Lago Maggiore

We had another great week.  Peggy and Sister Dibb took on the job of cleaning and organizing the storage room and our two garages.  It was a major undertaking and they spent 1.5 days in their Levis cleaning.  We have been parking our car in the upper garage (here in Italy they call it a box) for several weeks now.  I like it because we are no longer parking under this tree - where the birds used the car for target practice for their droppings.  This week I paid rent and did all I could to prepare for the end of the month which is tomorrow (Monday).

Spring just keeps getting better.  For a week or so, temperatures have kind of cooled off.  But on Saturday we got up to 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  Absolutely perfect!  Friday afternoon the Burgers dropped by and told us that the Kitchen had been installed in the new apartment in Varese and on Saturday the plumber (Idraulico) would come to connect the water and gas.  The Elders who moved in there several weeks ago have been using a hot plate.  And of course they do not have the 180 euros cash that is required to pay the plumber.  So - we decided to drive to Varase on Saturday and deliver the money in person.  Varase is about an hour drive and only about 30 minutes away from Lago Maggiore - the 2nd largest lake in Italy!  So we had a destination for Saturday.

After dropping off the cash in Varase we drove 30 minutes to the lake.  There was a ferry ready to leave so we ran in and bought a ticket and were the last ones to drive onto the ferry.  It was a fabulous ride across the lake.

When we got to the other side of the lake we were in Verbania

We drove off the ferry and we were in the city center.  We found a parking garage and began to walk around.  This is the back side of the church.

There was a street market going all around the church.

We bought some dried fruit from this booth.  This must be the trader Joes of Italy!

Different patterns on the raised panels of this door.

Front of the church.  Very nice.

Horrible picture, but this accordion player was playing jazz on his accordion.  It was great!

We walked through the down town shopping district and came to this square

Very nice!

As we wandered more we found another area with a street market.  It went for blocks and blocks.  All of it was very nice stuff.  Same quality you would be buying at a normal store. Peggy bought some shoes. I also found some shoes.  I even bought a shirt!

After shopping we walked back to the main street and found this side walk cafe and had lunch.  I had a pizza, Peg had some pasta.  You can see how brutally they trim their trees.

A private family door

A door to a store.

In this one window was our Hero Ted.  I don't know if Ted Hero is world wide or only in Italy.  But it reminds us our Ted.

This was walking back to the car by the couch

We then drove around the south end of Lago Maggiore.  One of the of the very interesting towns was Stresa.  It had this tiny island called Isole Burromee with a castle and fabulous garden on it.  You can also see the cables above for a ski lift type cable car that goes up to the mountain way above the town.

This was a town for the rich and famous!  Fabulous old hotels

When we got down to the southern end of the lake we came to Arona.  There was a park up on the hill above town that had fabulous views of the town looking south.

And views across the lake to the east.

And views North up the lake.

There was an old castle up on this hill to add to its beauty.

We had a wonderful day!

Savona

We left Genova and drove west along the shore on the autostrada about 30 miles to Savona.  We only went through about 15 tunnels to get there.  We then drove along the shoreline.  It was rather cold and there was an occasional drizzle.  There was an enormous Costa Cruise ship in the harbor. This is a very nice town.  We were meeting the sister missionaries at the church.  TomTom took us right there.  We found a parking place around the corner and walked to the church building.  It was on the second floor of a nice city center building.  We found the sisters there, delivered the phone, and had a nice visit.  The church was the whole floor of that building, but the chapel was smaller than our living room in Silver Bay.  On the floor there was a kitchen, nursery, primary, young men, young women, Relief Society and Priesthood rooms.  We gave the Sisters a ride back to their apartment and then drove back to the parking area we were before so that we could continue to use our parking slip we had purchased.

 We then began to wander through town to find a place to eat.  Here are some of the streets of Savona. A very nice clean mix of old and new.

 A beautiful church building.

We finally found a restaurant.  I had the Ligurian standard - Pesto Pasta with beans and potatoes mixed in.  It was great!  We then decided to walk back to the car a different way.  Lots of neat doors (you will see them at the end of this post).  The city was very clean, almost no graffitti.  This was a place where I would like to live.  I thought I knew were we were going but then we saw this.

 Some how we  had wandered all the way to the cruise ship.

 I don't know how old that tower is, but it fits right in here in Savona.

 We were now on the coast highway and we walked back to the car the way we had driven to the church.  Here is an interesting blend of old and new towers, bright colors and earth tone buildings.

 Across the highway was a giant castle and old enormous military fort. In the foreground were these statues.

 As tired as we were, we had to walk up the ramp and check out the castle / fort.

 The ramp went through a dark tunnel

 Then up on top we found a kids Playground?  Yes that was a strange find.

 Around the corner from the playground were these ruins from the original castle.

 This is view looking west along the shore line

 And a view of looking east back towards the cruise ship.  The castle once had a large church,  and a Piazza. A very nice restaurant was hosting a wedding.

 While wandering around the fort I looked down at the walk way we came up on and saw the guys of the wedding party decorating the honeymoon car.

As we walked back down the ramp they were still at it.  They were having a great time!

 I know you would have been impressed by these doors.

Check out the detail on this door.  This is a real work of art!

  Would you like to look at this guy each time you came in the front door?

 Hear is another new Italian door.  Very nice.

 This one was next to the one before.  Similar but still different.

 Here is an older one.

 I think the carving on these doors is a dragon

 How about these outer doors that are open and then the inner doors that are closed.

Thisis the knocker on the doors that were open.