2 weeks writing papers. At the end of the first week, I had to write a 40 page paper, and the end of the second a 15 page one. However, the stress of those early weeks would be redeemed later on as I ended up finishing my finals on the 16th of June and had an 11 day break before we went home. This provided me with the perfect chance to travel some before the end of the year.

The signature of the start of the end of the year was our end of the year BBQ which came on the Thursday before Monique left. Gathering in the backyard of our professor’s house in the Begijnhof, the group of 72 Nachbahrhuis-ians came together for the final time. The gathering was bitter sweet as it was great to see everyone together, but sad to know it was our final engagement.

The first of my adventures since the start of the finals season began when Tim, Ginger, Liam, Francesco and I headed in to watch Italy play Mexico in Brussels, in a World Cup warm up. We had wanted to see a soccer game in Europe before the end of the year and this friendly match served as the best opportunity to do so. At first we were concerned when we boarded the train into Brussels, hoping that at least a decent crowd would show up to make the game interesting and loud (after all it was Italy vs. Mexico in Brussels – we weren’t expecting much.) However, the atmosphere that greeted us when we boarded the metro out to the Atomium Park, quickly changed our minds.

“I’m excited!” Tim exclaimed as he turned, wide-eyed staring at the mass of blue shirts flowing off of the metro – the sound of screams and vuvuzela’s preceding and following them as they swarmed. Italy drew a good crowd – more so than the Mexicans – but nonetheless the atmosphere inside the stadium was even crazier than the metro ride. Though Mexico lacked its supporters, the Italian fans more than made up for the enthusiasm, as they proceeded to hang signs and do chants throughout most of the game.

Some of the most event-filled parts of the match came when some Italian fans threw road flares onto the field. This helped to supplement the relatively low action game that occurred. The game finished 2-1 in Mexico’s favor, though the stadium was pretty crazy when the Italians mounted a late comeback. When the chants settled and the game came to a close, with Mexico surprisingly taking it to the Italians (though I suppose not so surprising seeing as how the Italians finished in the World Cup). Either way, the game was fun for us Americans to be a part of and I think everyone (minus Francesco) enjoyed the match.

The soccer game started a theme for the past couple of weeks as World Cup season has taken Leuven by storm, transforming the Oude Markt into an outdoor ESPN Zone with big screen TV’s out front of every pub and fans dressed in their appropriate team colors cheering in front of their respective TV’s. More importantly the game has been especially fun for a house full of internationals representing a number of teams in the World Cup: Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and the United States. In addition, the early success of the US allowed us (me) to be significantly more obnoxious as I decked out in red, white, and blue and headed for the Oude Markt for each match. The atmosphere on the Oude Markt had turned from quiet afternoons out to drink a beer, to packed crowds all sitting outside staring at TV’s which have been propped up outside. Above the bars flags from most of the competing countries were flown, turning the stone stories into bright vibrant colors, all flowing in the slight breeze of the Belgian air, complimented by the cheers and jeers of the disappointed fans carried throughout the streets of cobblestone. Over the course of the World Cup, we spent many afternoons out in the Oude Markt, enjoying an afternoon Belgian beer in the sunshine.

Carrying the sprit of the World Cup into our own lives, we have taken several opportunities to gather our house against the other American huis – JL Vives International Huis – in a couple of futbol matches. Representing the Nachbahr, Liam, Nick, Kara, Francesco, Thibaut, and I have all taken turns playing small sided games against the other huis – even a couple of times playing together with the other American and Europeans. We have had a couple of very close and fun matches and the competitive contests have given me the opportunity to relive my glory days of soccer – though I must admit I find myself much more winded now. I’ve even had the opportunity to play goalie a couple of times trying not to embarrass myself too much.

In addition to soccer, the end of the year has afforded me some travel time, as my finals finished up earlier than others, I was granted the opportunity to travel a bit. With the conclusions of my exams on the 16th, I took the extra time I had before I went home to plan a couple of trips. One of those trips was down to Paris for a day and night to see Kevin who had been traveling through Europe with some of his friends through a program at St. Peter’s. I headed out to Paris to meet up with him, Sir Campion and the Prep crew. The 27 hours I spent in Paris were entertaining but went by quickly to say the least. I was there for one day and one night and my time was more about hanging out with the group than seeing any major sights.

When I arrived I met up with the group on the Champ D’Elysees – it wasn’t exactly hard to find a group of 20 Americans walking down the most popular shopping street in Paris – and we made our way back to their hotel. After relaxing for a bit, we gathered to grab dinner at a Moroccan Restaurant. I used the time to catch up with Sir on Prep and the goings-on of my Alma Mater – it was great to reminisce with Sir Campion, one of my prized teachers at St. Peter’s. The food at the restaurant was outstanding as we coated coos coos in chicken, vegetables and other Moroccan cuisine. After dinner, the group ventured down to the Eiffel Tower to watch the soccer game between France and Algeria – which ended with a bunch of disappointed Parisians as France imploded in a loss.

The following morning we were up by noon for lunch and another meal at a second restaurant. The restaurant was in the heart of the Latin Corridor, and once we finished the meal, we walked about the college section of Paris, taking in some of the sights while heading toward Saint Sulpice. Saint Sulpice is one of the hidden jewels of Paris and was a delight to get to see. I ended my time in Paris at this stop – I had to rush back to the train station to catch a 5:30 train back to Brussels. Bidding my baby brother farewell and thanking Sir for allowing me to tag along, I was quickly headed back to Belgium to begin my final week in my Leuven home.

That final week was symbolized by the ending of a great tradition. Over the course of the year, the Gentlemen of the Nachbahrhuis gathered occasionally, typically once a month for a “Bro-night” tradition. During these aforementioned events, all 7 of the American men – accompanied at times by various other males (including a couple of visiting fathers) – would get together, smoke a cigar, have a couple of rounds in a bar either out on the Oude Markt or at the Klokhuys, and then proceed to argue, debate, scream, yell, and b-s with one another for the evening. The “Bro-night” was a gathering that we all looked forward to and always enjoyed. On the Sunday before the final week the 7 bro’s of the Nachbahr gathered for our final “Bro-night.” It was a bitter sweet engagement as the somber night didn’t lead to much debating but more to reminiscing about the year and all we had done. Then – as every “Bro-Night” in the past has done – we finished the night walking home all of us together with arms wrapped around shoulders.