Yesterday we had a rain day so we didn't do much of anything. For dinner we went to a restauraunt and had some sort of pasta dish with of course bread and wine (red and white) and water (fizzante and natural). For dessert some had tirimisu and some had apple cake. I had tirimuisu and it was the best that I have ever had, it was amazing. It was so much better than anything you can buy in a store in Canada, you would have loved it. Today I had more gelato and it was still very good, I had hazel nut again because it's one of my favourites and I had melon, it was a cantalope melon flavour and it was amazing also.
Today we went to Orta. There we walked up a small mountain to see a saccramento to St. Francis of Assissi the patron saint of animals. The saccramento depicts the life of St. Francis and was ment to be a pilgimage for people who were too poor and too scared to go to Jereuselem. It was a very pretty place. We then went to an Italian cemetary to see what they are like. Apparently people are under community pressures to visit their dead family member and regularly tend their cemetary plots.
We then walked into the town of Orta which is on a lake. Orta is a UNESCO world heritage site and very few people drive in it. On some roads only people with special permits can drive on them and they can only get the permits if they live in the area. Buses and large vehicles cannote get down the narrow streets and are not allowed in town. the lack of traffic makes the town a very quiet and peacefull, it's a very calm sort of place.
After lunch we went to an island in the lake, Isola San Giulio, where we walked the path of silence and then went into a church where they have the glass coffin of San Giulio. He was a surprisingly short man. The path of silence was interesting, you are suppose to walk it in complete silence no speaking and there are little signs with sayings about the virtues of silence.
Tomorrow we are supose to tour a garden in the morning and then take a bus for 4 hours to a town near the Cinque Terre. However we don't know if that is going to happen now as there was a disaster there apparently. According to the news the area recieved 2 feet of rain in a couple of hours that caused flooding and washed out roads and rail lines, apparently there is no hydro or water there, and unfortunately some people were killed. Now I don't want you to become alarmed we will probably not be going there now, but I don't know for sure. We will probably just head to Florence a little early. Here are a couple of links to the story, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/26/floods-kill-eight-in-northern-italy/ , http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/26/us-italy-weather-idUSTRE79P25J20111026 .
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