Left to right: Mary Claude, Roberto, Antonella. Their villa is in the middle of the little housing village behind them.

Antonella’s friends, Roberto and Mary Claude, invited us to spend three days in the Italian Alps with them in their mountain villa. We had a great time enjoying the river, scenery, fresh air and company of friends. What a great experience and what wonderful people.

Their villa was an old rock house attached to several others with rock roofs and wooden floors. A very primitive life as there was a broken water pipe so we carried buckets of water to drink, wash dishes and flush the toilets.

Roberto and I hiked for half a day to view the mountain ranges from a mountain peak high in the Alps. On the other side of the ice mountain was the Swiss Alps and to the right was France. It was a relatively short hike but very steep, nearer to mountain climbing that hiking at various points.

It is too bad the camera just can’t capture so many things in Europe because of the narrow passages or grand picturesque views, so I am limited on the pictures I take. It is drama requiring experience because of all the beauty, antiquity, character, ambiance and uniqueness. I wish there was a way to transfer all that I see and feel while traversing the various cities and country sides but each time I want to take a picture I think to myself, I could never capture this.

This is an Alpine village nestled in the back of the canyon. A cute little village where we ate lunch in a quaint little cafe.

Our last night we had a barbecue and the pork steaks were the best I’ve ever eaten. I thought it was beef until they informed me otherwise.

The Italians eat differently than any other country I’ve experienced. The meat or main course is served first, and then what most would consider starters and finally the salad or vegetables. They serve them last to freshen the breath and clean the teeth. The only problem I had is I would fill up on the main course thinking that was all and then more food would come so I would be filled to an uncomfortable level.

Antonella making a funny face.

Antonella is such a good person; I can only hope that should I marry again, my next wife would be like her. She knows what she wants in life (she paid 450 Euros for her glasses, which look great on her) but things will never take precedence over people with her. She is so unselfish she is a temptation for me; I truly admire her and happy I am able to know someone like her.

The church members here are trying to convince me to stop my pilgrimage and stay here with them but I cannot as there is much more for me to see and do. They have been so kind and good to me and I understand that they have several single women my age that they would like to have married so that may be the extra twisting of the arm I feel but I still consider it a wonderful friendship they have offered me. One sister in the ward also offered to translate my book “The Opportunity In Every Problem” into Italian. She told me Sunday she just finished chapter 4 and she should be done by this Sunday. She also changed the cover to reflect an Italian theme so I’m looking forward to seeing the outcome of her talents. She speaks very good English and does translating for a living so I suspect it will be good.

This is is the garden to the house just above. This was simply one of the cutest homes I saw so I had to take the pictures.

This is Hone fort and it guarded the entrance to the Alps or invasion from the Alps into the valley. It is now homes, museum and a restaurant I believe.

The pain in my stomach has subsided and where a week ago I could only do three push-ups because it would begin to hurt, today I did twenty and I suspect in another week or so I should get back to 30. I enjoyed carrying the buckets of water just to feel my strength slowly come back.

This was the slate roof in Lanzo. I took many pictures in this quaint little town but this is the only one that saved. Sorry but not a lot of pictures in this post because I was using Antonella's phone camera instead of my own and her settings were different than mine.

7th of Aug 2012- Antonella and I spent much of the day in the mountains, in a beautiful little city called Lanzo. Even the train station had the most picturesque background and was not full of rails, rocks and weeds, as I have come to expect from most train stations. We spent a considerable time by a river where we ate lunch and watched kids play and others sunbathe, but the fun increased when a couple of kayakers came down the river and hung out in the area where we were. We talked for a few hours and I must say, even with the language barrier, I really enjoy my discussions with Antonella. She is a wonderful person and a true saint.

Walking through the city of Lanzo a Catholic priest, from a third story window hollered out “Bouna Setta” (Good Evening, but not sure of the spelling). We responded in kind then Antonella began talking to him and then she said, good he will let us use his bathroom. The exchange was a quite a novelty to me but enjoyed all the same.

Antonella has been sick over the last few days so she has asked me to do the driving. Each country has their unique methods of driving as well as rules. So far, in Italy, I’ve discovered a few nuances that may be of interest. A red light does not necessarily mean stop. I came upon a red light and a green arrow and in the confusion I slowed down to stop when cars started honking. Antonella informed me that the red light only means attention and I’m to keep going. A green light mean honk. A stop sign means go. Lines in the road are only suggestions. In all other European countries I’ve been too, if a person looks like they might walk near a cross walk you must stop. In Italy you are taking your life in your own hands when you cross a cross walk and if you’re not in a cross walk they get to aim at you.

My new scar. It now looks like I have 2 belly buttons... an innie and an outie :-)

21st of Aug- I have not updated lately because I am basically just living and doing house chores while on the mend. I have been painting and fixing things for Antonella. Also, I think I have met about everyone in Torino because we rarely have a night off where we are not invited to spend the evening with a friend or family member. There are a few families that get together often for fun and they have invited us over a few times and most of them speak some English so I can enjoy most of the conversations.

Antonella is attempting to teach me Italian but I am a bit slow when it comes to languages. After 5 years I never learned English and still speak American so being able to say thank you very much is the most important phrase I desire to know wherever I go.

This was a river in the mountains Antonella took me to. This was called the Devil's Bridge because each time they tried to build it, it was destroyed. Then an old man made a pact with the devil to give a soul to let the bridge be built. After it was built the man handed him a bag with the soul. When the devil opened it, it contained his dog. The devil was mad but didn't destroy it because he never specified what kind of soul he wanted.

Now then, let me share with you something about this most amazing woman I am staying with. She planned on me staying only a day or two at first but I was using her address to have a solar battery delivered and it didn’t arrive yet so she told me I could stay until it did. I then had to go to the hospital for 12 days, when she spent the first to evenings in the hospital with me and came to visit every day thereafter. They told me I couldn’t lift my back pack until September so I couldn’t continue my pilgrimage. She insisted I stay with her until I could go. However, I found out she was nearly out of money a week ago (about the 14th), having only about 200 Euros until she gets paid on the 27th. At that time, her friend’s mother died and she needed a train ticket to go visit. She is unemployed so Antonella bought her ticket for 95 Euros. With the rest of her money she filled up the petrol in the car and bought food for us. Now she is out of money and still a week before she gets paid. She also could not pay her car insurance so she is taking a big risk driving. However, although she lives about 5 minutes from church, a woman, whose husband was too lazy to take her to church, needed a lift. Antonella travelled about 45 minutes to pick her up. I asked her what she will do when she runs out of petrol. She quickly said she will take her bicycle to work as if it were no big deal but that is about an hour trip.

I offered to leave so I would not be a burden but she told me to not be stupid and try to leave before the doctor allowed. I asked her why she would strive to help everyone when she needs help and she said it’s what you are supposed to do. If someone needs help you help them. I told her I knew many rich people who would not offer so much. Oh yes, I needed a brace (girdle?) for my stomach because of the operation. Antonella paid 57 Euros for it. I found out, that a company I was working with in England will start sending me £50 per month since the work I’ve done for them has not paid out yet so I was able to pay her back for it but she wasn’t expecting me to pay her back.

During a later conversation she started telling me about her dreams and what she would do if she were rich. She would help everyone. I told her, that’s why the Lord would never make her rich. She didn’t understand so I explained. Before we came to this life, we didn’t want for anything; we lived in bliss knowing no pain, anger, hatred, suffering, lack, sickness, doubt, loneliness, etc. We are here to experience all these negatives so when we return to our Heavenly Father we will appreciate the love, rest, and kingdom of glory he has prepared for us. If he were to make her rich, she would use all her money to keep people from experiencing all these negatives so God may bless her for her generous heart and her many kind deeds but he won’t let her stop all the valuable experiences they will have through their suffering and also, they would have faith in her instead of the Lord. Like her friend who needed money for the train ticket, Antonella was the first person she went to for help (instead of her family) because she knew Antonella would help.

If you know the story of the widows mite, Antonella gives all she has continually. So much so that it is just a natural thing for her to go to a mission for food when she has given hers away, get the old bread from the bakery, they are about to throw out, so she can have food; or ride her bicycle wherever she goes when she can’t pay for insurance or petrol for her car. I’m sure some of you will wonder why I stay without means to help pay her expenses and increase them as well. Those who know me, know I am also stubborn enough that I would not stay with her if I thought I shouldn’t, but she has many things that needed to be fixed, repaired, upgraded and so forth. On a monetary level I expect I have saved her at least 1000 Euros and if she needs to eat at the mission then I will eat at the mission. If she ends up with only bread to eat then I will eat only bread. I still have a few things to fix once she does get paid and can afford the parts so I will stay until I have fixed everything I can.

This is another picture of the same river taken from The Devil's Bridge.

This is Antonella (right) and her friend Guizy (left). We are on a mountain overlooking Torino.

I met with Antonella and two of her friends. Guys, if you have ever been in a small crowd of Relief Society women, you should try it when they are speaking another language… you don’t stand a chance! ;-)  All joking aside, they have been great and I have been loving every minute with them and only wish I could speak Italian. It is so funny to see them using the same animated gestures and spatting with other drivers on the road, as is depicted in the American TV show. Antonella was going to make my favourite meal ever (Lasagne) but her friends told her it was too hot for Lasagne so they made something similar to salsa as a salad starter, that was very good and then roast chicken with potatoes and cappers. I’ve never liked cappers before but this whole meal was great. I must have prepared the cappers wrong in the past. For breakfast she made crapes and they too were wonderful. She then took me on a tour of the city and up a mountain to see how vast it was and it is very big. Tonight we will be going to a welcome home parting for a missionary returning from Japan so I’m looking forward to it.

The is a large statue on the mountain top  overlooking Torino. It is also used as a lighthouse at night.

I also found out that Antonella makes much less than Sara does yet she is willing to house me and spend money on petrol and food to help make my journey a memorable one. What wonderful people. America… wake up and start giving. You think you are poor but you’re not. You just won’t live within your means and you can’t help people because you bind yourselves with debt because you want more and more. I see many happy people here in Europe living on crumbs compared to you but they are happy and still give what little they have. I’m making a list of people I would like to help whenever I get back to making money. Like the widows mite, I of my abundance have given little but they of their penury have given all they have or all they can. How humbling this trip has been to me and what an eye opener!

An open square in Torino.

I went walking for a few miles through the city center looking for WIFI but it was the first time a city required their own country code to register for WIFI so they wouldn’t send a code to my British phone. I tried other networks but none would allow me to connect. I finally found McD’s and thought I was saved but again, the first McD’s to not have WIFI. I started back for the house then saw a woman approaching me with her dressed hiked up a bit revealing her slip so I stopped her saying, “Pardon, your slip is showing” as I reached down and grabbed my pant leg about where her slip was revealed. She looked at me then I realized there was a mix up in the translation because I think he figured me be asking if she would show me her slip. She grabbed her skirt and lifted it above her head revealing her entire slip then dropped it and shrugged her shoulders. I just smiled, shrugged my shoulders, said, “grazie (thank you)” then kept walking along.

Antonella and Roberto in Cheiri

Antonella and all her friends have been truly wonderful to me. At church they welcomed me like a brother and so many of them treated me as though we had been friends forever. Another family invited me to stay at their house for a night so I could meet their sons and the father, Roberto, received a degree as an architect so he loved the designs of buildings and he showed me around his city Cheiri and explained several of the structures and the adaptations the city has had over the years. It was the most interesting tour I have had so far on my pilgrimage. His family was great too. Even though it is wearing to try to speak English and translate everything in their heads constantly, they kept trying to communicate with me. They were all very talented as well. The first son I met, Timothy, hand makes wall paper and it is very high quality, not actually paper but a paper/fabric mix. The other son I met, Xevier, designs the soles of sport shoes for Armani. He is also very creative.

This is in Cheiri. The window looks like it has a wood surround but it is actually all made of brick.

The city center of Cheiri

This is a gate way into Cheiri

Interesting because the red brick is from the original building and the rest is what they did to modernize it.

This is another old building in Cheiri that has been modernized.

This is a very cool old church in Cheiri. I love all the columns and statuary.

Here is an original door from a building in the 15th or 16th century.

What a great tour of the city Roberto gave me. I have been so blessed to meet such good people on this pilgrimage and I hope to meet many more.

Back in Torino. This is a gateway to Torino built by the Romans in the first year AD.

 24th of July 2012- Last night just before dinner I had some slight gas cramps, or so it felt. I didn’t think much of it but they became more intense, waking me in the middle of the night. By morning I couldn’t walk. Antonella called an ambulance and the man who checked me out said they would have to take me in for surgery. I wasn’t sure if the hospital was close or far because I’m sure we caught air at least three times on the way so I couldn’t tell if we were driving or flying. I was told by others I could expect an 8 hour wait from this hospital but I was looked at immediately by the doctor then taken to the MRI then rushed into surgery.  It ended up being that they had to cut 40cm of intestine out of me due to the hernia operation I had a few years ago. The netting they used for the hernia had got twisted up in my intestines and obstructing them.

This is the remains of an old Roman theatre from the first century AD.

I spent the next 12 days recovering in the hospital and told I would have to wait another month before I could lift my back pack to continue my pilgrimage.

The hospital workers were about the most pleasant I have ever come across. The doctors were very attentive and full of smiles and laughing. The nurses and care givers were always smiling and very pleasant as well. They made me about as comfortable as one could be under such circumstances. I really wish I could speak the language because they seemed to be having so much fun but it all went over my head.

This caption goes with the Roman Theatre remains in the pic

Now then, let me tell you about this wonderful lady Antonella, who agreed to have me stay for a night or two as a short refuge on my pilgrimage. Not only has Antonella agreed to let me stay at her house during my recovery, she is also a very strict adherent to propriety and would not stay or sleep in a house with a man while unmarried. The first two nights I was here she had a friend stay over as well. However, when she first allowed me to stay longer because I was awaiting my solar battery to arrive, she would let me stay in her house while she would sleep at neighbours and friends houses. Now if that were not magnanimous enough, my first two nights in the hospital she secured a lawn chair from the church and stayed the night with me in the hospital in case I needed help and just to be a good friend. She faithfully came to visit for several hours every day of my stay. She is a lot of fun to speak with and I just can’t believe a person who was nothing more than a friend of a friend, would go to such lengths to assist someone she doesn’t even know or knows if she could trust. The Lord has truly blessed me with wonderful people during my trip.

This is one of Antonella's many talents. This may look like wall paper but Antonella actually painted all of this around her living room.

Incidentally, were my solar battery received on time, I would have most likely been hiking in the alps and my plan was to go off trail to spend a few days alone while in the majesty of those beautiful mountains. Had I been there when this attack on my body happened, it is almost certain I could not have received help in time to save me. I can’t help but be grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who I am sure is watching over me.

This is a bakery near Antonella's house in Torino. Many creative people here.

I have discovered that after the 5 day fast in the hospital and the light eating for 12 days, I have lost a bit too much weight. I am now only 178 lbs or 81 kg or 12.75 stone, and for the first time, yesterday, I was making fun of a man for having a little too much weight and he said, what about you, you’re too skinny. My heaviest in high school was 170 lbs and I weighed 165 lbs when I returned from my mission in Ireland so I am too close to that weight. I think 185 lbs is a good weight for me (though I have been about 195 lbs for the last 25 years) so I will try getting back to that weight and hold it there.

It has been quite some time since I updated this blog so sorry for the excessive amount of information but being I was in the hospital nearly 2 weeks there wasn't that much to write about so it may come out the same anyway. Okay, here we go: