Yesterday, our P-day, it was sunny and nice outside, so we decided to go back to Monza, to see the first floor of the royal palace, which, as I wrote before, and verified this week, has 700 rooms in it, although they are not all restored. We had seen the second and third floors, which were impressive, but did not get to see the floor where the royalty actually lived. I wish I could remember their names better, although I could Google it. The palace was built in the 1700s by the queen from Vienna, Austria, which was ruling Lombardia at that time (this part of Italy, where we live, was ruled by many different kings from different countries). Maria Theresa began thinking it would only be a summer residence, sort of a hunting lodge, because they loved to hunt, and it was close to the castle in Milano, but they sort of overdid it.
We got a couple, who were visiting from Brazil, to take our picture as we were leaving the palace. Pictures don't do it justice, it is really a large residence. Although they let us take pix on the second and third floors, there were signs that said we shouldn't take them on the first floor, although everyone in our guided tour was taking them after the guide went to the next room. Again, as on the upper floors, we had headsets which told us what we were going to see as we went from room to room. This floor had period furniture and same art work, but certainly not how much it originally had, and the floors and walls had been restored.
While we were waiting for the tour, I snapped a shot in the modern kitchen area of a cook slicing meat and putting it on panini (rolls), which they sell in their restaurant. Italians love their food slicers and slice up everything very fine, and then put many slices, meat and cheese, on a piece of very fresh, crisp on the outside relatively soft on the inside, white bread.
Across the hall was the coffee bar, with fresh baked items. Italians really like to drink coffee, which they make with live steam, from tiny cups and eat these croissants, etc. It costs about €1.50 for a coffee and a morning roll. I suspect many Italians buy them from one of these bars in the morning, instead of making them at home. They usually also sell hot chocolate, but we didn't have any.
This was the "back door" to the palace, which we explored while we were waiting for our tour, which cost €10 each, to begin.
One side was for smokers and the other for dogs. Italians do a good job of keeping smoking,which it seems a greater percent of the population, including young teenagers, do than in the US. It is so sad to see young kids smoking. We saw one beggar man going through cigarette butts to find the longest ones for himself.
Again, in the palace we walked through many, many rooms with furniture, etc. and were told what happened in each room, but it was hard to take pictures.
So, when you did get an audience with the king, this is the chair he sat on.
This is the bed King Umberto I, slept on. (The queen had her own room and bed.) The last king to live in this palace was assissinated in 1900, and they laid him out on his bed, and took pictures of him on the bed. This is how they know that this was the very bed, because they have a picture to prove it. Again, this palace was used from the middle of the 1700s until a little after 1900, and all the furniture has been replaced, except this bed.
This is the back end of the bedroom of the king. The large picture above the fireplace is the first Umberto, the one who was shot by an assassin when he attended a sporting event in Trento and was congratulating the winners. That day he forgot to wear his specially made wool undershirt, which may have prevented his death from three bullets, the guide said. He did have a wonderful room filled with cabinets for his firearms, of which he was fond. I thought of Mark when I saw those beautiful wooden closets, although there were no firearms left.
This is the king's bath tub and toilet. I was able to look down into the toilet hole, there was no plumbing. They just put a large chamber pot down the hole and some poor servant had to empty it. There was no indication they used toilet paper, nor did I see a bidet or washing bowl in the toilet room, which was plumbed with hot and cold running water.
This is from a room with many of these wardrobes, where the king's clothing was kept. The queen also had her own (many) wardrobe rooms, which were much more elegant. She even had a sauna for her beauty treatments.
This was a library. After the royals left, all of their books were taken to a library in Rome, and some of their china was put on display here.
This is one of many rooms that were used for meeting guests and conducting other state business. These rooms have all been painstakenly restored, including the wooden floors. They put down the red carpet so we wouldn't walk on the wood floor.
This is a ballroom. We were told we could take pictures in this room.
When these lights were first made in the 1700s, they used candles, then they were outfitted to use gas, then electricity when the rooms were restored within the last 20 years.
They obviously had music played in this room, for the dances, but there was nothing there now. All of the furnishings had been taken away to other palaces and museums, including the Hearst Castle in California. They are currently working to get it all back. The rooms are still pretty impressive.
These walls show the Austrian family emblems.
Even the palace parking lot, which is part of a large city park, was beautiful.
We then drove to the nearby center of Monza, and parked in an underground parking lot, asking the attendant which way led to the duomo, to which he pointed.
This is the duomo of Monza, which is obviously being worked on. Unfortunately, we got there at 12:10 pm, ten minutes after it closed until 3 pm, so we couldn't go in. We saw that they have a museum of the "treasures" which, according to pictures, has crown jewels, including the iron crown, with which Napoleon was crowned. We would like to go back sometime to see them.
Since it was lunch time and we were hungry, we stopped in a kebab place in Monza, which was busy at noon, and we each had a nice panino with Doner (a brnad name) Kebab. The boys behind us were arm wrestling, as you can see. Boys will be boys, where ever they are, even in the mission office.
This is what kebab pannini look like. The bread is hot and is generally made from pizza-like dough. The meat, which I have described before, is a combination of turkey and veal. cooked like Greek gyro. They also put lettuce, tomato, red cabbage, onions and two sauces, one white, apparently with yoghurt, and red, a mild chili. They cost €4 each and are very filling. This is what Jan, Ginger and Brian had for their first meal in Italy, when they thought they were getting authentic Italian food--it is actually from Turkey (the country) and is Halal (Muslim kosher), although Brian had a pizza, which these places also make. There seems to be one on almost every corner in the cities of Italy.
We attended a baptism on Saturday evening, of an older guy, Davide, who is married and has a daughter, to whom I gave music books last week, and took a keyboard. She was delighted and I believe she will learn to play well, she seems to have a lot of interest as well as talent.
We came back after the baptism and were able to attend a concert of a choir in the old church (Madonna del' Aiuto) here in Opera. It started at 9 pm, and got out about 11:30. It was wonderful to hear that old (like from the 1500s-1700s) music in that ancient church, where, while you listened you could see actual paintings from the school of Leonardo da Vinci, etc. There were perhaps 60 people at the concert.
Unfortunately, the antique pipe organ in the back of the church is broken, so they had to use a Yamaha musical keyboard when they needed accompaniment.
To access this organ you have to climb up these metal rungs in the side of the wall, which I have not yet been able to do, because they said the floor under the organ may give way.
At sacrament meeting the mission was in charge of the program. I played the piano and arranged the speakers and special musical numbers. Everyone did well, although it went over a bit because I had the three missionaries who are "dying" (to use missionary language) or going home, speak, and they did well. They also confirmed Davide who was baptized last evening. Directly after church we went with President and Sister Allen to the Cano's home for dinner. She cleans the mission home and used to clean the office. They made Colombian food, which was interesting.
Sorella and Fratella Cano with their daughter, Melina, who is a returned missionary, from the Rome Mission, at lunch in their kitchen. Melina made the dessert, "tre leches," or three milks, which is a cake with sweetened condensed milk, whole milk, and whipping cream (three milks), which they make in Columbia, where they are from. We are going to Melina's wedding, about which I will write more after it happens.
We made lunch for all the office workers on Friday, to welcome our new office anziano, Simmons, from California, left.
We also fed the new missionaries at their orientation, held in the Cimiano chapel. This was fairly time-consuming this week, to buy, make, transport and serve 60 hungry missionaries.
Myrna made chicken barbecue, served on large hamburger buns with a piece of cheese, and potato salad, with apple cake for dessert. An American lunch, which they enjoyed.
A team building exercise, using ribbon, notice the haircut on the left.
Above I mentioned that boys will be boys. These are our "boys," who at 11:30 pm on Sunday evening, after we went over to the mission home for a snack of smoothies, cookies and an interesting concoction*, came back to the office and challenged each other to eat a piece of the hottest chili on earth. At least one of them said he had a bad belly ache all night. We watched only long enough to warn them not to and take pix before going up to bed.
*Someone (we think sister missionaries) gave the president a large, fairly sweet jelly roll, beautifully made, and filled with tuna fish. Yes, canned tuna, which Italians eat a lot of, at least by how much they sell in the stores. At first you think this is weird, sweet taste with tuna, but it was actually not all that bad, although certainly an acquired taste combination. Maybe it made a good base for the chili, although our vegetarian anziano (who does not eat tuna either) ate lots of yoghurt with honey to warn his stomach the chili was on its way. He did not complain this morning.
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