Tunneling to Turin

          The Italian Association in Bonneville sponsors a trip to Italy every couple of months. The very deluxe bus (complete with hardwood floors!) left Bonneville at 6:30am. We got to the foot of Mont Blanc and had to wait for it to be cleared by the snow plows. We slowly climbed through the mountains and finally got to the Mont Blanc tunnel. The tunnel takes 12 minutes to go through! And once you're out, you're in Italy!
           The Italian side of the Alps struck me as having a different style than the French side. The French side has wooden chalets while the Italian side has stucco chalets. Both are gorgeous. There are ski resorts nestled everywhere.
           Our first stop was an Italian supermarket where the Italian-origin Bonnevillais like to stock up. I thought I'd pick up some olive oil to take home so I went up to one of the saleswomen and asked her to recommend something for my mom. In French. Then I remembered I was in Italy. So I apologized. In English. She didn't understand (obviously). So I said the same thing again. In Spanish. I tried saying "Christmas", "Noel", "Navidad", and gestured "25" in hopes of relaying the Christmas present message. After ten minutes, she realized I was trying to say "Natale", or the Italian word for Christmas, which, of course, was plastered all over the store. They had lots of samples so I ate my embarrassment in Italian Christmas cake, Panettone.
            It took another hour and a half to get to Turin, where we went to biggest market I have ever seen. There were thousands of little stalls selling fruits, vegetables, spices, cakes, candies, shoes, clothes, sheets, you name it. I wandered around the market for a bit and then ambled into the town. Because the bus got stuck in the snow, I only had an hour to be a tourist but I got to see the Mole, the royal Palazzo Madama, and the Turin Cathedral. Next time I take the bus, I want to go to the Egyptian Museum and tour the palaces! I also squeezed in some shopping and finished up present shopping! We headed back to Bonneville and all of my new friends stuffed me full of the food they had bought and sang Christmas songs!