We have less than a month left on our mission and things seem to be going by way tooo fassst! This morning we worked in the apartment, getting it cleaner than it was when we moved in. I washed windows that had at least 20 year old dried beetles stuck under the openable frames. Obviously, Myrna has done a lot more than I have. Yesterday we found that a "neighbor," who lives across from the mission office, and doesn't like Mormons, slashed the front and rear tires on our car and on the AP's car. We were able to put sealant in them to drive them to a tire store, where we paid €188 for two new tires for the Toyota and €410 for replacements for our car. I think I am going to research maledictions.
This is the APs red Toyota Yaris Hybrid (this is what the Church is buying now) with flat tires. We believe that he has done it before, before we came. (A police report was made so that insurance will cover it.) So after getting the tires replaced this morning (Saturday, our P-day), we went to a baptism at our Navigli ward. Anziano Wilson was listed as the pianist, but he didn't show up (of course neither did his companion, we later learned they missed their bus), so I played the piano.
A young single woman, Viviana, was baptized. Fratello Angiouli, the white headed high priest group leader, conducted the service and it went nicely. He said something Italianesque in his after-baptism welcome-to-the-ward talk. He said that being baptized is like the pasta, but being confirmed is the sugo, you must have both to have a great meal. I wonder what the Parmegiano is like, maybe the warm comfortable feeling the Holy Ghost brings. Anyway, after the service Myrna and I drove an hour north to a little town called Angera, where there is a castle on the hill overlooking Lago Maggiore (one of the lakes that starts in Switzerland.)
It was about 1:30 pm, and we were hungry, so we stopped at a clean looking, and fairly large, Turkish Kabop joint, and each had one. On the spit to the right you can see the hunk of meat, which is a mixture of turkey and veal and is, of course, Muslim kosher.
Here is a closeup of the meat, which is about used up. They will just put a new one on the spit, which we have seen done.
The brand name is Doner, and they are very popular here in Italy. Germany has them too, as Elder Hawkins, my helper from Germany, said he ate them there also.
I have probably taken pictures of kebaps before (Jan and Ginger had them too), but I really like them. They only cost €3-4 each and are fairly big. I asked for extra red sauce, which is chili based. The white sauce is a yogurt based dressing, which contains no mayo. There is the meat, thinly sliced, lettuce, red cabbage, tomatoes, raw onions, cucumbers and other mystery veggies.
So our destination was the Borommeo Castle, the Rocca di Angera, which was built sometime before 1200 AD.
This was taken on the steep road going up, which we were able to drive, and there is a nice parking lot below, where you buy your tickets for €9.50 each.
This was taken on the inside of the wall, looking out to the parking lot. The castle has a wall around it and this was a sentry post.
The cobblestone road up to the castle was fairly steep, and coming back I found the top of one of the ancient cobblestones, which had broken off, and took it back to Sorella Allen, who collects paving stones.
The building is massive.
I think we went through about 5 gates to get in, each with ways to close them off, from the wicked enemies.
There was a lovely arbor at the bottom, inside the castle.
Going through another gate you reach the inner courtyard.
There is a place where there were two carriages.
They looked pretty authentic, but maybe not quite medieval.
Then across was the wine making area, complete with pomace press.
There were lots of signs throughout the castle, in both Italian and English, about what you were seeing.
There were guys setting up for a wedding, which I suppose took place after the castle closed to the public at 5:30 pm.
The bottom part of the castle is now a doll museum, one of the best in the world, as can be read from this sign.
This is the bottom of the sign, which I couldn't get in just one shot. It was fairly dark in the museum and I had to hold the camera steady, but still didn't get very clear shots.
This must be a mother of dolls, it was a little creepy. I took many pix of the dolls, but will only post a few here.
In what was the kitchen of the castle is now a collection of horses, like from a carousel.
Another pix showing the horses.
And among them was this brave lion.
There were some hanging lamps that looked pretty old
This was the kitchen stove. You put pots over the holes and made fires underneath. Bet it was smoky in there.
Then there was an entire room devoted to oriental dolls.
And male dolls, with movable limbs, although most of the dolls in the museum were of the feminine persuasion.
And a room of dolls whose heads, arms, legs, etc., were made of wax. They looked pretty soft, but were behind glass so you couldn't touch them.
Some standing, and some laying down.
Another wax head.
There were some very tiny dolls.
There were queen dolls.
And a pregnant looking nun doll.
There were miniature altar pieces, so kids could play church
And, of course, bride dolls.
This is the coat of arms of the Borromeo family that lived here for many centuries.
More information about the dolls.
We went past a door leading to the courtyard, where we could see the centerpieces (real flowers) for the wedding and reception that was going to take place.
Then to a room that had period furniture, all miniature, but made by master craftsmen who made the big stuff too. These may have been models for larger furniture.
They were all beautiful works of art.
From many periods.
More explanation of the furniture. There was an entire room full of it.
Many of the rooms had very large, original, oil paintings, and fireplaces.
This is a closeup of a painting above the fireplace, showing a man being thrust down to hell by a couple of women--wonder what this story is about.
There was room after room of dolls.
And their furniture and other things.
Another room, the displays down below were a little hard to see. I had to get down on my knees to see some of them.
I tried to take pix of the faces, and this one wasn't too blurry.
They had little sets of china and silverware for the dolls. (Myrna wants to take home some little spoons, used for stirring coffee in demitasse (tiny cups), which we have many in our apartment, but we will buy them, maybe at the second hand store down the street.)
The crumpets on the tea table were pretty realistic.
This doll had her pet dog on a leash.
There were many rooms on the first floor of the castle, which would have otherwise been boring to tour had they not had exhibits of dolls, etc.
The farther we got from the kitchen, etc., the more other decorations were on the walls, such as these paintings and the family coat of arms, which we saw many times. The Borromeo family apparently liked to display their crest, which has the word Humility written on it. (I don't think they were very humble--maybe that was their vision.)
More signs telling you about the dolls.
And their toys and games.
A doll with her doll.
I thought this couple was sort of charming, with them oogling each other.
These little dishes had pretty realistic fake food on them.
A wedding party. It was hard to hold the camera steady and flash wouldn't work through the glass.
The bride and groom closeup turned out okay. They look eastern European. There were dolls from all over the world.
A mechanical doll showing its innards.
These little cooks had plenty of pots and pans to work with.
I like the mezzaluna on the stove, the circular knife, used by Italians for rocking back and forth on herbs, onions, etc. DeLoris, notice the little pig in the pot.
A little girl doll minding a 19th century store.
In this room there was a window looking outside into the entryway of the castle.
Down on the bottom shelf, hard to see, there was a miniature church with nuns and priests, so the kids could play mass.
And a grouping of ethnic dolls.
And even Kewpie dolls (originally from Germany). Myrna has one of these dolls.
Wind up trains with a train station, which looks like one of many I have seen in Italy, e.g. Piacenza.
And, because it is in Italy, Pinocchio dolls, and books for children. The classic Pinocchio book is a long novel, written by Carlo Collodi, and is sort of Italian literature's equivalent of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Both are moralistic novels written for adults, adapted to children's stories, but I don't know if Disney has ever done Huck Finn.
There were these anatomically correct babies, with little covers you could put over their privates.
And a whole case of Barbie dolls. This must have been sold in Europe, it is Snow White, or the equivalent in Spanish and French.
I didn't see Ken, but there was Billy.
This may be an oriental equivalent.
This little doll had a bottle and probably wet her nappie.
There was an entire room with musical toys, including dolls, which you wound up to play music box tunes.
There was this "phonograph" with preforated cardboard discs, from France, 1880s.
In this dark room there were fairly large doll sets which, when wound up would do things, including make music. The museum made videos of them in action and were playing them on the monitor, with chairs to sit in. I got videos of the videos, which turned out well, but it was hard to take still pix in this dark room. There were two little blonde German brothers watching the videos. I had to wait for them to leave to sit to take my videos, to hold the camera steady enough.
These guys jumped up and down on each other's backs to music box tunes.
A moving musical pig. DeLoris needs one of these for her collection!
Another dancing guy.
A Turk who smoked his hookah and drank his tea, of which I got a nice video.
Explanation below, he really could dance, and smoke his cig, of which I got a good video.
This was from France in about 1890.
This was called "the medical consultation." The doctor would ask questions, moving his head and lips, write with his quill pen, the lady would move her head and arms, stick out her tongue, etc. I got a good video of this.
Sort of gross, but this was probably the best one, although I didn't get a still pix of it (It wasn't too impressive, just an old lady sitting on a rocking chair--I didn't realize what she did), but in the video, of which this is a still pix from the monitor, she pulled up her dress, to reveal a chamber pot, she wiggled her body and very realistic pee (probably made with a turning piece of glass) came down into the pot, then she pulled her dress back. There were thousands more dolls that I didn't take pix of. I was sort of overdosed on dolls by the time I got through all the rooms.
Then, in the next rooms, there were displays of old painted china dishes, with large oil paintings on the walls above.
I am not sure about the significance of this painting, but it was of a man with a panpipe (in the right corner) who, on his bottom, was a horse, and the guy in the middle was scraping the hide off the horse part, with onlookers to the left, (probably Greek mythology) with a display of china dishes underneath.
More of the same, this painting is sort of gross.
One thing I did not see much of in the entire castle was religious stuff, other than the large paintings, which included saints, etc. (The Borromeo family produced one saint, Carlo, who is buried in the Duomo of Milano, in the crypt. He was very active in countering the Protestant reformation, during Council of Trent time, including burning heretics at the stake.) There was not a chapel in the castle, not at least that we saw. (I am not sure the entire castle is on display at this time.) The above pix is a not very well done Adam and Eve, which may have even been a salt and pepper shaker, although we have never seen many of these.
There was a large display of plates by this French artist, apparently from 1799. This is a depiction of Michael slaying the Dragon (Lucifer).
They apparently made plates of contemporary events.
More of the displays, in several rooms. They must have had a very large collection of china.
I suspect the furniture on display was reproductions, it looked old but was fairly sturdy.
And they didn't seem to care if you sat on it, which is usually forbidden.
Another side of the same room. The rooms are very symmetrical.
All of the large paintings had writing at the bottom of what it was about, if you read Latin.
These are bed warmers, not medieval popcorn poppers, and a metal chamber pot, or something.
This large hall had a few pieces of ancient fresco, that had been removed from the wall and framed.
A sign saying the frescoes were from the middle of the 1400s.
And in this room the frescoes were decorations, still on the walls.
The room had a window, looking out towards the lake and the village below.
This would be the first large hall one would see when coming into the castle to visit.
From another window we saw into the courtyard the preparations for the wedding.
This was a meeting room, a long way from the kitchen, so I am not sure they served meals here.
This table looked a little old, maybe not a reproduction at all.
A detail from a very large painting, showing John the Baptist, in Renaissance period clothing, about to lose his head, to be put on the platter.
I thought the live flower arrangements were pretty cool looking, with purple thistles.
This next room had illustrations (frescos) by Besozzo, and others, made in 1445.
The room with the description above.
We began to climb the tower, and the rooms looked like they had older frescoes.
And from the windows you could see out for a long way.
A detail on the wall of a three faced guy.
When you looked out the window you could see the vineyards, where they grew the grapes for the wine press.
There were sailboats out on the lake.
Looking within the castle, we could see the preparations for the wedding and the mountains behind the castle.
There was even a fireplace up there in the tower area. The room was big enough to have a dance in, maybe they did, or at least roast weeines and marshmallows.
We had to climb on very rickety and narrow stairs to reach the top of the tower. (We were wearing the clothes we went to the baptism in.)
From the top we could see a side of the castle walls we hadn't seen, and the lake.
And away from the lake, looking towards Varese, to the south. The flag of the castle was red and blue, as can be barely seen on the end.
And coming down and out I found ye olde pottie house, while Myrna, of stout bladder (fearing ye olde pottie would be a squatter), waited patiently.
On the way back home we stopped by the public beach on Lago Maggiore, which was not too busy on a late Saturday afternoon. We did drive past an old church, and considered stopping, but it was full of people having 6:00 pm mass.
In the far distance you can see the castle.
I zoomed in to see the castle a little better.
On the way home we stopped at a couple of grocery stores, Tigros and LIDL, to buy necessary provisions for Sunday, like chocolate bars, nuts, potato sticks, croissants, rolls and a baguette.
Like in America, they put temptations by the checkout, like gum and candy.
Well, ciao for now.
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