Torino and Genova

I arrived at Torino completely disorientated. I had fallen asleep for fifteen minutes, waking up the station before mine when a loud family came on, just totally confused. I stumbled to the info centre, grabbing a map, then buying a bus ticket. On the bus I asked for directions, then hauled my luggage up the hill to the hostel, wondering why on earth I had brought so much stuff. After checking in, I went back to the centre. 
I'll admit, Torino didn't wow me at first. The buildings were beautiful, the streets wide and comfortable, but it felt closed, cold. Italy is currently celebrating 150 years of unification, and Torino was the capital for a brief amount of time (oh dear, at least I think so), so there were several events as I walked around, but I wasn't super interested. I made it to the castle, then the cathedral, where the famous shroud is kept. There were approximately one hundred tour groups and a wedding at the church, though, so I didn't stick around to see the copy for very long. 
Then I stumbled upon the market. I knew I wanted to find it, but by then I was pretty turned around and confused. Torino was the birthplace of the Slow Food movement (the name is in English because it started out as the "anti-fast-food" movement), and the market is amazing. Narrow corridors between a maze of carts selling fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese, meat, eggs, nuts and more. I was laughed at as I bought individual items ("one peach? Are you sure you don't want one kilo?"), as I stocked up on veggies and fruit for the next few days. I then wandered back to Via Accademia delle Scienze for gelato at the slow food affiliated Grom. I'll admit, it was the best gelato I've ever had (second place to the chocolate place in Milan, third to either Alba, near my house in Palermo, or the place I went to in Agrigento). I got extra dark chocolate and crema di Grom - both amazing. I then wandered to the Mole, planning to climb it. But the wait was at least an hour, and my time in Torino was limited, so I took off to see the Egyptian museum. It was nice to see old stuff that wasn't Roman or Greek, the mummies were super cool, and I enjoyed seeing the ancient texts and sarcophagi. After the museum, I walked along via Po, then circled Piazza Vittorio Veneto, before stopping for dinner. I went the aperitivo route in Torino, paying €10 for a glass of local wine and buffet. Aperitivi are great. Sometimes you pay for a drink, and they'll have something available to snack on, other times you pay something like €6 for the buffet, then more for a drink. I feasted on fresh salads, cooked veggies, pizza, foccacia, fruit and dessert, but there were also meats, fries, pasta and risotto. After dinner I walked along the river and back to my hostel. 
At the hostel, I met my roommates, a Polish girl and a pair of young Irish women, then struggled with my door, then went to bed. 
In the morning, I slept in (till 8:15), then breakfasted, then searched for somewhere to find a bus ticket on a Sunday. At the train station, I got on my train to Genova. I'll update later from Genova. 
My day in Genova can be described in one word: confusion. I got off the train and I was immediately confused. I got directions to the info centre, the took the metro. The info centre was closed, though, so I did what I always do: got out my guide book (a prop, the maps in there are useless), and the information on the b and b I'd be staying at, looked confused, and began asking for directions. A note on Genoa: it is not like a normal city. Most of the streets are narrow, steep passageways. The third person I asked said, "Do you have the phone number, I'll call them". And I decided I liked Genoa. The owner of the b and b picked me up, let me leave my bags, showed me where we were on the useless map in my guide book and gave me directions. Then I went back to the info centre for a real map, and took off. I walked along a street designated as a historical sight, enjoying the architecture. It seems that most of Genoa is in chiaroscuro - painted to seem like sculpture. 
I had one museum in mind in Genoa - the Museo delle Culture del Monde - and had to take an elevator to get there. (This sounds stupid, but I was pretty excited to use the elevator. It was essentially a bus/gondola that went straight up). The museum is actually in the house/castle of Capitano Enrico D'Albertis - an explorer that went out and stole a bunch of stuff so when he died they made it into a museum. So there were all kinds of things from all over the world - stuffed animals, native art and clothing, sand, weapons. I was essentially the only one there, so one of the museum workers always showed me random things or showed me around. There was a totem pole (a very small one) from British Columbia, which I was pretty excited about. 
They also had a statue of Christopher Columbus overlooking the port. I should mention, Italians are very proud that their son "discovered" America. I have told many people, many many times, that in fact, Vikings inhabited Newfoundland for a period of time some couple of hundred years before Columbus came along, and that the Americas didn't need any "discovering" anyhow - there were already people there. But I can't win. All the text books say that Columbus discovered America, and I think that Italians rather like that he gets the credit. 
After the museum, I wandered more of the caruggi - the tiny streets - stopping to buy some focaccia (one of my two food goals for the town), before continuing to the port. I saw an old ship, then headed up toward the cathedral. 
I'm taking a break before dinner at the b and b before I head out to find dinner (second food goal: pesto). Tomorrow mid day, I'll be going on to the Cinque Terre, so I'll have a few hours in Genoa tomorrow morning as well.