The were ups and downs today. A downer was that Ann left for home this morning. She is carrying our family congratulations to Ashland for Chloe's high school graduation and Marissa's wedding. Another downer was the down time that I spent getting all of my clothes washed. Here's what happened.

After our 7:00 wonderful buffet breakfast with East Bay friends at the Best Western Genio , Ann met her car service and left for the airport. I went back to the breakfast room and had another cup of coffee with my BAC friends. After that, I arranged to switch my room from a double to a single. While I was waiting for that to happen, I scouted out laundromats. I found one a few short blocks from the hotel. I went back to the hotel, checked into my new room, packed up all of my dirty clothes (this was everything in my suitcase), put on my shorts, a cycling undershirt and went back to the laundromat to turn over my clothes to the nice lady who did the washing and drying. For two pants, three shirts, three undershorts, three pair of socks and my PJs the cost was only €10. I was told to pick up everything after 2:00.

I now had some time to kill. I went back to the hotel and caught up on internet chores. Then I went searching for a place to eat lunch. I settled on a small trattoria called Boheme. There were some locals there so I knew that it would not be bad. I had a small plate of penne pasta with a tomato sauce and a main course of a meatball with very tasty roasted potatoes and a salad. Espresso and fizzy water rounded it out. This cost me €10, a real bargain. My waitress practiced her English with me. She said that she is going to London to university in a few weeks and needed to sharpen her language skills.

Because I didn't have dessert, I walked over to Alberto Marchetti for gelato. It took me a while to figure out the procedure to order, but once I did it made sense. You pay first and then tell them what flavors that you want. This is the same as going into a cafe for coffee.

I killed a little more time by walking around the area. I found an outdoor market that was in the midst of closing down for the day. It was a complete market with clothing and household supplies on one side and fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and cheese on the other side. I also saw several bars and cafés plus a few adult entertainment shops. This is typical of areas around train stations.

The Shoppers

I picked up my laundry, navigated around a hooker or two and found my way back to the hotel. I ironed my clean clothes. It felt really good to have fresh clothes.

I didn't want to stay in my room all day, so I changed into my fresh clothes and walked across the street and up to the old area of the city. This is mostly a shopping area with a lot of upscale stores. There is also the main square of Torino. That is where the above photo was taken. I saw Margie, Jackie and Deb who had been sight seeing and were now looking for a bargain on a SIM card for Deb's phone.

We had our first Happy Hour at the The 1870 Huntsman Pub, the same place that Ann and I had lunch yesterday. As we sampled local refreshments, Julie and Tom gave us some basic information about out next two days. We selected entree choices for future dinners. Then we were off for tonight's dinner. I joined Julie, Tom, Bo, Bob and Leticia at Ristorante Primaepoi, a pizzeria/restaurant. I had some great linguini with lobster and fresh strawberries for dessert.