cuneo & saluzzo

After looking at all the bus and train options (which there are not many of), I decided that Saturday would be the best day to go to Cuneo. The owner of the hotel drove me into the bus station which is not very far from the hotel. He is very nice and insists on driving me every morning into town which is nice. Of course when arriving at the bus station, there is little information available. I found the bus schedule and saw that there was a bus going to Cuneo (which takes an hour) pretty soon. There is no ticket window at this station but there is an automatic ticket machine which I could not figure out how to use. Luckily, a nice woman told me that I could buy a ticket at the bar. The bus ride (a pullman bus - the blue bus) was ok. I am not a fan of bus rides...crowded, not much room between seats, and sometimes pretty smelly as all the windows are shut and not everyone showers before getting on the bus. There seemed to be a problem with the little yellow machine in the front of the bus that validates the tickets (stamps the time) and so we sat waiting for the bus to leave for an extra 10 minutes while the woman fixed the machine.

I got off at the train station in Cuneo to check to see what train options there were for the ride back. For some reason, there are more trains going to Saluzzo in the afternoon and only a couple early in the morning. After writing down the times, I headed into town. Luckily, I had a map of Cuneo which I got when visiting Katia. The town is pretty easy to navigaate. I stopped in a bread shop and had to fight my way to be called on. At times, people are pretty aggressive when waiting to order. I watched carefully to make sure that I did not ask for what I wanted before others who were already here. I was next in line and a woman started to ask the same time as I did. When I looked her way, she admitted that I was next and waited while I ordered. I bought some very delicious little slices of bread covered in cheese, tomatoes, and rucola. I headed on to the big piazza. I had wanted to go to Cuneo after seeing a beautiful picture of this piazza.

(the main piazza in Cuneo)

Unfortunately when I arrived there was a big volleyball match going on as well as other tables set up with cars and signs everywhere. The volleyball match was beach volleyball with 4 high school girls on each side playing some type of championship match. I continued my walk to the end of the town. There is a beautiful clock tower in the town which was not open on Saturday to climb.

(cool clock tower in Cuneo)

I wandered the city a little more. Most everything closed up about an hour after I arrived. The city was very pretty with interesting architecture. It seemed to me to have a "french touch".

(porticoes in Cuneo)

I was still very tired from the long day of traveling the day before and also a little sore from carrying the backpack for so long and so I decided to cut my visit short and return to Saluzzo on an earlier train instead of waiting for everything to open back up. The ride was fine with a short wait to connect to a second train at Savigliano. When I returned to Saluzzo, I wandered though a few shops on my way back to the hotel and then took a long hot shower. The England/France game was playing. It was only on the german station on my tv and so I watched the end of the game which ended up being very exciting. The hotel was making dinner that night and so I decided to eat here at the hotel instead of walking back into town.

On Sunday, I decided to spend the day in Saluzzo. After spending some time on the internet catching up on all the news, the owner again drove me into town. Everything was closed and it was like a ghost town. Even on the main street, the streets were empty with only a car passing every 5 or 10 minutes.

(center in the lower town of Saluzzo)

Usually, you need to dodge the cars when crossing the main street. It was actually sort of nice to walk around and take pictures. I went back to Quattro Stagione for lunch and had a salad and some risotto.

At 2, the museum - Casa Cavassa opened up. This was such a wonderful place to visit.  It is the home of a family from Saluzzo that has tons of room with interesting paintings and furniture in each room and also wonderful views. I was the only one there and had the entire museum to myself. A rare sight in Italy. After taking lots of pictures and chatting with the girl at the desk, I went on to climb the bell tower. This was my first tower to climb this year. There were only a little over 100 steps and do it was a very easy tower to climb. The inside was very interesting. I tried to take some pictures and hope they came out. the views from the top were wonderful. I stayed up there for quite a while and then decided to head back into town. (the tower and museum are located at the top of the town in the old part of town and the main part of town is below).

(Casa Cavassa and 3 views of Saluzzo from the top of the tower)

It was amazing!! When I went back down to the main part of town, there were TONS of people! A couple of hours it was completely empty and now it was so lively. Most of the stores were still closed, but the bars were all full and the streets were also very busy. I walked around for a while and then headed back to the hotel. The Palio (from Siena) was on tv and I wanted to get back in time to watch the parade before it started. I saw some people walking near my hotel with a bag of groceries and found a great little supermarket located about a block past the hotel. I decided to get some food for dinner and just hang out for the night instead of heading back into town again after the Palio finished. I had a nice relaxing night and it was fun seeing Siena again with the crowds and all the action. It ended up being a very close race and Pantera won.

(view of the upper town of Saluzzo from my hotel)

Today (Monday) it is pretty overcast. I am hoping this does not mean rain. I plan to go to Mondovì in the afternoon (first available train). Tomorrow, I head to Torino...my last place to stay.

ciao!