2006 Winter Olympics!

Torino, Italy
February 23 – 26

Torino, Italy birth place of Nutella, Frerror Rocher, Tic Tacs, Kinder chockie products and also for 2006 the home to the Winter Olympics! Sounds pretty good to me … although things did get off to a tiring start …we left our London flat at 3:30 am in the morning and spent the rest of the day as follows …

- 15+ hours in some type of transit or commute (UGH).
- 1-1.5 hours eating
- 6 hours watching both Olympic men’s hockey semi final games

Regarding the 6 hours of hockey - flash back to a few days before we left London and one VSM – “very sad moment” at the crowded Maple Leaf Pub when a collective groan went up along with Gretzky’s sad face and then a lot of boo’s when Pavel Bure’s chripy smile came on screen, as the Canadian men’s hockey team LOST to the Russians 2 – 0! How sad! Especially since the big point of our trip was to cheer on the Canadian Men’s team in the semi finals! They didn’t even make it to the medals round!!! We had bought both sets of tickets with the plan of selling tickets to whichever game the Canadian’s did not play in. Apparently not a very novel idea based on the number of Canadians we met on our trip to the ice rink trying to sell both or at least one set of their semi-final tickets! It was pretty hilarious. The Italians I guess are not that interested in hockey because neither of the games sold out and if you re-sold your tickets you would probably get less than half of what you paid for them. We Canadians sure do love our hockey … and by the looks of it are pretty optimistic! I’d say VERY optimistic and quite patriotic by the number of Canadian fans inside the rink at the Sweden/Czech game and the Finland/Russia game still cheering and waving their flags for Canada to win gold … maybe in 2010! At the end of the day it was still Olympic hockey and both games had some good action! Got to see a few of the Canucks as well!

The second day was spent walking around the city, with it’s large buildings, spacious piazzas and the many high ceiling’d walkways (good for staying dry in the rainy weather – felt like we were in Vancouver at times). Overall the city has a very grand feeling … well I felt small walking through it anyway. The city was all lit up and covered in Olympic décor. We visited the Bella Coola (supposedly translates to ‘beautiful ass’ in Italian) BC log house, but the line was too long. We also walked through the Canada house – which was just a big HBC Olympic clothing sale. Very exciting to be there knowing that the next one will be in Vancouver!!! At night the streets were just packed! It was great to see the mix of people from all over the world, cheering on their home countries and just hanging out together!

Later that day we headed up to the mountains – so great to be up and out of the city – for the 4 man bobsled finals. The bobsled track was pretty cool you could either stand right up at the track and do the neck turn as the bobsleds got up close and whished by or there were some great vantage points where you could see several points of the track from one spot. Canada was favoured to win a medal – unfortunately they came in 4th – they looked so sad.

Food …food mmmmm food was yum!!! I’m still craving Italian food one week later. We had the best pizza! Also tried Torino’s drink of choice the Bicherin a mix of espresso, cream and chocolate – very rich! The Italians were fabulous hosts, they are such friendly and warm hearted people.

All in all, a tiring and cold, but great trip!! My first Olympics! It was just very exciting to be there and to feel the Olympic spirit surrounding you, a competitive and positive atmosphere. Can’t wait for 2010 … Vancouver – some good times ahead …