Stresa and Turin

Observations:
Church bells ringing every day sound delightful; the street names in Italy are very long; did I mention that driving here is scary?

We made our final descent in the cable car

and drove our rental car onto a ferry which took us from Laveno to Verbania.  From the ferry we could see the cable lines etched into the side of the mountain leading up to the hotel we had just left.  Our hotel was at the tippy top of that mountain.

Once off the ferry, we drove to Stesa, a beautiful town on the opposite side of Lake Maggiore.  We walked around Stresa and, like everywhere else in Italy, there are little shops, restaurants with outdoor seating (of course), balconies overflowing with flowers, and landscaping that looks like what I'd picture in an English garden.

We took a short boat ride from Stesa to a tiny island in the lake called Isola Pescatore where we had lunch.  Oh my goodness.  More little shops, more restaurants with outdoor seating, more balconies overflowing with flowers.  Lunch on Isola Pescatore:

After the boat ride back, we took our lives in our hands once again as we set out for Torino (Turin), about a two hour drive.  Our hotel room here is wonderful!  Air conditioning, body lotion, a shower that I can move in, and a comfy bed.  Ahh.

Torino is a big city with all the charm of the smaller ones.  Alleyways, piazzas (open plaza areas), restaurant after restaurant, high end shopping - every inch teeming with life.  Today we went to a church that houses a replica of the Shroud of Turin.  (The actual shroud is located in another church in Turin, but it is not on display.)  It was solemn and moving to see the image of Christ on the shroud.  You can actually make out his facial features and see the piercings.  The gravity of this is beyond words.

Here's what the church looked like on the outside:

After walking through those doors, this is what we saw (and the picture doesn't begin to capture the magnitude):

We also visited a palace in which I walked around with my mouth hanging open, and a couple of museums in Torino, including the Egyptian Museum.

Funny photos:

The GPS while we were on the ferry

The elevator buttons in one of the museums