Travel Adventures in Turin

Post submitted by Emily Kovar - Spring 08 Gaming Student.

This past weekend I travelled to Turin, Italy with a group of four girls. Some might call our weekend a “comedy of errors,” but we just choose to remember it as an amazing weekend in which we encountered the kindness of others.

Our weekend started with a stop in Magenta, Italy, the hometown of St. Gianna. As we exited the train at our Magenta stop, we realized that we had no idea where to go! As true Franciscan students, we looked for a church to get directions. Asking for directions became the theme of our day and through the kindness of strangers we found our way to many of the important places in St. Gianna’s life. We visited the church where Gianna was baptized, married and attended Sunday mass. We visited her grave, located humbly among other local people’s burial sites. We saw the Church were she attended daily mass. We visited a school were St. Gianna worked to educate other children and teach them about faith. After trying to explain ourselves to a purely Italian speaking Sister, we were able to visit a small exhibit about her life. Through the kindness of another Italian woman at a local parish, we were able to venerate a relic of Gianna and even speak to St. Gianna’s daughter on the cell phone. The day was beautiful and filled with many blessings.

After visiting Magenta in the day, we hopped on a train that night and headed to Turin. We got to Turin when it was dark outside—something we would not suggest to others! While trying to make our way to the hotel, we got very lost and gladly paid £12 to safely arrive by taxi to the hotel. It was only Friday, and we knew the journey had just begun.

As the day before, Saturday was filled with many surprises. We tried to master the public transportation system of Turin, hastily looked up words in our Italian phrase book, and asked many strangers for directions. By the dinner that night, we were already laughing as we remembered the events of the day. One of our favorite memories from Saturday involved an encounter with a beggar while we were sitting in a restaurant enjoying some wonderful Italian pasta. This older man came into the restaurant and started playing a violin and singing (more like screaming) an Italian song. After he finished his song, he walked around the tables and asked for money. When he got to our table one of my friends opened her wallet and emptied out her abundance of change into his hand. He began studying the coins and became very upset. He started grumbling in Italian, what seemed to be very livid comments, with a one word we understood, “Americano,” mixed into the dismal rant. It ended when he finished sorting through the change and angrily set the smaller coins back on our table, taking only the £1 and £2 pieces with him. I guess to this man, charity is only welcome in larger quantities. This experience was a fitting way to top off our very interesting, but very blessed, weekend.