Italia: Day Three

We got up super early today so that we could take the bus and then the train to Lanzo Torinese for our first health presentation on the contributing factors to obesity. Only four members of our group presented the condensed version and then we showed a video of what life is like in Delaware, OH. The students presented some information they had found as well. I found it adorable how they were trying to speak English for us, albeit a little bit hard to understand. Parts of the presentation were a tad boring because we were sitting for so long, but I also learned some things. Apparently, they don’t eat very many apples over here. I find that rather strange. Also, they aren’t fans of pineapple. They hadn't even heard of eating it on pizza.

A lot of them smoke too. We went on a short coffee break in the middle of the presentation and I swear everyone crowded outside to smoke. And they’re high schoolers! It was kind of strange. What was even weirder though was that they were serving martinis at eleven in the morning. I don't think this was a typical day affair, I found it difficult to believe they were serving alcohol so early in the morning. I guess that’s how the Italians do it though. They have such a different mindset toward alcohol consumption than we do in the United States.

After the presentation concluded and we showed our video of a tour of Delaware, we sat down to a formal lunch with the students. I’m not sure what most of what we ate was, but I poured down a lot of the wine. I think I had four glasses of white wine and two glasses of this really good desert wine that I need to find called Moscato D’Asti. It was amazing. I also had some really dry red wine that I didn’t like very much to wash down our food. The meal lasted three hours in total, but I didn’t really enjoy it because the Italians were difficult to talk to and the room was too noisy, which only added to the misunderstandings.

The delicious desert wine, made in the region

Once lunch was over, we got a short tour of Lanzo and saw the crowning of a new mayor. Surprisingly, it was a woman taking over for a man. We took pictures with her and she gave us some key chains. Afterwards, we wandered over to the scenic Devil’s Bridge to take some photos with the Italian students. It was really difficult to walk on the cobblestone pathway and I’m glad that I brought flip flops to change into after the presentation because it would have been impossible in my heels.

The winding streets of Lanzo

Devil's Bridge

I think the most relieving thing of the day was that the restroom at the school had an actual toilet, albeit one without a seat, but still. I’m glad I didn’t have to squat to pee in another hole. You would think that Italy would be a little more advanced than that.

It was late by the time we got back from the school and most everyone was full from lunch still, so I went out with Pam, Chelsea, and Becky to wander around and get some gelato from a bar on the main sidewalk we take to the plaza area. After getting the ice cream, we tried to see if there was any nightlife near the clubs we had spotted on Sunday. Unfortunately, the area was completely empty so we continued on to the park, which was a little bit creepy in the dark. We got lost on our way back from the park and ended up wandering the streets of Italy until I was able to get WiFi on my phone and get us back.