June 11, 2009

I’m in Torino in Northern Italy. This gorgeous city is apparently right near the European Alps, but so far I haven’t been able to see them with my own eyes, because the smog and haze has kept them well hidden. A postcard at a tourist trap lookout showed me what the view should look like, and squinting into the murky distance I marvelled that such large mountains could be so well hidden.

I perhaps shouldn’t have started this post on such a negative note, because everything else I’ve seen about Torino so far has been wonderful. Everyone has been incredibly friendly despite my atrocious attempts at Italian, the city is stunningly beautiful, the weather warm and sunny. I asked my friend who lives here where to find a good coffee and he looked at me and said “just go anywhere”. This is Italy after all. Walking around here is an adventure in itself. I’m not sure whether the zebra crossings mean that drivers are supposed to stop for pedestrians – it seems to take a certain “Go on! Hit me!” attitude, and a confident stride that I am still working on. Currently my method is to tentatively step on to the road while looking the wrong way, turn to spot a car coming, pause for far too long, then either run forwards or jump back to the safety of the curb.

While I’m talking about travelling, I want to jump back three days and most of a hemisphere and write briefly about Singapore Airport. Airports of the world, take note – look to Singapore to see how it should be done. They have realised that if you make the experience of transiting through an airport as easy and painless – even pleasant – as possible, then people will go out of their way to fly through that airport. Giving things like internet access and power away for free might seem counter intuitive from a business point of view, but it makes travellers want to come to that airport. I know I will in future. It is quiet, clean, and offers free wifi, trolleys, a butterfly garden, places to lie down and rest, and views of A380s out the window. I was quite taken with the place, as you can tell, and our six hours there passed quickly. Another twelve hour flight later and I was rubbing the sleep out of my eyes in Milan.

It is light late here. As darkness slowly falls the city lights up with activity. Bars fill up and the sky slowly turns deeper and deeper blue – a wonderful depth of cobalt that makes the yellow street lights stand out beautifully, and makes sitting outside the only option, because to eat inside would mean missing out on the show.