Walking Around Rivoli

Rivoli is a little town just outside of Torino where my Zia Teresa and Zio Mimmo live. Today we spent lots of time walking around the streets, checking out the Christmas market, visiting a few churches and popping in and out of little shops as you will not find shopping malls in Italy, only small little shops...nice but expensive. We only bought postcards! The Christmas market set up was very similar to those found in Germany expect here they had a Casa de Natale where you could get your picture taken with Babbo Natale himself. The line was long and the outside of the house was littered with empty strollers. This Market was especially nice with an outside skating rink. My heart sunk a little when I saw it as it made me miss skating at Hawrelak Park in Edmonton, a favourite activity of mine as soon as the ice is thick enough. We passed a few traffic directors which was neat to see. It was total chaos with the streets polluted with cars and pedestrians. They were blowing their whistles and waving their hands around as cars honked their horns and pedestrians cautiously crossed the road no trusting the stop signs. It is a beautiful city but I am looking forward to visiting some smaller cities with dirt roads. To see Italy the way my grandma has explained it to me, that is what I am really looking forward to. We leave to Termoli to visit my Zia Conni and Zio Enzo December 27th which is only about 14 km outside of Casacalenda where my grandma grew up. Here are a few pictures from around Rivoli. Chestnuts roasting over an open fire anyone?