In December 2005 my family and I went to Turin, Italy for my dad’s power lifting meet. As soon as we landed we figured out that it was going to be very crowded; mostly because the Winter Olympics was in a month and a half. The town itself was huge and, as I said earlier, crowded. When we got to our hotel we figured that either walking or taking the bus was the best methods of transport.

We were spending a week in Italy, but only two days at the power lifting meet so we had some free time to explore the town and its surroundings. The first day was spent trying to get our surroundings as we explored the city. We didn’t get to see as much of the city as we wanted, we were lost most of the time, but we did see the biggest tourist attractions, like the Shroud of Turin and some of the churches. The next few days we spent outside the city.

Outside the city was far less crowded and looked like it hadn’t changed in hundreds of years. There was barely in modern buildings and castles dotted the landscape. Most were tourist attractions but unfortunately were closed for some unknown reason. We then took the time to try some of the food outside the city. We ate at a steak restaurant and found that most Italians speak at least two or more languages, which was a really big help since we had almost no idea what to say or how to order food.

The last few days of our trip was spent at the power lifting meet, which in my experience is very boring unless you’re actually lifting. We didn’t see much of the Turin or outside of it much the last three days, as we were very tired and just wanted to sleep. After the meet we were just ready to go home we were tired of being either crowded on the streets or stuck in a hotel room. When I look back on it though I would like to go back and see much more of what Italy has to offer.