Churches and Cheese

Today, we visited a weekly market held in a large courtyard(piazza? plaza?). Well, some of it was in that area, but most of it sprawled across the surrounding streets. The market had a couple sections. Each was HUGE and covered a couple of blocks. There was a home goods section, a clothing section, a flower section, a fruits and vegetable section, and a meat and cheese section. Those were just the parts we saw. There was also supposed to be an antiques section of the market, but we didn't see that. I think Sean was kind of grossed out by the meats and cheeses section. This part of the market was held inside and the meat carts were filled with a large selection of meats including cow innards, lamb chops, and pig feet. Hanging from many of the carts were whole dead animals (mostly pigs and lambs) that were cut cleanly in half so that you could see their spines, ribs, and guts. The flower section held both fake and real flowers. My favorite section, though, was the fruits and vegetables. I like to see carts overflowing with delicious oranges (men pushing a big cart full of tons [and I mean tons] of oranges came past us), apples, kiwis and more. 

Cheeses at the market

The market was quite chaotic!

 Before getting to that market, though, we came through a smaller market in a square. Over the white tents was a web of red and blue lanterns and in the middle stood a statue of a warrior vanquishing his enemies(and standing on top of them) who were crying in defeat. Right in front of the statue was a strange merry-go-round made of spare parts and old fabric(very steampunk-looking) and another similarly strange contraption that made very erie music when a woman turned a handle. Behind the statue was a church.

The small square

A strange contraption

The statue

I have noticed that there are a lot of churches here. Churches in Torino are as abundant as Starbucks in Portland. They are all quite beautiful and they are all quite old. They all feature either a colorful mosaic, intricately realistic statues of saints, and/or huge, fancy doors. There is one very close to our flat (I mentioned it in an earlier post) and they are simply everywhere. Here are a few of my favorites today.

I like the statue in front of this church

This church has a greek-inspired look

This church was in the expensive part of town. The entrance is in between the two buildings

A saint stands guard at this corner church

After our day out, my dad and I went and got some pizza bread for lunch from a local bakery. We got a couple of different toppings. My favorite was the herb and ham one. Right now, though, I am listening to the sounds of the street, sitting on my bed as I type this entry. Until next time,

ciao!
-Hailey