los geht's: turin and florence

And yes it's TURIN. Not Torino. I don't want anybody saying Torino who doesn't also say Venezia, Firenze, Roma, Wien, Genova or Genf. Now on to business. Whatever it's called, screw this city. No mass transit to speak of. Nothing even that pretty. And the mountain venues were about two hours away. Seriously now.Coca-Cola of all companies welcomes us to Turin.
Waking up after sleeping in the park. Bad idea. Woke up covered in dog-shit as detailed below. If I can't find a room, I will definitely be sleeping in the train station next time.

Things were looking up on Sunday as we went to the 4 X 10 Cross-Country ski relay. However, I forgot my camera, so I can't bring back the promised pictures. It was quite the event; the Norwegians really had a ton of fans (one of them wore a set of antlers). But it was really the Italians' day at home. Zorzi got his revenge for 2002 by increasing the lead on Angerer as the fans chanted his name alternating with ITALIA! ITALIA! ITALIA! But down by 25 seconds, Angerer was really resigned to second. He just didn't have his World Cup leading form for the Olympics.

So in cross country, the two big stars fail (Bjoergen and Angerer) while Wilhelm and Greis became heroes on the sports stage. Seriously, everybody is obsessed with the biathletes now. They are on TV ALL THE TIME. When the anchors aren't bashing the soccer team for losing 4-1 to Italy yesterday, they are slobbering on Kati Wilhelm and Michael Greis.We were absolutely thrilled to be out of Turin. Here's the Florence Duomo (Cathedral).
The tower next to the Duomo. It costs 6 euro to go to the top of each.
Me in front of the Duomo.
View from the top of the DuomoVery flattering picture on top of the Duomo.
Lunch time.
This has to be the crappiest fountain ever. I mean it literally looks like a pile of shit.
Me and Niccolo Machiavelli.
Alia and Dante.
In front of David. No, you can't take pictures of the real David. And the real David is in a gallery with a bunch of mediocre counter-reformation art. Botticelli's Birth of Venus is in Florence too. It's in a gallery with a bunch of decent Italian Renassaince art. STOP LIVING IN THE PAST!