First Big Adventure

A couple of weeks after arriving in Italy we decided it was time to venture out and do a little exploring.  We heard about this monument down by the sea so gave it a go.  The hardest thing about exploring is finding a parking place.  Once you find a spot, you find a ticket kiosk, pay a fee, and get a ticket to put in your car window so you don't get a parking ticket. The prime places make you pay more per hour.

This is the Monumento Ai Caduti.  It was erected in honor of all the fallen.  It is near the sea so that's what was calling us to go see it.  There is a park near by and a trail that leads down to the sea.  We walked for ever down all these steps,      

The view was well worth the climb.

These doors on the right of the picture are the openings to the caves behind them.  The caves were dug years ago and used for storage for farmers and fisherman.  Now they are used as beach houses.  You either rent or own and use them for the day at the beach.  I use the term beach, lightly because there is no sand here.  Just lots of rocks line the shore.
 Going back up the hill we walked through part of the park.  There is a public swimming pool there and some trees and bushes.  We found this abandoned fountain and pond.  It was probably very pretty at one time.

The Monument is on ground level where we parked.  The steps go down to a viewing area and then more steps go down to the beach.  Here they have moved rocks out for a water break and brought in some sand.  Many people go there to swim and sun bathe.  It's what they do, especially on Saturday.

Those little tiny specks down there are umbrellas and sun bathers.  The sea is very beautiful and is only about 10 minutes from our apartment.  The 4 elders that serve here can actually see the port from their apartment but I'm not jealous because they have more mosquitoes and we don't have that many.

                             

First week in Italy

We arrived in Milano June 10.  At the mission office they tried to keep us awake so that we would sleep on our new time (8 hours ahead of MST back home)  A very nice meal was prepared in the evening by Sister Lee from the mission home.  The Lees were filling in for the Mission Pres. while he was in the states for heart surgery.  The next day Anziano Harmer dropped us at the Metro and said "Go get acquainted with downtown Milano." Here is a bit of what we saw. The Milan Duomo was the first sight as we emerged from the Metro.  Words can't describe it's beauty.

The digital display on the left is attached to a scaffolding that is being used to renovate the outside of the building.  The advertising is used to pay for the work. We did some walking around to other sights before returning to the Metro for the trip back to the mission office.

  Let me just tell you that there are no public restrooms in Italy that I've seen.  I needed one in a bad way so my dear husband found one in McDonalds. It was a life saver.  No picture here.The Galleria was amazing. Here are a few other sights that were of interest to us.

It's all about motorcycles in Italy.  They seem to have no rules that they follow. I love the little car above.  I can't decide which I want to take home, that little one or the little cute pickups that run on 3 wheels.  I'll get a picture of that someday.
On Thursday June 12 we loaded up our suitcases, jumped into our assigned Opal and followed the Harmers to Ancona.  The Harmers are the office couple.  We stopped in Reggio Emilia to drop dishes to some sisters there. Next stop was Forli.  That's the place we were originally going to be assigned.  We took some things from that apartment and followed on to Ancona. Spent the night in a motel, shopped the next day with the Harmers for our apartment, moved the elders out and moved ourselves in the next day.

  This is the sum total of our kitchen and the view off our balcony,  We are on the second floor but in Italy they start counting on the second floor, so technically we live on the first floor.