Vercelli

It is great to have the President and Sister Dibb back in Italy again!  This week was pretty normal, if you call transfer week normal.  Monday President Dibb held the normal transfer week staff meeting.  Only 4 new missionaries coming in and 5 departing.  Tuesday we went shopping for the two dinners and one lunch we ware doing this week. I got my traditional transfer Tuesday haircut.  Wednesday we found out the arriving missionaries will be 1 day late.  Now we will do two lunches and one large dinner.  Thursday the Transfers occur and the new missionaries arrived on time with all their luggage!  We have taco salad for lunch for everyone. Then I train the new missionaries on finances and bikes.  They leave to go to the Duomo and the departers arrive.  While the president is interviewing the departers I take care of all of the final finance stuff for them. (taking their money away and then giving them enough for luggage fees and food on their flight).  Peggy made 3 large dishes of Lasagna (yum) and there are 17 of us eating dinner at the mission home.  Both the departers and arrivals sleep in the old Burger apartment or with the Elders. (Now we are also running a hotel with Breakfast!) Friday there is new arrival training and the match-up with their trainers followed by permesso training by Peggy and then Foccatia Sandwiches for lunch.

I was hoping to go to the mountains on Saturday, but it was way overcast and the forecast was for rain from noon on.  We decided to go to Vercelli instead.  Vercelli is about 1 hour west of us and is the rice capitol of Italy - paddy after paddy of rice.  Very green and quite beautiful.

 We first stopped at the Vercelli Cathedral.  Very large and some big statues on the facade.

Front doors going in.  They did not allow any pictures. It was very ornate with wonderful stained glass windows

 Here is a great door on the side of the building.

A view of the Cathedral as we were coming back to the car.

 Peggy noticed that there were many levels of roof tiles on this building. Lots going on.

 The cathedral had a nice park in front of it.

 An interesting building as we were walking 

 Here is the side of St Andrews Basilica.

Here is the front facade of the Basilica.  Interesting how the grey stones on he lower part suddenly switch to red and white for the upper towers.

 The building across the street from the Basilica.

 The Basilica is connected to an old monastery.

 The basilica is completely different than the other church we visited.  Very stark, plane and almost cold.

 It even had flying buttresses.  However it looks like they have now been filled in.

 Walking back to the car we found this hole in the middle of the street.  It was fenced off and it appears that they had found an ancient foundation.  All of the levels were marked off with survey tags.  I guess they were going to install a new sewer under the street and ran into this.

 We then found the main shopping area and walked around there for a while.  One of the shops had this dog dish out for the shopper with pets!

 These were enormous door knockers that were 8 feet high.  Most people could never reach them.  This lion has a human nose and teeth!

Here is an ancient wooden door on the outside and a modern glass door on the inside.

 Sisters even ride bikes here in Italy.  This is folding bike.

 The main piazza in town.  We were looking for some shoes for me but could never find anything bigger than a size 46 (about a size 11.5 or 12 in the states)

We took the back roads back home and enjoyed the many little towns and beautiful fields of rice.  We ended up at a restaurant that we had eaten at about 8 months earlier a little north of Pavia.  It was just plain good Italian food.  The fixed menu today was bread with a home made chile salsa,  rigatoni with a tomato / cheese sauce, grilled vegetables, and roast pork, with a peach crosatta.  Very nice.

San Marino

On Saturday June 28, after we were through moving the Frys into their new apartment in Ancona, we began driving up the Adriatic coast.  The sea was beautiful.  We drove though Persaro and Rimini.

Rimini has one of the most famous beaches in the world.  It goes for miles and miles. We stopped and dipped our toes in the water.

Then we drove inland to San Marino - an old city state that never joined Italy.  They are their own country.  

The old city and castles are on the top of this mountain that has a shear drop down to the farmlands below.

Here you can see the Adriatic Sea, about 15 miles away.

The castles were fabulous.

One of the other castles

And the shear drop down to the farm land.

Do you see Peg down there waving at me ?

This is some graffiti that was painted on the prison cell walls.

Here's the restaurant where we ate lunch.  We could see all the land to the east from our covered patio seats.

The big church at the town of San Marino on top of the mountain.

Some of the ancient tiny streets around town.

Here is a view of the three castles from the farmland below.  Very stunning views everywhere.

Move the Frys to Ancona

It was another extremely busy week. Tuesday a new senior couple arrived.  The President had planned on them replacing the branch president in Forli who left a couple of months ago.  However, since then that part of the mission is now a Stake and he new Stake president asked that the couple go Ancona as branch president instead.  So we were asked to take them down to Ancona. Wednesday we let them acclimate to the new time zone and dropped them off at the Metro station so they could tour Centro Milano.  Thursday we loaded up the Van with tools and headed south with the new couple, Elder and Sister Fry following behind in their mission car.  On the way we stopped by the old couples apartment in Forli and loaded up all of the mission furniture in the van. (We also stopped and delivered a micro wave in Reggio Emialla and bought a washing machine for the Sisters in Modena).  We got to their new apartment in Ancona about 5pm.  This had been a new Elders apartment for about a month.  Now we had to move the elders out and back with the other Elders and move the Frys in.  Friday was moving day.  After moving the Elders stuff out, we went to IKEA and bought all of the stuff for the couple.  After a quick lunch, the Elders and the Frys assembled new furniture while Peg and I went to buy a 2nd frig for the Elders, air coolers, a bed and table for the Frys, After that was assembled we discovered that there were no bed slats.  So I had to make a 3rd trip to IKEA!  It was a very hot, humid, sweaty day!  They are now moved in and getting adjusted to life in Ancona.  They are a great couple.  Very eager and willing to do anything they are asked.

 A view looking left from the Elder's Balcony

 And a view looking right toward the port.

 After one last trip to the Elders apartment to install their White Board, Peg and I went to eat at a Chinese restaurant several doors down. It was great!  The 1st real Chinese food that we have had here in Italy.  After eating we drove up to the point that form the natural harbor.  Here is a cruise ship leaving the harbor.

It is very high and has a church up there

Very Beautiful!

 The sun was setting and it was beautiful.  Even though we were still hot a sweaty, it was peaceful to enjoy the sun set.

 Ancona was settled around 100 BC and has many old Roman ruins.  This tower is not one of them.

 The view of the harbor was awesome.

A closeup.

With the sun going down we drove back to the Hotel.  We were almost there when I almost ran into a Police car as they pulled out in front of me.  They pulled up alongside at the next stop light and told me that I had ran a red light.  I was really scared!  After a couple minutes they just told me to be more careful.  WOW!

Tremezzo

Last Sunday was the Burgers last full day in Italy.  The Lees held the Burgers going away dinner at the Mission Home.  At 4:45 am Monday morning we loaded up the Burgers in the van and took them to the airport.  I think we will miss them more than anyone else in the mission field.  They had a very physical job that we must now take do.  Wednesday was scheduled as moving day for the new apartment.  Everyone in the Lampungano district gets to move.  Sisters to the Elders apartment.  One set of Elders to the Sisters apartment and the other set of Elders to the new apartment. So Tuesday we had to shop for more new apartment stuff that we forgot plus all of the stuff that we need to take care of the Merate and Muggio apartment.  We also went back to the new apartment to meet the landlord and pick up the key for the gas.  We still do not have any power!  So we cancelled the moving day and Wednesday we hauled kitchen stuff and new wardrobes to Merate and Muggio.  Back to the office in the afternoon to catch up.  Thursday was shopping for lunch for 44 at Mission Council on Friday.  Peg made Taco Salad and it was a bit hit. Peg conducts the auto training and I supervise the car inspections for all drivers. It is great to see all of the zone leaders and Sister Training leaders from the whole mission.  Another day with only a couple of hours in the office.

During the week we found out the Sisters in Como are having health problems potentially from mold. Two of their mattresses had mold on them so we took them some clean mattresses.  We were in Como for the 2nd Saturday in a row and were not quite sure what to do.  We drove up along the western shore where we had not been before.  What a beautiful drive.  Tiny narrow twisting road that is very scary at times.We stopped in Tremezzo which is a small village just across the lake from Bellagio.  Very Scenic.

Just north of Tremezzo is Villa Carllota -  A large 19th century mansion with fabulous gardens.

It is right across the tiny road from the lake.

We walked up to the entrance and there was this large tree on the lake side of the road where 5 or 6 old folks were painting the scenery.  I think it was an art class.

Inside the Villa gate in front of the mansion is this fountain.

And several tiny palm trees

The grounds were fabulous.

A creek running down from the mountain.

Inside the villa were wonderful rooms furnished and painted as it would have been back in the day.

This is the center hall on one of the upper floors.

Looking down from a upper floor window toward the back.

The nursery

Dinning Room.  Check out the bread plates? on the left of the dinner plate.

The chairs in some of the room had some interesting carvings

This guy is not happy

Back out in the garden on the other end of the villa

That is Bellagio across the lake.

One of the water features - yes those are turtles.

We then walked down to Tremezzo to find lunch.  Across the road from the largest hotel is their sunning deck and even a swimming pool floating in the lake.

Here is where we ate lunch. I had manacotti, and Peg had penne with smoked salmon and arugula.  Mine was very good - hers was fabulous.  I think it is the best pasta dish I have ever had!  She was very kind and let me swap plates with her half way through.

A view of where we ate from across the road.

Interesting water fountain 

We then walked back to the van, Here are parking stalls for the big fancy hotel.  These lifts go down several levels to store more cars.

A view of the Villa garden from a closed gate.  If you look close you will see the statues are all giant garden gnomes spewing water.

A fancy "executive " scooter with a roll cage and seat belts.

Here is the tree where the painters were busy creating art.

We got back to our van, the grey van parked correctly and blocked by the larger van.  This is Italian parking.  We banged on the white van for a while and eventually a guy came and moved is so we could leave.  Italy is great!