Italy, Day 2, 2nd half of day

Wednesday, 2nd part of the day:  After climbing the mountain (!) and having Mass at the top, the bus drove us down into town.  (And just where was the bus when we were going UP??)  We came to the youth center of a local church where Fr. Peter's friends had brought all sorts of yummy Italian dishes for us to sample.

Youth Centers like this are very common in
association with parishes

yum!!!
Lasagna (duh) and we also had roast beef, bread with cheese
and ham, "pizza" quiche with zucchini, tuna loaf, lemon bread,
fig tart, chocolate loaf, Coca Cola, and more....

Two pilgrims, Sally and Kathy, passing a PLATTER of parmesan!

 Next we walked to a bar (Italian for cafe) for some coffee.

outside the bar "Italia Nuova"

Bunny got a hot chocolate, which was as thick as pudding!

 Next we walked the short distance to the church.  The church is "Madonna della Ghianda" which means "Our Lady of the Acorn".  I got a big kick out of that.  I had no idea there was such a name for Mary!  But the story is that in the 12th century a deaf/dumb girl sheep herder was healed when she saw an image of Mary in an oak tree.  In the local dialect, the Italian word for acorn is the same as for the whole oak tree, so it is really more like Our Lady of the Oak Tree.

This road up to the church (and the church itself, I believe)
was ordered by St. Charles Borremeo, when
he visited in the 1500s

The beautiful mosaic on the outside, above the door
(little did I know that this was the first of MANY mosaics)

The inside of the little church
(again, I was very impressed, but I soon found out that
many churches were so beautiful and old!)

If I remember correctly, there are relics in each of these busts.
Behind the altar is a little back room that is the original chapel
with the original very old fresco (see it thru the back window)

In the little old section, with the fresco
(I think this was pre-1500s)

This is what the main part of the fresco looked like

 We made our way to the bus, and we were supposed to go to Lake Como but the timing was off so we decided not to go.  Bunny was bummed, because she was really looking forward to going to the Planet Naboo (some of Star Wars was filmed at Lake Como) and I was hoping to run into George Clooney.  But, it turned out to be a good call because we had a very late night as it was.  We made our way to an amazing retreat house (Villa Sacro Cuore in Truiggio) that used to be a wealthy family's estate, then was donated to the Jesuits, then acquired by the archdiocese to be used as a retreat center.  

our room (yes we had a private bath too)

We went straight down to dinner, risotto, bread, proscuitto (sp?),
potatoes, salad, veal, wine, and an orange marmalade tart

Sedric using the bidet:
bedtime cleaning after a long day in airplanes and
a long day climbing a mountain!