culture – Sincerely, Cassie

As a first note about the city, it is Torino in Italian and Turin in English. We found this a bit confusing as we were scheduling trains and reviewing maps.

Working

I feel so lucky that Eaton has such a global presence. I’ve already been able to visit five Eaton facilities across Europe and have plans to visit many more as I continue to travel around the world.

It’s great that at each Eaton location, the Eaton culture is present. This is one of the reasons I was drawn to the company when I chose where to start my career after college. The Eaton recruitment team did a great job of highlighting their leadership development programs at our career fair at BGSU. This type of program and training was exactly what I was hoping to find in my first job and what eventually led to my decision to accept an offer with the company.

Eaton takes a lot of pride in the culture that surrounds the brand, employees, and facilities and has invested considerably in this effort. So far, my opinion is that it is definitely worth it!

At each location I visited, I was given a warm welcome, tour, safety training, and meetings to understand what our mission is at each facility. I posted previously about the Eaton Innovation Center that I visited in Prague but wanted to update everyone on 3 of the locations I visited while I was in Italy.

Torino Office:

The office in Torino was a little bit hidden, but right in the city. Since I didn’t have a car in Italy, I had to literally run and catch the bus and walk around the city a bit to find it. Finally, locating the office was worth it though. I was honestly surprised that it was actually right in the city as most of our offices are in the suburbs. It wasn’t a new building but the office complex that we are a part of was very “warehouse cool”. (Yes, I’m going to use that as a term.) After filling out some information about myself, I was asked to watch a safety and security video. One of the IT employees at the office was kind enough to give me a tour and discuss our vehicle business and the applications we use.

Rivarolo and Bosconero Plants:

After a quick overview of the business, I was driven out to two of our neighboring plant locations. It was great to see a new part of the business and get an overview from those who work there everyday.

Eating

I really wasn’t expecting to find my favorite Italian meal in Torino! My mom and I had been walking around all day and came across a local place near our Airbnb called Da Cianci Piola Caffè. Unfortunately, everything in Torino is closed until about 6:30 – 7, so we did have to wait hungry for the restaurant to allow us to sit. It was well worth it!

We were also able to stop at Caffe Al Bicerin to try the traditional hot drink native to Torino – Bicerin. The drink is said to have been invented at this cafe. It is basically like breakfast in a cup and is certainly not the healthiest option. The ingredients include espresso, drinking chocolate or Nutella, and whole milk. It was yummy!

Exploring

Airbnb was the perfect option yet again! We had a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment right in the center of the city. I highly recommend a stay here! It even had a piano. 🙂

Torino was Italy’s first capital in 1861 and you can definitely tell by the grandeur! Here are some pictures of the city:

Bonus!

Last minute, we decided to go see La Boheme at the Teatro Regio. After just looking up the page to link to more information about the opera, I found out that it was premiered in Torino in 1896!! I can’t believe this wasn’t highlighted at the performance somewhere, although there wasn’t any English translation and most only spoke Italian. This was my mom’s first time seeing La Boheme and she really enjoyed it even though they didn’t provide any English translation. The performance was well done. 🙂

Have a great weekend! I’ll be back to posting more regularly soon. 🙂

Prague has such a rich and long history and culture. I definitely recommend looking at this quick overview of the history of the Czech Republic to learn a little bit more.

Being a major city in Eastern Europe, there is a lot going on in Prague from art to music to theatre, etc. I was able to experience quite a bit while I was there for a month.

Art

The art throughout Prague varies greatly from medieval to contemporary art. I was able to make it to the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and enjoyed it, however, I don’t feel that it provided the diversity and organization of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (or maybe I was just missing my neighboring museum).

Here are a few additional pictures of my favorite art from the city:

Music

There are concerts all of the time ranging from Electronic Dance Music to Jazz. I was surprised by the Jazz scene in Prague actually, I wasn’t expecting it to be so abundant throughout the city. We were able to attend the alt-J concert at Zlute lazne by the river. If you get the opportunity to go see a concert there, I definitely recommend it.

Opera

When I was there, I was lucky enough to get in contact with an awesome couple who work at Prague Opera. I took a couple of lessons with them and had such a fun time improving my technique and musicality. I was their first English speaking student which was an interesting challenge. I really enjoyed working with them and was very sad to leave after only two lessons.

They were kind enough to set me up with a very nice studio to practice. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place to review their suggestions and continue to work through difficult pieces.

I was also able to see one of my Prague voice teachers at the National Theatre in La traviata. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’d never seen the opera before, just bits and pieces in classes at BG. I loved the show, and certainly hope to be a part of it someday.

I can only hope that I make similar connections in future cities and countries!

Theatre

The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ) was all over the city in June. PQ is the “largest scenography event in the world”. The amount of interesting events was a little overwhelming and I wish that I was able to see more of the festival. I loved that this was going on in the city while I was there!

Additionally, I was able to attend a show at the Black Light Theatre company. It was certainly entertaining, but felt a little touristy and maybe a bit overpriced at about $25. However, if you want a short, funny evening in the style of Charlie Chaplin you’ll enjoy it!

ARCHITECTURE

The architecture of Prague is beautiful. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the overwhelming amount of old world architecture had me more interested in the more contemporary and out of the ordinary options.

Prague was fantastic and so far Ljubljana, Slovenia has far exceeded my expectations. Although, having never heard of Ljubljana before I was accepted into Remote Year, I can’t say that my expectations were particularly high. 🙂

One of the participants on the trip put together a really great video summing up our time in Prague. Check it out here: Remote Year Month 1

Up Next:

– Planning a last minute tour of Italy

– First look at Ljubljana

Tag: culture

Working, Eating, and Exploring in Torino, Italy