LDS History Tour

On the 14th, 15th, and 16th we traveled up to Genova to meet up with another professor at BYU, Eric Dersteler, to start our LDS History Tour. He is a cool professor! He added a fresh perspective and a much needed attitude change for the whole group. We started the tour at the Cathedral of Genova where Lorenzo Snow came on his mission and wrote a detailed description of it. He described how beautiful and lavish the church was. But as the meeting began he felt that what was being spoken wasn't right. It describes perfectly how I feel when I see these beautiful churches.

Our tour guide for the weekend

We also went on top of this tower that used to be a prison. It was fun, we didn't spend much time in there but we got to wear awesome hard hats :)

View from the tower

After this we took a much needed lunch break. Apparently Genova is famous for its focaccia so obviously I had to get some and boy, was it good. Then we looked at a few palaces that have been turned into banks, apartment buildings and other things. We all picked our favorites. It was interesting to see what some people lived in!

After Genova we made our way to Torino and stayed in a little town called Torre Pellice. It's about a two hour walk from France and at the base of an Alp. This town embodies everything about the holidays. It was cold and smelled like fire in the fireplace and it was cold! Did I mention it was cold?? No one packed warm clothes because we didn't know it would be so cold. It is also a very beautiful area. The trees on the mountain were beautiful reds, oranges, yellows, and greens. It was all so beautiful! And it brought back so many memories of the holidays and Christmas, which has made me start listening to Christmas music. I don't care that it's October! 

Here we learned that Lorenzo Snow gave the dedicatory prayer of Italy opening it up to all future missions. This is my favorite part of the prayer:

"O Italy! Hath an eternal winter followed the summer of thy fame, and frosted the flowers of thy genius, and clouded the sunbeams of thy glory? No! The future of thy story shall outshine the past, and thy children shall yet be more renowned than in the ages of old. I see around me many an eye which will, one day, glisten with delight at the tidings of Eternal Truth -- many a countenance which will adorn the assemblies of the Living God. There is yet the blood of heaven's nobility within the hearts of many amid thy sons and daughters."

How cool is that?? Anyway we checked into a cute hotel got some dinner and went to bed. Waking up was difficult knowing how cold it was outside. But we took a tour and learned about the towns history and how it tied into the LDS history there. Lorenzo Snow wanted to teach here because it was the only non-Catholic, Protestant town in Italy and he thought he would have better luck there. He did but not as much as he thought he would. Most of the people who converted to the church moved to America. Anyway, part of the tour included going on one of the Alps. It felt so good to breathe clean, crisp air and it was stunning. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Our Hotel

The restaurant I ate at had owls everywhere! Also I got wild boar ragu. The sauce tasted like street taco meat...

After our tour we headed to the Superga Monastery on a mountain top in Torino. We took a little tour of this place and then settled into our rooms before dinner. I also went exploring with some of the girls and this place was creepy!! It was so dark and cold. And it was really old so there were creepy paintings and old furniture everywhere. But we had fun. I didn't have the best night's sleep but I am really glad we stayed there. It was a neat experience.

 

Yeah. This is where we stayed.

The view from the Monastery

The group I roomed with. The rooms were set up like office cubicles.

Creepy!

Sunday we went to church in Torino. This was the biggest ward I've been to. We ended here to see how big the church has grown in this area. This ward felt more like a ward from home. We also got chocolate. Torino is known for its delicious chocolate and sometimes those labels aren't true. But this one was. I had some of the most amazing chocolate I have ever had in my life! I got some fancy chocolates and some french macaroons. And then we went to this bar and got hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is very different from the watery stuff we have back home. It is basically a chocolate bar melted down with some heavy cream. Enough to make it drinkable. I was in heaven! It went down so smooth and warmed up your whole body and left you feeling extremely happy about life. My mouth is watering thinking about it. From now on every chocolate and hot chocolate I have will be compared to Torino chocolate. 

I could eat this for the rest of my life!

This is where we had the hot chocolate.

This weekend was one of my favorites. It was neat learning about LDS history especially after all the things we've learned about the Catholic Church. And it was the perfect way to start off the holiday season. 

Again it was so nice to come "home" to Siena and to crawl into my own warm bed. Life is so good! I will write about my trip to Florence this past weekend soon.