On Saturday evening last, our daughter Amy, husband Rick, and five children: Taylor, Dallin, Anna, Ryan and Rachel, arrived at Malpensa (the largest) airport, which is north of Milano. We took the train, which took about an hour, to meet them, because they rented a 9 passenger van (looked like a truck--you could stand up inside and had lots of luggage room) to haul us around during their five day stay. We drove home and had a bite to eat before bedding everyone down in our fairly large but only one bedroom and one bathroom apartment. The kids slept on the living room couch and floor (we borrowed mattresses from the mission), and Amy and Rick slept in our room on the floor (we sleep on two queen mattresses, we just pulled one off for them.) Unfortunately, it has turned hot and humid and even though the air conditioner in our bedroom works well, the one for the living room and kitchen area does not cool. We did not really need it before now, but had a repair person last week who said it needs to be replaced, which we have informed the landlord, but he has not yet done it. But we had fans on the kids, and opened the windows (which are screened), and they slept fine.
We got up and were at church at our ward by 9 am. This was President and Sister Dibb's last Sunday in the ward they have attended for the past three years, so the "mission" was asked to put on Sacrament meeting, which I organized, discussing it with the bishop and counselor in the bishopric, both of whom we home teach. I was the first speaker, two sisters and one elder, then we (all the missionaries) sang Genti Guardati (Hark All Ye Nations) as a special musical number, which I thought sounded great, and Sister Dibb then the President spoke. Because of our 5 kids and the 3 children of another American family, who have just moved in and will be here for about 3 years, they had a Sunday School class for us in English, taught by Sister Nay (from Scotland married to an Italian), whom I also home teach. All of the Carter priesthood holders went with me to the high priest class, which meets with the young single men, all in Italian, but we have a great teacher (a high counselor, former bishop). After church we came home and had dinner and then departed for Venice.
Amy booked a motel (Italy does not really have motels, just hotels, but this was like a fancy KOA, with a nice pool, in which we don't swim on Sunday), with trailers (she booked 3) which are air conditioned, which looked very nice, except we did not have passports for the kids and they wouldn't let us stay there without them, even though we tried hard. In desperation I called the senior couple in Treviso, about 20 minutes away by train, and got the address of the downtown hotel in which we stayed the last time we went to Venice, which gave us four rooms without passports, although it cost more and probably wasn't as nice. That evening we went for a walk around Treviso, which was settled by the Romans and still has a lot of Roman stuff to see.
Carter family taken about 10 pm, a little blurry, because of light, by one of the canals within the old walled city. The next morning we got on the train there in Treviso and went to Venice, station at Santa Lucia off the Grand Canal.
We did not hire a gondola (they cost a lot and we would not all fit on one)
And we walked all day down the crowded streets, over the hundreds of bridges (this pix was taken from one), and saw lots and lots of churches, where we enjoyed sitting in the relative coolness (they certainly aren't air conditioned, but are so large they keep fairly cool in the summer time.)
The kids really didn't complain about the churches, because they all have a lot to see, artwork, statues, etc., and you could sit for a few minutes to rest your tired feet.
If you could read the writing on the door to the left you would see it is the state archives, where records like the Church is now copying, are kept.
There is a church and piazza on about every block, if you could call them blocks.
Grandson Taylor walked past an old statue in a piazza. There were hundreds of not thousands.
I overhead a pharmacist (in white coat) telling some tourists where they could find some drugs they needed. Italians are generally very friendly and helpful.
We finally reached St, Mark's piazza. This is the duomo (cathedral) in Venice, which was built to resemble St. Sofia's in Constantanople (re-named after the emperor Constantine, who ordered Christianity to become the state religion of he Roman empire). It is, as you can imagine, a very large church, which we did not go in because the line was very long (like wait in the hot sun for a half hour to just buy tickets). They do have a line for "worshipers" called the Porta Santa (holy door), but when I tried to go in I was rebuffed because they were only allowing pre-booked tourist groups to use that door that day. This is the height of the tourist season, which, I suppose is why they are making "la casa di Dio una porcheria" as one Italians who also wanted to go in, said when he was also rebuffed. However, the kids all wanted to go to the top of the bell tower (large structure to the right) where you can see all over Venice and the ocean and other islands. They also stood in line for about a half hour and had to pay, to go to the top, but said it was a wonderful view, worth the wait.
This is the line to wait to go to the bell tower.
I didn't go up the bell tower, but looked around. This is the door (to the right) I was writing about.
Directly to the right of the domo, with another church tower in the background to the far right, is the palace of the rulers of Venice, which are now museums.
Rick and family coming from the bell tower. After this experience we were hungry, so we went to a little pizzaria (there are many on each block, and most use outdoor seating, where it is cooler. Some of the larger restaurants have air conditioning, but most do not, and they don't keep them very cool either.
Rick and Taylor eating their pizza. They are all about the same size in Italy (no family size, at least in touristy places) and cost from 5-10 each, depending on what you have on it.
A gondalier with a red striped shirt, most wear black stripes, I don't know the difference. These are the taxis of Venice, although they do have larger boats.
A side "street" in Venice. The kids were amazed at what a large city it is, and it is certainly very old and colorful, and there are a lot of tourists from every part of the world.
Of course, I saw my share of pipe organs, there's at least one in every church.
Riding the train back to Treviso, everyone was tired. Ryan was napping, as you can see. This is a double deck train, with great views. Italian trains are pretty nice, and relatively cheap to ride, and are generally on time.
This is part of the old Roman wall around Treviso, near where we parked the van.
Then we headed out on the toll road freeway through wine grape country, with a church on nearly every hill, towards Sirmione, a little town at the end of a spit on Lake Garda, which has a very old castle. Myrna and I had been there before and really enjoyed it. It was Monday and the castle was closed on Monday, as are lots of things in Italy, and we were there in the evening, when it wouldn't have been open anyway.
The above two pix were taken out the van windows, sorry about the reflections. Although you can't see them in these pix, they do plant rose bushes at the end of some of the wine grape rows, like they do in California (maybe they learned that from Italians, who knows.)
We had to go to the bathroom, and because of the tourists they install porta-potties (regular ones cost one euro to use), but these are free. Notice those for men are pretty open air.
This is the only road (one way, and nearly everyone walks) in Sirmioni, passing the castle walls and moat, which uses lake water. We did see large fish, but no crocodiles.
The winged lion above the entrance to the castle signifies this was part of the kingdom of Venice athe time it was built.
Your friendly missionary tour guides.
Looking across Lake Garda you can see little towns along the shore with mountains that are the beginning of the Swiss alps to the north.
The next day we drove down to Pavia. This is what is left of an old Roman bridge that crosses the Ticino River, which comes down from Switzerland and flows into the Po River.
Taken as we were approaching the duomo of Pavia, with Taylor to the right.
In the duomo there was a charming little pipe organ (there is a big one too), which there was no one to ask if I could play, so I just admired it, after I opened the doors to see the pipes.
As I wrote above, you can rest your tired feet for a few minutes in the relatively cool of the churches.
This was a sign on a confessional in the duomo, which said "here confesses the priest Monsignor Giuseppe (Joseph) Torchio, a forgiveness priest, and exorcist (the interesting part) of the cathedral of Pavia, and gives his hours.
Then we drove through rice fields to the very large Certosa (monastery) of Pavia, where Myrna and I also previously visited and think is spectacular, even though you can't take pictures inside.
The road leading to the certosa. We spent about an hour there.
A sign at the entrance to the certosa, saying you must keep absolute silence (remember there are 4 monks who live there), can't fotograf (or spell), use cell phones and can't ride bikes.
On Wed, we all went to Lugano, Switzerland and then to Como, Italy. Another fun, warm day. Rachel and Anna by the side of a street across from Lake Lugano.
They rented paddle boats, which we rode around the side of the lake on. It was very pleasant.
Probably the thrill of the day for the boys was to see this McLaren car parked in the street for all to admire. This is Switzerland, which does have a different (than Italy) feel to it, and certainly a lot more money (we saw lots of other sports cars). We tried to go to a supermarket to buy some Swiss chocolate, but they were all closed, as it was a national holiday.
By the time we got to Como, we were hungry and found this little restaurant by the side of the street, where we had pizza, lasagna, salad, etc. There was a little fruit and veggie store on the other side of the street where I hope they got the things we ate.
Pizza and salad, which Myrna and I shared, which cost about €12, including water, for which there is always a charge. €12 is at least one third of what it would have cost in Switzerland for the same thing.
Anna and Taylor had lasagna. Taylor wasn't feeling well, but got better with gelato later.
The next day we all went to Milano, and I took a pix of the Carters in front of the duomo, which we did enter and also went to the museum, which contains paintings and a lot of statues taken from the duomo as they have been replaced over the centuries. One marble sign listed the bishops of that church with the first before 100 AD. This church is the worlds 3rd largest, second largest, after St. Peter's, in Rome..
Across the street is the world's first shopping mall, still pretty fancy, with the famous bull of Torino on the floor, which if you spin three times on you will have good luck. We went to the Ferrari store and admired the expensive things sold there. There is also a Prado store where the devil shops.
Then we went to the church with a little side chapel full of bones, like skulls, arm and leg bones for decorations. It is quite charming.
And, at the end of a trip to Italy, some had gelato, and some had milkshakes and sodas at none other than McDonalds, of which there are two on either side of the piazza Duomo, and a Burger King as well, with many, many pizzarias.
We really enjoyed having the Carter family with us for a few days, and we now have a little more experience in being tour guides and hosts (sorry we had to learn on Amy's family). You should all come ASAP. We'll keep the light on for you.
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