Today we went to Church in Cuneo, the provincial capital, which is about one hour away by bus. We had a bit of a scare yesterday when we set out to find a way to get to Church. At our hotel, the manager said the busses don’t run on Sunday, so we should go to the train station. We went to the train station, and after poring over a schedule where everything said either that the train went on weekdays or that it didn’t go on holidays (Sunday is considered a holiday), we asked someone, who confirmed that the train simply doesn’t go on Sundays.… Read more
Author: Sarah Bringhurst Familia
House Hunting in Saluzzo
Our (and our relatives’) efforts at procuring lodging in Lagnasco having proved vain, and having discovered that there are neither busses nor reliable internet in Lagnasco, we have decided to move to Saluzzo. We’ve been staying there anyway, and falling by degrees in love with it. The town is built right up against the hills, on the edge of the fertile plain. The beautifully preserved but still very much alive old city winds up the hill, culminating in its own castle, currently under renovation. We found a beautiful little apartment right in the middle of it, cobblestone streets, painted frescoes, and spacious vaulted ceilings and all.… Read more
Waldensian Valleys
Today we went to the Waldensian Valleys. Last week, we went through San Germano Chisone just as it was getting dark. We happened to stop just in front of the Chiesa Valdese (Waldensian Church), where someone was filling water bottles at the town fountain. So we filled ours too. But today we went back to see the valleys a little better. We drove up and up and up, higher than Melle, into Angrogna. There, we parked the car and walked down a path to a place where the mountain’s bones are exposed and broken in pieces. This was the Cave Church.… Read more
Deep Magic from Before the Dawn of Time
April 3
Yesterday we drove to Melle, where the Bodrero family originates. As we drove farther from Torino, the towns got smaller and smaller, and the little church in the center of each seemed more and more ancient. Finally, as we wound up toward the Western hills at the foot of the Alps, we passed into the town of Melle. The boroughs of the town climb up into the very tops of the hills, reaching a stillness broken only by birdsongs. The little green meadows are sprinkled with tiny, delicate butter-yellow flowers.
Through the town center and up a little winding hill is the borough of the Bodreros – a little cluster of centuries-old stone houses with shale roofs and tidy little gardens.… Read more
House Hunting in Lagnasco
April 1
Monday we drove back to Lagnasco. Tony spent a long time practicing the following phrases in Italian, to explain to his relatives who he was and why he was here:
Mi chiamo Tony Familia.
Mi dispiace. Parlo piccolo Italiano
I miei antenati vivevano in Lagnasco. Sono Bodreri. Siamo parenti.
Vorrei vivere in Lagnasco. Desidero affittare un appartamento amobiliare.
abbiamo bisogno dell’aiuto.
Tony’s relatives in Logan had shown us photographs of the Bodrero family they found in Lagnasco, and told us that the flower shop was owned by Roberta Bodrero. Accordingly, we went and knocked on the door of the shop.… Read more
In Italy
We are in Italy. Our first adventure (after over 24 hours of airplanes and airports) was our rental car. We packed all our seventeen (more or less) bags into it and set off, map in hand. We had gotten almost out of the airport parking lot when the car began to smell bad. And then worse. We turned around and headed back, concerned. A passerby flagged us down, pointing to the engine, from which smoke was beginning to billow. Tony parked the car and rushed back in to the car rental place. I was still sitting in the car with the children when a man came up to the window and said I should get out, and asked me where my husband was, and said the car was on fire.… Read more
Last Minute U.S. Errands
We are in Utah. Our plane to Italy departs in three days. Last week we went to the LDS Church Archives on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. I called a traveling notary (who only charged me $20 for all three documents, travel included. Yay for Utah and great deals on everything) and she met us there. After we got our official badges and went through security, we spoke with the person at the desk to see if we could talk to the person who had sent the letters. It turns out he is now retired, and only comes in some Fridays.… Read more
Der Himmel über Berlin
We were at BYU’s International Cinema yesterday, watching “Wings of Desire,” or translated literally from the German title, “The Heavens Over Berlin.” “City of Angels” was based upon it, although characteristically, the depth was minimized and the sex maximized in the Hollywood film.
The original German film is a beautiful, thoughtful meditation on mortality and the Fall. Damiel the angel has watched humanity unfold for thousands of years, and finally wants to personally step into the world he knows so intimately from above. After his fall and the revelation it brings, his final words in the film are: “I know now what no angel knows.”… Read more
Wooo-hoo-hoo-hooooooo!
We are going to Italy. March 26.
Circumstances detailed in my other blog have made a fairly sudden move possible. Luckily, I have most of the documents. I’m only waiting on Elva’s death certificate before I can take all the California documents to be Apostilled. Then I just need to find out what the hang-up is with the Utah documents (stuck somewhere on the way to being Apostilled). Also, in Utah I need to take a traveling notary to get someone from archives to notarize the letters they sent me for birth certificates for Elva and Louis and the marriage certificate for Harriet and Domenico, and then get those Apostilled as well.… Read more
Other dreams, other suns
This post from my old Transfiguring Mirror blog is the way our life changed, taking us to Italy:
I should confess here that I’ve started another blog. It was an innocent endeavor originally, but it’s somehow suddenly taken over our life . . . And now we have just bought one-way tickets to Italy. We leave March 26.
How DID this happen? We’re not quite sure ourselves. Or, as Joseph Smith put it, “I don’t blame any one for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I would not have believed it myself.” We’ve been telling our friends and family for a couple of years now that we’re planning to move to Italy.… Read more