Yesterday was our 45th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by working in the office all day, trudging through the snow, up hill both ways (actually the spring weather is beautiful, and daylight savings time started on Sunday, so it is lighter later). We went out to eat and to get a gelato, and thought about all of our blessings since we knelt at the altar in Salt Lake City on a Monday (the Salt Lake temple is open on Monday morning.) during Myrna's spring vacation. We came to Italy on our "honeymoon" that summer.
Mark and Amber came last week for a visit, arriving in the evening that Jeff and Stacey left in the morning. We came home to sleep and left in the morning for Sale Castelnuova Nigra, north of Torino, (about 2 hours from here) where Amber's Caretto ancestors immigrated from to Globe, Arizona, around 1900. It is a village of about 400 people up in the mountains. In the town square there is a monument to the war (first WW) dead.
The marble monument says "Sale Castelnuovo, her fallen sons in the great war, 1915-1918."
Amber's ancestors (probably uncles) certainly did their duty, with three Caretto Buffo sons, Giuseppe, Domenico and Pietro, with birth dates, memoralized,
In this pix you can see the small square, with the monument, and mountains in the hazy background. Mark, as you can see, was soaking up the sun.
Then we went inside the adjacent village church, where Amber's ancestors were baptized, married and eulogized when they died.
This is the high (front) altar of the village church. The patron saint for this church is painted in the lower left corner of the oblong painting above the altar.
He is good ole' St. Sebastian, who was martyred with arrows. Notice his blue eyes.
The old pipe organ in the back is undoubtedly not playable. I did play a verse of "We thank Thee O God for a Prophet" on the electronic counterfeit near the altar, just for good times sake.
Then we walked over to the village cemetery, from which you can also see the mountains. The village is on the side of a mountain itself.
We quickly found Amber's great-great grandfather's grave in the wall of the cemetery. Myrna and I had been there before and knew where it was. There are certainly a lot of Amber's ancestors buried in that cemetery, all over the place.
They are buried in walls and in the ground.
One of Amber's grandmothers was a Bertoglio, and there were lots of them too. Our stake president here in Italy is a Bertoglio. Maybe they are related. There is certainly a lot of genealogy to do, which will be fun. The city hall, where the cemetery archives are, closes at 1 pm, except on Mondays, we learned. But we talked to the city manager, who was sitting outside in his pickup truck, who said if I go back when the hall is open I could copy records from that cemetery, as well as the old cemetery which has been gone from about the 1860s.
This is one of the little, and I mean little, streets in the village. We don't know the addresses of where Caretto ancestors lived, but perhaps not in town. They may have lived up the hill about a half mile, in what is called Caretto Inferiore (lower Caretto)
And from there, up a very narrow, windy road is...
another sign for Caretto sup (superiore, or upper). It is interesting that the sign maker included the name in dialect once spoken there, spelled "Carè giur." Actually, this area is very beautiful and there are some very nice cottages, some of them used by people for weekend getaways. We spoke with an old man who knew a lot of people who live there now, including an American airline pilot who bought one of the cottages for weekend retreats.
We came home and went out for pizza, Mark and Amber's first of many. We happened to choose a local restaurant where about 20 young teenagers were having a birthday party, with lots of pre-teen chatter, in Italian, of course. Being a school teacher I suppose Amber felt at home.
After a night of sleep under our belts, we went to Como. I had to take a pix of this sign on the street, where it would have been great to park. Italy has too many cars and not enough parking, so we drove around a lot to find a place. This sign says, "you want my place, then take my handicap!" It was put up by the Campaign for Social Sensibility, literally translated.
Then we visited the civic museum, once a home of a wealthy family. A church member was working at the ticket counter and greeted us, recognizing us from stake conference in Milano and our name tags
The home itself would be a great place to visit, but it is full of interesting antiques.
Mark and Amber sat on an antique chair, next to the red fire extinguisher.
There was pottery from pre-Eutruscan (before the Romans) and Roman days.
Including these little gods and goddesses.
This is a mummy from Egypt, with which Italians in the 1800s were fascinated. The mummy from which Joseph Smith got the scroll for the Pearl of Great Price came through Trieste, Italy.
Cannons from the mid 1800s wars of Italian independence and unification.
And even a little, playable (restored), pipe organ
From a convent in nearby Dongo.
Out on the main street of Como we saw the missionaries out "finding." At least they found us.
Including Sister Tolosa (on the right), who went home last week to Phoenix, Arizona.
And this old guy painting tiny pictures on the street.
Then we went into the cathedral to admire the artwork, including the tapestries.
This is the rose window up high in the back of the duomo.
Where sometimes is found the organ, but in this duomo the organs (two of them) are midway down the central nave.
From Como we drove about a half hour to Lugano, Switzerland, where we drove up to Via San Rocco 2, 6946, Ponte Capri, Ticino (put that in your GPS if you ever want to go there) to this little church.
Where we saw the "Last Supper" (Cenacolo) painted by the School of Leonardo da Vinci a little after he painted the more famous one in Milano. This one is the same size and did not fade, like the one in Milano did (Google it).
We befriended the village gatto who was guarding the streets of that quaint little berg and I took this pix for Anziano Hogan (office elder who loves cats).
Then we drove up to Bellinzona, a city north of Lugano, where there are three famous castles, and took this pix from the hillside looking at the valley below.
We walked around the top of the castle, looking for enemies of the king down below.
Didn't see any on this side.
But only saw mountain tops in Switzerland, still covered with winter snow, which is melting.
In the museum they had a traditional costume you could wear, if you felt traditional.
I am not sure I was very convincing, but I didn't put on the pants, shirt or or shoes.
We we walked down various paths to the waiting car.
Some walked faster than others, and had to wait.
Some looked at bricked over trailer houses, which Jeff said we could have if we moved to North Carolina, but I like Italian ones better.
Hidden between rocks were these first flowers of spring...are they edelweiss, hark, is that Heidi yodeling from the next canyon?
Down in Lugano we saw this sign for the World Cat Show, happening that very weekend, and again though of Anziano Hogan as we looked for, and found, a friendly kbaparria.
And we watched the sun set over Lake Lugano.
The night lights came on over the sail boat harbor. We also made sure we brought back lots of Swiss chocolate. We bought it at a Migros, a supermarket chain where I shopped 50 years ago in Switzerland.
The next day we got to Milano's Duomo Piazza, just as they were cleaning the pigeon poop off Italy's George Washington on his horse.
Amber checked to make sure her picture was good, with the great duomo in the background, which we visited.
And then walked over to the church with the bones, where Mark checked out his.
We felt very safe, guarded by these tall, dark and handsome Italian policemen.
Even at Fred's favorite, Luini's, where we munched these fried Sicilian turnovers, called panzerotti.
Luini's is always busy, but there is now a McDonald's across the narrow road, where we could go to the bathroom, for free.
Amber is being searched before she goes with Mark up to the roof of the duomo.
There are some pretty amazing sights up there. Above the center door of the duomo is a large sign advertising that the pope was going to hold an open air mass next Saturday in nearby Monza.
During their roof time, Anziano Hoopes waited below and watched this young maiden, dressed as a golden statue, alla Madonna on the highest pinnacle (like Angel Moroni), hanging (via harness from a hidden pole), dangling her feet, and petting young boys when they dropped coins in her golden bucket. What a way to make a living.
She had a boom box (lower left) playing celestial harp music, the same snippet, over and over. I bet after a day of hanging and dangling she is pretty sore and tired of hearing that golden music.
The next day in Bergamo's, Cità Alta, Mark sat on the backs of things.
Including this lion,who guards the front door to the most ancient (Roman era) church.
It was pleasant strolling around old Bergamo in the evening
eating hot, freshly fried, French Fries out of a large paper cone with little wooden sticks.
Then we went down, across from the funiculare, to have some polenta (corn meal mush) from PolentOne, the name of this little shop, but Polentone is a word which Bergamo natives have been called for centuries, because they ate polenta, before it became world famous.
Myrna was praying she didn't have to eat any polenta, but it was good anyway. I had sugo from wild boar on my polenta, and Mark had sugo with carne of deer on his.
Later, after Mark and Amber visited Paris and Rome, we met them in Florence. While waiting for their train to arrive we watched as the windshield of a train was being washed.
Their train came in from Rome and they got off.
Walking to the David (Academia), we saw a once common sight in Italy, now fairly rare, a catholic priest in a long black dress. However, more and more priests are now Africans, and everyone has a cell phone, as he is carrying.
The lines to get in to see David, et al, were fairly short. One can see the cathedral down at the end of the street.
Because Easter is coming, I took a pix of this resurrection painting, from the 1400s.
And because there was a tiny organ, this one of some musical angels.
One cannot but be awed by the sight of the very large piece of white Carrara marble at the end of the long hallway.
Mark and Amber with Him in the background.
I was still looking for resurrection depictions, of which there were many.
I wasn't sure I could tell what this medieval one was all about. Looks like Judas' kiss and the crucifiction all in one.
We left the Academia and walked over to the open market area, which has this large indoor market.
Which is full of everything from hell to breakfast, literally.
I tasted some liver patè on a piece of bread, which wasn't breakfast.
And we went to a shop on the third floor of the big market that makes "hamburgers" from special Florentine beef. They would have been good, had they cooked the meat on the inside. They were just charred on the outside and still pretty pink inside. Actually, Mark and I had sausages, cooked also a little rare. Myrna and Amber had the hamburgers, which we had to eat because they don't like raw meat. Amber went off and found some pizza, so they didn't starve.
Then to the open market itself. When we were there with Jeff, the shops were "on strike" and not open, except a few scabs. Today all were open and business was booming.
We saw and bought some of the "usual" items, including neck ties, leather items, etc. Amber liked this leather lady bug coin purse, so I took this picture so we could show it to other vendors, trying to negotiate the best price.
After leaving Florence, we headed for Pisa (about an hour), and easily found the leaning tower complex. Mark and Amber took the usual pictures with the tower and the other two buildings (cathedral and baptistry) on a beautiful green lawn. We bought panini, and ate them on the grass.
Then, Mark wanted to see the Mediterranean Sea, which is only about 25 minutes west of Pisa (actually, Pisa used to have a harbor). We were amazed that the rocks were all white marble, which undoubtedly came from mountains not far away. Just a few kilometers north is Carrara, which has the famous marble mountains where Michaelangelo got his stone and they also got the marble for the Christus statues, and the 12 apostles, placed in the Rome Temple Visitor's Center this week. The Angel Moroni was also placed this week, to which President and Sister Allen were invited, and we watched on YouTube.
Not wanting to be that close to the sea and not get in, Mark quickly shed his shoes and top and went in, all the way, and said the water was not warm, but not ice cold either (no one else was swimming). He can now say he swam in the Mediterranean.
There was a dog like the kind Jan raises, which are popular in Italy, playing in the water.
Here's more of the beach, with Amber watching Mark. Again, the rocks were all white marble, although there wasn't really fine sand.
Someone stacked some stones, making their own little leaning tower of wherever we were.
We stayed until sunset, watching the fishing boat out in the sea, past the jetty. They were using a large net in the back, and I watched them hauling in fish. (All of the pictures of it I took with my telephoto were blurry.)
We got on the highway and drove to Mestre (there was a lot of traffic and a detour), near Venice. We stopped in a little town on the way to eat dinner, pizza and panini, of course. (See Myrna just inside.)
Down the street, toward where we parked the car, Amber found a little pastry shop, so she bought some of these cookies, which we all enjoyed.
We made it to Mestre (land side of Venice) and found the same hotel at which we stayed with Jeff, and had reservations. This is Myrna and Amber coming out the front door of the hotel in the morning. We went to a nearby grocery store, on the way to the train station, and bought some panini (fresh rolls, which they cut in half for us), ham, sausage, and cheese, drinkable yoghurt, etc., for our breakfast.
After getting off the train at Santa Lucia Ferroviale (train station), we got on public transit (boat) to go to St. Mark's square.
Passing some of the more than 100 churches in Venice. The boat ride is about an hour long, and takes about that long to walk there, if you have a hand held GPS (phone app) to not get lost, which is easy to do.
St. Mark's square, actually there weren't too many tourists, yet. In front is the famous bell tower, the cathedral is to the right.
There were, as usual, a few beggars. This little lady was pretty cute, but I didn't make a spectacle of myself taking her picture, and I did put a coin in the cup she was shaking, sort of as payment for taking her pix.
We did go into St. Mark's cathedral, which is a replica of the big one in Constantanople, of Eastern Orthodox fame. This picture was not taken inside the church--you are forbidden to take pictures inside, but this is a dome on the outside near the entryway, which still has golden mosaics, which the inside of the duomo is full of.
One of the outside domes has pictures of Adam and Eve in the garden. They are pretty high up and hard to take pictures of, but I thought the contrast between green and gold was stunning.
The mosaic stone floors in the entryway are also very beautiful, uneven from centuries of being walked on and ocean water flooding.
Myrna overheard a guide pointing out this watermark, where in 1966 the sea came up this high within the cathedral. The square is flooded on a regular basis during high tide, and there are portable "sidewalks"stacked around that are put up when there is high water, so the tourists don't get their feet wet.
There are little shops all over Venice selling items that tourists want.
Like these lace things.
And Murano glass ear rings.
When you go on foot, you have to cross bridges, many of them, to get from one side of a canal to another. We took the boat out to an island (about an hour ride) called Murano, where they blow glass, e.g., Amber's ear ring is glass.
Of course, there is much to choose from, all made in Murano, by hand.
We also found a restaurant and Amber had this pizza, this is with carcioffi, or artichoke.
Myrna also had a pizza, and I had this spaghetti. (Actually, the sugo I make is better,) In Italy, everyone gets their own pizza, even little kids. They don't typically sell large ones to share.
Then we went to this one-of-a-kind (the only electric furnace, all the rest use natural gas) glass factory in Murano to watch this master, about my age, blow some glass items, including a vase and make a little horse. The glass is clear, and the colorful bowls on the table contain minerals used to put color into the glass, when it is hot from the kiln.
Here the master is finishing a little horse, to be sold to a tourist.
Myrna and Amber are waiting for us on a street in Murano, which also has canals for transportation. No vehicles are allowed anywhere in Venice or the islands.
On the boat ride back to Venice, we saw this ambulance sailing out to get someone.
It took them back to the boat dock of the Hospital of St. John and Paul in Venice.
In Venice we happened on this wedding party, walking down the street. I suppose if you have tattoos, as do quite a few people in Italy (as well in America), you'll want to show them off, as this bride did.
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I took this parting shot of a gondola on the Grand Canal, with the famous Rialto bridge in the background.
The sun was setting over Venice. The weather was beautiful all week in Italy, although Mark and Amber had rain in Paris, but enjoyed Rome.
After getting off the train in Mestre, we walked back to our hotel, where they were storing our car, left from the night before. On the way we stopped by this Kbap/Pizza/Indian food restaurant. This was the third time we have eaten there (twice with Jeff and Stacey and once with Mark and Amber.) I had an Indian curry chicken with rice. I was so impressed that I came home and found the bag of curry I bought last year at an Indian grocery store in Milano, and made some chicken curry, which turned out well. Italian rice (for risotto) does not cook up like oriental rice, so I even bought a bag of Jasmine rice and cooked it. I was surprised it cooked well in only 10 minutes.
On Sunday, Mark and Amber's last day, we went to church in the morning. About sunset we went for a walk, going down this path through rice fields. You can see from the puddles that it had rained while we were away this week. We had a very enjoyable time with Mark and Amber and are happy they came.
Next week Amy comes, then Kevin!
I am actually finishing this blog post on Saturday evening, 1 April, after the first session of conference (we watched the morning session starting at 6 pm). I really liked the first talk, by President Eyring. I think it will become a classic on family history.
This week was fairly busy in the office. On Wed. we went to Pavia to finish cleaning an apartment we are closing and to meet with the landlord. We had to go over to the Pavia anziani's apartment to get some chairs, and while we were gone, Myrna talked to the landlord, who is from Pavia, but got her doctorate in law in the USA. She currently has a son who is an engineering professor in Seattle. Then, because the office elders didn't take the tires out of the big van, we didn't have enough room to bring back the two big desks, so on Thursday we went back to Pavia to get them, which took all morning, but was a very pleasant trip. Last evening, after finishing our work, we went shopping for new walking shoes for me at a mall. I bought some there a few months ago that I liked, but Mark liked them too, so I gave them to him, because I knew I could get some more. They didn't have any, but said they could order them, so I will have them in a week or so.
This morning about 8 am, I got a text asking me to play for a funeral from a sister (two years younger than I, who had cancer) from our ward, whose funeral was being held at the Lampagno chapel (stake center). Getting there, the funeral, and back, took four hours. The funeral started on time, unusual for an Italian event, and only lasted 45 minutes, but was very spiritual and well attended. I used the organ sounds on the instrument, which is like the one in the Primary room in the Hooper chapel in Soda Springs. I had never heard it used there, because they have a grand piano everyone likes to play, but I still like the sound of an organ better. After the service, a sister came up and said how much she liked the organ sound, saying it reminded her of the temple. Today we went shopping for food for Amy's family, who is coming tomorrow, made sugo and watched conference. In 5 minutes the afternoon session starts, at 10 pm, I don't know how much of it we will watch, but will finish tomorrow.
Ciao for now.
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