The World Would Be a Better Place If...we all drove smaller cars

I saw more MINI Coopers here in the first two days than I might see in a week in the Puget Sound area. The Europeans know what it's like to have high gas prices and nowhere to park. A small car gives you a better chance of being able to park it somewhere and actually drive it. The Smart cars, which we first saw in Paris in 2000, are everywhere. There are more of them than MINIs actually. But almost every vehicle here is small - even the minivans are small.

Today we visited Il Museo dell'automobile. This is The Automobile Musem in Torino. It was actually within walking distance of our hotel (remember: our hotel is the former Fiat assembly factory). The Turin Automobile Museum is one of the largest in the world and the only one of its kind in Italy. It forms one of the city’s leading national and international attractions. The museum’s present premises were inaugurated in 1960, it is still regarded as one of modern Turin’s most architecturally interesting buildings. A collection of 170 cars offers the visitor an enthralling panorama of the history of the motor-car and its engines from the earliest days down to our own times. http://www.museoauto.it/mambo/

This picture was part of a special display created for the Olympics. It covered 100 years of automobile history and how it has influenced the fabric of cultures and every day life. This MINI Cooper S was covered entirely in black and white mosaic tiles. I want one!!

The gift shop is the first place we've been able to do any shopping. Normally this museum would be closed on Mondays like all the rest. But they were closed yesterday instead. I am glad they had a special openingtoday. So much is closed. Anyway, I bought a mahogany MINI key chain, and also a 2006 Torino Olympics key chain, and two Olympic collector pins: figure skating, and the Torino city pin. You may have heard about the collecting and trading of pins at past Olympics. This is stuff you won't find at home!

It's tough because there is a massive shopping mall attached to our hotel, including a cinema, and another hotel somewhere, and a big convention center. All the stores have been closed! So tantalizingly close, yet completely unattainable. I am SO glad we won't be having this problem in Florence or Rome. The mall is filled with people walking around and around. It seems much colder today than yesterday - I guess we weren't imagining it, it's 0 degrees C now and not even dark yet. http://www.comune.torino.it/canaleturismo/ My throat hurts from the cold. I heard it's humid today, but it's not nearly the humidity we are used to, so I think this is contributing to my sore throat. We were out for about 5 hours today, and part of that was in the museum and also a pizzeria. Yes, we finally had real pizza!! You really can't compare.