Lost in Lodi

Sunday - September 15, 2013

Another very busy week.  Peggy (Sorella Harmer) now has more duties as she must review and approve all of the new housing contracts before we send them off to the church FM group to be signed.  This week she spent 70% of her time on Housing and contracts and 30% on Permessos.  I just work on paying bills.  We also had a wonderful meeting with the largest utility supplier in Italy.  Because we have over 50 contracts with them so far, they have asked us if we want to receive enhanced services with our own web page that we can view the status of all of our contracts on a single page.  It will also be much simpler to sign up new apartments for Gas and electric.  I am really excited about this because the time it will save.

For our Saturday trip we decided to drive to Lodi, a medieval town about 20 km away.  The battle of Lodi was one of Napoleon's 1st victories.  Because it was so close, I failed to do much research and did not take a map.  Yes, we got Lost in Lodi.  But more about that later.

We followed the signs to Lodi Centro, went by an old arch and were suddenly in the old town.  The streets were very crowded so I grabbed the 1st parking place I could find.  People seemed to be everywhere.  Walking, on bikes and in cars. After we parked we saw that were next to the opening ceremonies of a school.  Many people were dressed in suits (mayor and other dignitaries?), and the band was playing in this crowded court yard. 

We began wandering through the streets only knowing perhaps a general direction to the town square.  It was very interesting.  Lots of people walking and on bikes.  After about 10 minutes we found a map posted on the side of a building and figured things out.

We walked up this small street and then it opened up and we were in the Piazza di Vittoria.  That is the Duomo at the far end of the square.  As you view these pictures please notice all of the bikes.  There were bikes everywhere!  I also forgot to bring the camera on this trip so these are all pictures from my cell phone.

Yes, that is a McDonalds bounce house at the other end of the square. The square was surrounded by porticos (covered walk ways with building build above them).

Beautiful flowers in the window boxes on the 1st floor.

 

 Each house or building is painted differently.

 

The duomo was at the far end of the square

Inside the cathedral there were may old frescos that were peeling off of the brick walls.  Some of them had been saved and mounted in a frame.

These are life size wooden carvings in one of the side chapels

This is the back side of the alter that is located in the large chapel one floor under the main alter.  It looks to me like the arc of the covenant, but it is likely someone's tomb.  Very intricate with the whole thing resting on carved deer.

One of the many old doors

A view of the main nave from the main alter area.

Here is a very interesting fresco that depicts devils pulling people down to hell while some angles are trying to pull them up.  All of the people are naked!

Another old door.  They are built of 2 - 3 one inch layers of wood riveted together with iron rivets with heads the size of a railroad spike.  I cant imagine how old this is.

In front of the Duomo, was a gathering of old men on bikes.  Everybody rides bikes!  While driving out of town we even saw an old man riding a bike and carrying a cane!

 

 

In one corner of the square was this beautiful portico building.  You can see how it was built in front of the original buildings and provides a luxury apartment on two floors.

 

 

 

Walking around the side of the Duomo is the beginning of a market place. 

 

We walked into the market place and they were selling everything.  Shoes, clothes, sewing supplies, rugs, belts, vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese, etc.  All from stands and old vans.  Here we came out of the market and saw the library.

 

 

After wandering around we made it back to the square.  One of the side street off the square had a gorgeous church. But they were holding services there and we were about 20 minutes late for visitors.  We will come back again to see this church

 

 

Here are the two McDonalds bounce houses.  I thought the grand kids would like to see these.

 As we were walking back to the car we saw another market.  Here is a cheese vendor selling Parmigianino Reggiano.  We see these huge wheels of cheese in the stores and markets, but this is the 1st time we have seen them selling some.  The vendor has this flat flexible blade that he pulls across the cheese and scrapes very thin shavings of cheese into a pile.  The pile is then placed in a plastic container, weighed and sold. You can see the cheese shavings on the ground under their feet.

 

Then we attempted to make our way back to the car.  We thought we knew where we were going, but things looked different coming from the other direction.  We ran into this piazza Ospedale (that is Hospital to you and I).  After about 10 more minutes we found the car coming from the opposite direction.  It made for an interesting trip.

 

We then drove to IKEA, Had Swedish meatballs for lunch and bought a few items.

 

Take care,  Love, Marv & Peg

 

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