Halfway Through! (Plus Italian Language breakthroughs!)

This picture shows my horror of our one and only (we hope) snow day this winter in Genova, however my face also reflects the horror I've sometimes felt at trying to learn Italian. However, we are now at the halfway point of this mission and I can honestly say I'm making some breakthroughs at last. Several months ago I switched from using Duolingo to Babbel which has done a much better job at explaining the often complicated Italian grammar.

And speaking of grammar, I'm reminded of something I heard many years ago: that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. Ha! I now chalk that statement up to an urban legend that proliferated in the days before social media. English grammar is actually quite simple and the lack of declaring an object male or female in English also makes it easier. I'm not saying Italian is the most difficult language to learn (Mandarin Chinese is probably more difficult), but for someone as untalented at languages as I am, it has been a struggle. But this week I feel I'm finally breaking through. Today, for instance, I went by myself down to the seaside level shops because Hermes has a cold and wasn't up to the walk. I happened to encounter someone from church at the fruit stand and we had a conversation in Italian and we understood each other! Okay, it wasn't a complicated conversation but I felt like it was an accomplishment. My goal before the end of the mission is to understand what they're saying at church meetings. Usually people speak at a pace that my brain can't keep up with.

Besides Babbel, I have been using YouTube to slow down the pace of speech of Italian on church conference talk videos and other things. YouTube is handy that way in that you can slow it down to as much as 25% of the regular speed. I usually find slowing it down to 75% of the regular speed works reasonably well for me. I'm hoping this will also improve my listening comprehension. And while I've always resisted conversing in Italian with Hermes and others because of lack of self-confidence, this week Hermes and I have started doing just that. So maybe, just maybe I may come home, not necessarily fluent, but able to manage in Italian. We will see.

Our work lately has focused a lot on contacting people who have not been to church for a long time to see if they want contact with us or help them in any way we can. We have had some rewarding experiences with that. We visit a lot of towns around the city of Savona which is southwest of Genova and meet good people everywhere. It's always nice when we can lift the spirits of others; you really don't have to go far to find people with difficult lives and sad stories to tell. When the Savior said ",,,how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not..." (3 Ne 10: 5) I understand that statement and that feeling at a much deeper level than I used to. 

Here's some pictures from some of our recent trips visiting different people:

I like to call this photo "Nobody here but us chickens" because we came out of a rural apartment building after a visit and there were these chickens just wandering around. That's Anziano McInstry, one of the ZLs in that picture.

This cat belongs to one of the members in Millessimo, a neat little town north of Savona in the mountains. Hermes often claims he doesn't like cats that much but I know better.

Then we were in a town south east of Genova called Rapallo and were surprised to see the wreckages of boats along the shore-line, a remnant of a terrible storm last October. Yachts worth millions had big holes in the hull. Fishing boats were just in pieces. Very sad.

But Rapallo also had some nice things to see like this:

So in other news: Hermes is now a full-fledged Italian again, passport and all! He became a Canadian at a time when Italy and Canada didn't have a dual-citizenship agreement which they have now. He started the process at the Italian consulate in Canada before we came on this mission and then after some months got his Italian identity card and now his EU passport. It was rather anti-climatic when he got his Identity Card. He thought they might have him swear allegiance to the Republic or something but they just handed him the card and that was it. No fanfare, no ceremony. 

So the young missionaries are always a joy to be around. Two of our missionaries (both with the surname of Christensen, ironically) went home a few weeks ago. We usually do a transfer week lunch for them and we did this time too but couldn't attend ourselves because we were assisting someone getting to and from the hospital for an appointment. So they took this picture which they shared on What's App and I stole the photo to remember them by:

The numbers mean the number of transfers they are at. 16 is the last one before they go home so you can see that the two Christensens who did go home are on the left of the picture. You know those number cards that are put up at the front of the chapel before church to say which hymns we're singing? That's the number cards they're using. Cute idea.

Okay, last picture. A sunset picture taken at a town called Finale Ligure. It seems appropriate for this blog to have it's big finale from Finale Ligure so here it is. Ta da!

The Most Gi-normous Super-Duper Christmas Market ever!

Well here it is Christmas again, my third Christmas in Italy albeit with one at home in Calgary last year. On my second Christmas in Italy I decided that white Christmases are way over-rated and I haven't changed my mind. I blame Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby for brain-washing everyone into believing that white Christmases are the way to go. Today (December 23rd) it is a balmy 15 degrees Celsius. I have to say that going around seeing Christmas lights and displays is much more pleasant in these temperatures. Not that it hasn't been super cold some days but right now it isn't.

I know a lot of people who like to collect nativity scenes and Italy is a collector's paradise. We came home from Rome with several nativities and I'm afraid we are coming home with more which I don't know where we're going to fit but that's beside the point. I blame our President and Sorella Mission President for the additions to our collections because they planned a Senior Missionary Conference earlier this month around a gigantic (and I do mean GIGANTIC) Christmas market in Milan. This was an international market taking up the entirety of Milan's trade center which I believe encompassed about seven or eight football field sized buildings. We didn't see everything but we got pretty much to every building trying to avoid as much as we could the food booth traps which can suck you in like a vacuum cleaner. I have to say that we did get sucked into one food both which was a Chocolate artisan booth in the Italy section. Believe it or not, in the picture here these things that look like metal tools are actually chocolate. I don't know what they cover it to make it look metallic but I admire their abilities.

Yes, it's chocolate!

The Peru section had some very charming items and I fell in love with this nativity which shows Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus having a siesta inside a Chili Pepper stable. I absolutely had to come home with that one. 

Here are some other ones we came home with:

As I mentioned, we wound up at this market because of a Senior Missionary conference but that was actually the second day. The first day we went as a group to the Duomo in Milan and took an elevator up to the roof. It is a very impressive cathedral and interesting because it follows the Gothic style which is unusual in Italy. Gothic cathedrals generally have flying buttresses off the side which can make a cathedral look a little strange from the outside but the Milan cathedral is built so that the flying buttresses are well hidden by the outside. There are carvings practically everywhere you can think of including all over the roof, a place I assume very few people got to. Here are some pictures of that:


In the evening we went as a group to the town of Como north of Milan on the famous Como Lake (George Clooney is purported to have a Villa on Lake Como). Como is a town Hermes once worked in and went to church in. We've visited it a few times before but not at Christmas and their Christmas display is delightful. They light up the town centre and their cathedral with these reflective drawings and this one old medieval tower has animated lighting which makes the tower look like it's speaking and telling a Christmas story to the children. I guess if you've been to Disneyland in recent years you might have seen something similar but I haven't and I was delighted with seeing it. We were also blessed with nice balmy weather that evening making it pleasant to wander around and see the displays.

Most Italians live in apartments so, although you don't see the lights all over houses like you see at home, they do sometimes light up their balconies and they go all out on town and city displays. And nobody can do up a Bethlehem village display (called a Presepe) like the Italians can.

Recently we noticed a banner in the center of town advertising a mechanized Presepe in a town called Campo Ligure so on Saturday we decided to take Nives to see it. I had expected to see something similar to a mechanized presepe we had seen close to Rome two years ago. The one near Rome was in the courtyard of some a castle and had life sized mannequins. The one in Campo Ligure was a miniature and very elaborate village set up inside an old Catholic Church in the center of Campo Ligure. It was again an absolute delight to see because of the detail and imagination that went into it. Because a still picture wouldn't put across the idea of it, I took some video clips and put together a video of some of the displays for you.

In the second scene, notice the bread stealer peeking through the window of the baker's shop. First he peeks and then he takes the bread. We were also very impressed with the cow which had someone milking it and it really looked like there was milk going into the bucket. There was also a couple standing by what looked like a boiling pot of water over coals. I don't know how they did that! And the final scenes are a man removing his hat and kneeling before the holy family in the stable. I'm adding in some still pictures too for you to see. 

Up at the front of the church separate from the Presepe were some miniatures of the town castle and old stone church. 
You can see Hermes peeking in the church here:

And here is what you can see inside the church:

These are true artisans who make these things. I admire this so much.

Our work continues with twice weekly English discussion groups, visits to people in need and some service. We went to a nursing home (called a Casa di Riposo) on December 1st to sing with the other young missionaries and a few members and we're doing a return visit on Christmas Eve. This time I'm bringing some cards for the seniors because I felt a little empty handed last time although the part they love the most is not the singing but the human touch and the kisses (bacci-ing) on both cheeks. That's what they need the most. Anyway, here is a picture of our visit there.

And finally, here is a picture from the last Zone Conference. It's tradition in the Milan Mission to do one serious picture followed by one goofy one. I think I look terrible in the serious one so I'm leaving you with the goofy one. I hope it brings a smile to your face.

Peace on Earth and Good Will to All People! Buon Natale! Merry Christmas!

I'm Grape-ful for September

September is the time of year when the grapes begin to harvest in Italy and, oh boy! Do these grapes ever taste good! Recently when we were driving along, we were following little mini trucks with the back full of newly harvested grapes. I wanted to dive in and eat my way out. Besides thte vast vineyards, they hang off people's entrance ways and in their little gardens, just like you see in this picture. It is just delightful to see the hanging grapes.

Our September was packed full of things to see and do. One of the first things that happened in September was attending the Milan Mission Sr. Missionary Conference. For this one, we gathered in Vicenza on the east side of northern Italy - about three and half hours from Genova. Since neither Hermes or I enjoy road trips and driving long distances, we decided to go a day early so we wouldn't be exhausted when the conference activities started. On our way we stopped at the Garda Lake and visited a town called Sirmione which we last visited together back in 1996 - the first time Hermes brought me to Italy and the year after we got married. We remembered that in 1996 we had the best gelato and this visit didn't disappoint us on the gelato front either. Actually, the town is full of gelaterias all of them looking delicious.

Sirmione is at the end of a long peninsula jutting into the Garda Lake and has both a castle and an ancient Roman villa that belonged to a famous Roman poet. We didn't do the villa this time but we really enjoyed wandering the town and taking in the beautiful Garda Lake scenery. The town was full of tourists, most notably German tourists, who frequently holiday at the Garda Lake. Also, children in Italy don't go back to school until mid-September so there were end of summer Italian holiday-goers there too.

The next day at our hotel in Vicenza, we met up with the other senior couples for our first excursion to Asiago, home of the Asiago cheese. And our excursion was, you guessed it, a cheese factory. Asiago is in a picturesque area of the Italian Alps with deep green pastures, dairy cows with clanging bells around their necks and pretty little alpine villages.  The tour was really quite fascinating; making cheese is quite a process!

Our tour guide in this picture is displaying a wheel of cheese that is worth €1600 (about $2400 Canadian dollars) because it has been aged nine years. It was about to be entered into a cheese festival to take place in Asiago with cheese makers from all over Italy attending.





The next morning we all went into the city of Padova to see the Scrovegni Chapel. It's less famous than the Sistine Chapel but a chapel full of wonderful art by Giotto. Here are some pictures of what we saw:

Overall picture of the chapel

The betrayal with a kiss

Medieval concept of Hell

A depiction of Envy

The really big highlight of the conference was the opportunity to attend the medieval chess show in Marostica. I had known about this show and thought it would be wonderful to attend and was thrilled that this was on the agenda of our conference. The Marostica show takes place for three nights once every two years and involves about 600 people from the community. It is a celebration of all things medieval but is also based on a local legend where the duke of the Marostica castle settled a dispute between two knights who wanted to marry his daughter. Instead of settling the dispute through combat, he proposed they play a Chess match. So in the center of the Marostica castle there is a giant chess board and they use living people in medieval dress as the chess pieces. It is an absolutely spectacular show and I do have pictures, but I think this You Tube video would give you a better look at what it is.

The next morning (Saturday), we had the spiritual component to the conference (otherwise it wouldn't be a conference, right?) and had a meeting with President and Sister Allen and the other senior couples. It was lovely and uplifting. We then drove home to Genova and didn't dilly-dally because Hermes' daughter Francesca along with her husband Jerad were coming for a visit and were flying in that evening to Genova. Well that visit brought it's first surprise as Francesca showed off her baby bump to us at the airport. We didn't know! They had kept it a secret from us in order to tell us in person. She will have a boy in January. We were shocked!

On the Monday after they arrived, we went with them to see Santa Margherita Ligure and then took a ferry to nearby Portofino. Portofino is an absolutely gorgeous and fairly famous little riviera village with a very protected harbour. Portofino was a haunt of classic movie stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Liz Taylor back in the 1950s who came on their yachts. From what I've observed, the wealthy still come there in their fancy yachts. 

The rest of the week was devoted to missionary work as Francesca and Jerad went off to France by themselves for a few days before returning to Genova on Friday. Then on Saturday we went with them again up to Trentino in the Italian Alps stopping at his lovely viewpoint of the north part of the Garda Lake on the way.

Looking around Cavedine

The reason for going into that region was to see ancestral villages. You see, what is a rather funny coincidence, the Michelini come from an alpine village in Trentino called Comano and Jerad's ancestors on his father's side, the Bonetti, come from a village on the other side of the mountain from Comano called Cavedine. While the two villages didn't interact (so there's likely no chance of Jerad and Francesca being related to each other), it is a funny coincidence.

Little chapel in Cavedine

So we went to Cavedine first so Jerad could set eyes on where his grandfather and great grandparents came from before emigrating to Canada and settling in southern Alberta. We wandered the village a bit before going into the sleepy town square where a couple of people were sitting having wine outside the bar. Hermes struck up a conversation with them and asked if there were still Bonetti families in the town. He was told that the village is full of Bonetti and if we'd been there an hour earlier, they could have introduced us to quite a few. Hermes explained that Jerad's ancestors came from this town and the lady said that just the week before, a group had gathered in the village to go over the genealogies of people in the town. And then she started making phone calls, and the next thing we knew, we were sitting in the living room of a couple in the village. The man is a distant relative of Jerad and still had his father's old address book which contained Jerad's great grandparents address in Canada. He was also a prolific family historian and ended up giving Jerad about five generations of his family's genealogy and some published books about Cavedine. It was quite the experience!

After Cavedine, we took the drive over the mountain to Comano so Francesca could experience where her ancestors come from. We stayed in a little hotel there and wandered the cemetery (full of Michelini) and then the village. At one point, I got tired of them straggling so I left them behind and walked up through the village to the other side where I found a bench with a wonderful view of the valley and the mountains. The church bells from not only Comano but other more distant villages dotting the valley were ringing and the sun was setting behind the mountains. I have to say, it was one of the most peaceful moments I have ever experienced.

The next morning, Francesca and Jerad took us to Verona where we said goodbye and they dropped us off at Church. They were going to visit her cousins on her mother's side for a few days before flying home from Verona. After church, we took the train back to Genova.

Our work in Genova has become busier. I am now the leader of a BYU Pathway group that does our weekly gatherings on-line via video conferencing. I have never been one to like the video chat thing very much but I'm having to get used to using it and become more comfortable. In my group there are seven students from all over Italy, two from France, three from Portugal and two from Angola. They are quite a diverse group from people without any post-secondary education to a PHd student who also wants to do this program to improve her English and get another degree from BYU. My role is to try to shepherd these students successfully through the program and when they finish, they can begin certificate or degree programs related to their career plans. It's a fabulous program!

We continue to make visits to people and to attend some young adult functions. Hermes had the brilliant idea of buying a dart board for the young adults for the center and this has proved to be very popular with them. They are a great group of young people.

And we love the young missionaries who serve with us in Genova. They work so hard and are the loveliest, nicest young men and women you could ever be privileged to know. I recommend these young people from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to you. Even if you're not interested in their message, you will not be sorry to have their friendship.

So as the sun sets here in Genova, I am going to say arrivederci for now!

End of Summer Reflections

Well, here it is September and thankfully the weather is beginning to cool into the lower 20s celsius. During the hottest, stickiest days this past summer I had to remind myself that I still preferred that over -30 in Calgary in the winter. When it does rain here, it seems to come down in an absolute downpour.

Such was the case on that fateful day a few weeks ago when the Morandi Bridge collapsed here in Genova. The rain was coming down like cats and dogs and the thunder had been rolling all morning. We were being brave and took our umbrellas down to the street that runs along the harbour for some errands. We were walking but when we arrived at a shop, we were soaked through in spite of our umbrellas. Not long after getting to the shop, we heard an enormous noise. We thought it was just a particularly close roll of thunder but it was loud enough that everyone reacted to it. Now I realize it was the sound of the bridge collapsing. We began getting group text messages through What'sApp from members of the church indicating that the Morandi had collapsed. We couldn't think which bridge that was at the time but we later realized it was a bridge we traveled across two or three times a week. The bishop of the Genova 2 ward soon posted a picture of the bridge to the What's App group.

I gasped when I saw it and then showed it to Hermes. Pretty soon the street in front of us had ambulances and emergency vehicles screaming by one after the other. One of the members messaged that the casualty toll was in the 100s and, although that was an over-estimation, it was still a very bad tragedy where 43 men, women and children died.  I checked via text message on the welfare of the young missionaries and was relieved to find out that none were affected. I didn't think it was likely but one can never be too sure. 

There were no members of the church hurt by the collapsed bridge but there are several members of the Genova 2 ward who are volunteer first responders. Also several apartment buildings under the bridge had to be evacuated and the people who lived there will never be able to return home because of fears the rest of the bridge will collapse on the buildings (and probably will when the rest is demolished). We believe there is a member of Genova 2 affected by this though we know nothing more. 

The Sunday after the tragedy we attended Genova 2 church meetings and much time was given for the first responders and others to talk about what happened and to grieve. There were many tears and much emotion.  I worry for not only them but all the first responders. I've seen news reports lately of how badly some first responders are affected by what they experienced at various tragedies and how it leads to mental health problems. 

I'm reminded of something that happened a few years ago when I was working for a high school. At one particular graduation ceremony, a student with severe physical disabilities was given a standing ovation by his classmates. I commented to the teacher beside me how wonderful and inspiring this was and she commented something to the affect of: "There are lots of students here who have overcome terrible difficulties to get here and they'll never get the applause." I don't think she was downplaying the achievements of the one student with physical disabilities but it did make me think about all those students with mental health challenges and terrible home situations who, nonetheless, were able to graduate high school. They also would be unsung heroes.

Well enough of that sobering subject.

As for what we've been doing here, we've had some opportunities for service which we really enjoyed. There was a member family from Sicily who came up by ferry for their young child to get a much needed operation at the children's hopsital here in Genova. Apparently this hospital is the best pediatric hospital in Italy. Unfortunately the mother caught a terrible virus on the ferry and couldn't be with her child in the hospital so we were able to step in and provide some service by taking her to a different hospital for treatment. It all ended well and we were happy that we had the time and ability to help them out when they were so far from home.

We had just started visiting an elderly woman in a nursing home but after only a couple of visits with us, she passed away. The senior couple previous to us had visited her every week but we never had the opportunity to get to know her very well. When we went to the funeral, we felt like we were doing so on behalf of the previous senior couple. Then we attended the cremation and my husband said the prayer dedicating her burial site at the cemetery. We gave as many comforting words as we could to her daughter.

We've also done hospital visits and visiting with a widow. We'd like to do more visits with Young Adults but it seems like in the summer, everyone disappears here - August in particular. We anticipate our lives becoming much more involved with the young adults soon. Institute (scripture classes) will start soon as will the fun activities they do. We also anticipate running weekly Skype gatherings of people all over Italy who are taking the BYU Pathway program. This is a university gateway program at a very low cost for English speakers. Since it's in English, it's something I can run with without depending on Hermes to translate for me.

I'm trying lots of different strategies to improve my Italian but listening comprehension is my Waterloo and I'm trying not to be Napoleon in this battle. I sat through Relief Society today not understanding a darn thing. If only the world was set up so that everybody who speaks has closed captioning running across their chest. It could even be closed captioning in Italian as my reading skills are somewhat better than my listening skills. To all the young people out there: learn a different language while you're young because when you get old, it is much harder to learn.

As for beautiful and interesting places we've been to, that never ends in Italy. This past week we discovered Genova Nervi, on the eastern side of Genova. It was once it's own town but it's now considered part of Genova. Wikipedia says it has one of the best seaside promenades in Europe so we did a hike on it on our day off. 

We got off the path and climbed on the rocks where we thought it was safe but mostly we were above on the path looking down. You can see the beach goers and snorkelers here and I love how the sky looks in this picture.

And I have to say that I love that watermelon beach umbrella. It looks good enough to eat.

I know I've rhapsodized in the past about Italian gelato, but I think I've started loving Sicilian style granite even more. I was once scolded on Facebook that granite in Genova couldn't possibly be as good as granite in Sicily. I'm not disputing that having never been to Sicily and never experienced true Sicilian granite, but there are several places both close to home and at the seaside that sell what they call Sicilian granite and I really love it. On a hot day, it's the perfect treat.

So until next time, I will say "Cheers."