One of my dreams since childhood has been to visit the Waldensian valley. Maybe because I trace my religious roots and ideals back to this amazing people group who despite being hunted like dogs, brutally massacred, and forced into mountain retreats maintained freedom of conscious during the dark ages.
I finally had the opportunity to visit Torre Pellice this last August with my traveling buddy Heather.
Heather is pictured here (isn't she cute)!
We tagged the trip onto our mission trip to Albania (please see www.nelsonmissiontrips.blogspot.com for my Albanian adventures). We left for Turin on Sunday, Aug 23rd (day before Eric's birthday :/) and arrived in Torino on Monday Aug 24. Getting from Torino to Torre Pellice was quite an adventure. We were both hauling two 50lb suitcases filled with supplies for Albania. I was also 6 weeks pregnant and feeling VERY nauseated. We don't speak ANY Italian and we somehow had to get from the airport, to the central Torino station and find a train to Torre Pellice. Apparently, no one in Italy speaks English so that made it all the more challenging.Somehow we managed to get on a bus to which we were gestured (a made up word for someone speaking very loudly in Italian-people speak louder and louder when you obviously don't understand them-and waving their hands widely in the general direction of where we assumed they were telling us to go). We hoped it would take us to the town center and maybe a train station. The bus did drop us off in front of a station, and I ran in to buy tickets. By the time I stood in line for 30 minutes, figured out how to communicate where we were going, and bought tickets, we had 5 minutes to get all the way across the station to the track our train was to leave from. Easy enough except I weigh about 100 lbs and Heather weighs around 90 pounds and we were both dragging TWO 50 pound suitcases EACH! Somehow, we made it JUST before the train chugged away.
The captain came by to collect tickets about 10 min into our ride. Somehow, in our rush to get on the train, I forgot to validate the ticket. The captain gave a string of Italian expletives I blissfully didn't understand before handing the tickets back and (I guess) gesturing we could stay on the train. We had to change trains in Pinerolo and thus got off the train as soon as we arrived in this city. Thankfully, the captain saw us getting off and ran over gesturing widely. He shoved our bags back on the train, and we figured we better get back on. Unknown to us, there are two stations and we had gotten off at the wrong one. The next stop was our station, we dragged our bags up another long ramp to our waiting train. This train was direct to Torre Pellice. Ahhhh, we breathed a sigh of relief and many prayers of thankfulness that God had helped us despite ourselves.
In Torre Pellice, we were met by Danielle Seban. She is a friend of my aunt's and lives in an apartment only "5 minutes from the station." Five minutes turned into a 15 minute climb up, up, up and up to her second floor apartment. She had a nice meal waiting and after devouring it, Heather and I collapsed into bed.
The next morning Danielle offered to take us on a hike to see most of the sites of historical significance. She said the hike would be most of the day, but didn't really tell me how long it would be (turns out it was about 16-17 miles up and down steep mountain roads). Below is both a topographical map and a pictoral map of the area we were hiking in.
Our first stop was about 2 km up. The first Waldensian church building (built in the 17th century). The government had not allowed them to meet openly before this time and they often met in caves and fields (more on this later). This building was still only grudgingly permitted--and they were not allowed to build it in the valley as the government didn't want those not of the Waldensian faith to be "contaminated." It is a very simple building and eloquently represents the simple religion the Waldensian's promoted. 
Our next stop brought us to a Waldensian village (see sign below):
Back in the 15th and 16th centuries, this village was repeatedly sacked, burned, and the inhabitants murdered and forced out. What was the crime: reading and following the Bible. They were not anarchist, they were freedom lovers and allowed others with different beliefs to co-inhabit their valleys. However, because they refused to worship in line with the prevailing religion, they were hunted, massacred, burned, hung, tortured, and forced to eek out an existence in the rocks and mountains of the earth. I don't have a great picture of the village, but I have a wonderful picture of the toilet I used...
Another 2-3 km of almost straight up brought us to a famous Waldensian cave, where the Waldensian's used to meet and worship. Each person would use a different route to get to the cave so they could remain undetected. In this cave, they would sing praises to God and comfort one another with the hope of Heaven and life beyond the grave. Danielle is the lady in front of the cave. I don't have any good pictures of inside the cave because it was so dark and my camera isn't good at taking dark pictures.
Our next stop was a small Waldensian school. This school dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Education was very important to the Waldensian's, however, it wasn't until the late 19th century that they were allowed to obtain higher education in Italian schools. Before this they were banned from entering Italian schools.
This school is maintained as a museum by a wonderful Waldensian man. He had as pick some food in his garden. His garden is terraced right in the mountain. Below are some pictures of his garden and the view from his garden.
By this time in our journey, I was getting pretty tired (remember, I'm 6 weeks pregnant...) and did not think I could hike even one more step. I started praying that we would get a ride as the next stop was at least 6 km up, up, up and up to the Pra Del Tor. Thankfully, God heard my pleas for help and sent an angel (actually a Waldensian woman on her way up to the Pra Del Tor). She gave us a ride up and all the way back for free.
The Pra Del Tor is way up a steep ascent. You cannot appreciate how steep it is from these pictures. This church is built right next to a steep gorge that drops almost straight down for hundreds of feet.
After a quick picnic, we hiked another steep clamber up the mountain (no road) to the College of the Barbs where the Waldensian men would be trained as pastors. They had only one textbook, the Bible, and would spend three years studying it. They were required to memorize 3 books in order to graduate. The rooms were unheated and bare (a fire could be seen and would detect attention of the authorities). They often slept with animals in order to keep warm at night.
The kind lady who gave us a ride up offered to show us inside a Waldensian church before we left. Again, I was impressed with the simple beauty.
Thus ended our day of adventure. We hiked around 6 of the 16 miles (all up hill might I add). By the time we got back to the apartment, I was so sick I couldn't eat supper and went straight to bed. It was worth it, however!
The next day was a lot more laid back, we wondered around the town, slept, and toured the local Waldensian museum. Here's a picture of me relaxing on a local bench.
The first picture from the museum is purgatory, a doctrine the Waldensian's strongly abhored but that was taught by the prevailing religious system at that time. Just looking at the picture makes me depressed. The next picture is a mock up of a barb studying. The last picture is a new friend Heather made (a women in the traditional Waldensian dress).
Thus ended our two day stent in Torre Pellice. I could have stayed a month, there were so many other things we could have seen!!
Thursday morning we took the train from Torre Pellice to Munich, Germany. It wasn't one direct train, unfortunately, so we had to drag our bags across three different train stations. One of the stations was a bit humerus.
Thursday morning we dragged all our suitcases about half a mile down to the train station at 6 am. We were trying to catch a train to Torino where we would change trains to get to Munich.
The lady we stayed with (Danielle) helped by carrying one of them. Before we left, she told us that the train station we were arriving at in Torino was 5 miles from the station our train to Munich would leave from. I didn't really want to walk 5 miles carrying those suitcases. Some helpful soul told us that there was a subway in front of the station that would take us to the next train station. So we got to the first station in Torino and started looking for the subway station. This meant we had to drag our stuicases DOWN a flight of stairs and then UP another flight of stairs to reach the front of the station. At the front, I did not see ANY signs for a subway station so I showed a guy the name of the station we were trying to get to. He gestured widely and pointed up to a schedule screen all the while speaking very loudly in Italian (people speak loudly when they know you don't understand, maybe they think volume helps comprehension?) I looked up at the computer schedule and realized that a train was coming on track 4 (where our train had come from) that was going to the next station So we went BACK down the stairs and back UP the stairs on the other side, yeah.... these were LONG stairs. Just as we got to the top they made an announcement in Italian that the train had moved tracks. Of course, we didn't understand the announcement so we stood waiting for the train and a train finally arrived. As we were about to get on, I showed the name of the station to a lady standing by (just double checking). She shook her head and rattled off in Italian. Since we didn't understand and were planning to board anyway, she actually grabbed my hand and pushed us off. So, we didn't get on the wrong train but we didn't know where the right train was! At this point, I was really praying. I went back inside the station and finally found someone who spoke English. She helped my buy tickets all the way to Munich (so I didn't have to do it at the next station like I thought) and also pointed out the right track. I got outside back to track 4 just as the train for track 1 started coming in. These trains stay for only 30 seconds and track 1 was a stair down and a stairway up away! Heather and I booked it and we made it down and up just before the train left. I was thankful that God helped us because it turns out that there is not a subway station and that if we had gone looking for the subway station we would have been looking a long time... language barriers are painful. The rest of the trip happened without too much mishap, except for a few more stairs...
Here's a picture of a train (not ours) and me waiting for the train with all of our stuff...
After a night in Munich, we headed for Albania. See my other blog for details. A couple of interesting stories however are included below.
Mr. Spider
Sabbath morning I got up to take a shower. I went into the bathroom and started my shower. The shower had no sides but a hand held handle so that you could keep the water from going everywhere. I was just getting ready to wash my hair when from the drain a HUGE spider emerged (probably 4 inches by 4 inches at least without exageration). I started spraying it with the water, and it proceded to run at my toes. I jumped out of the tub and continued to spray it and it tried crawling out of the tub (sides only 3 inch high) after me. I still had the water in my hand and it started spraying all over the room. I was scared to turn it off because I would have to step into the shower next to Mr. Spider. Since the spider kept trying to chase me I started to scream!!! I didn't want to step on it because I was wearing flip flops and the spider was 4 inches at least, maybe more. It was the biggest spider I have ever seen Heather heard me screaming and came to the bathroom door. She had not seen the spider and was laughing at me from outside the door yelling at me to step on it. When she came in she almost screamed too and said "Do not step on it, it is too big!" Hah, I could have told her that... She went out and got a big box and somehow trapped the spider in the box and took it outside. Eric still asks me why I didn't get pictures of the spider. However, you have to realize this was an emergency, I still had the water, was naked, and the bathroom was completely soaked by the time Mr. Spider was dealt with appropriately.
The Bible:
Sabbath morning we attended the local SDA Albanian church. There a woman showed us her mother's Bible. This Bible survived 50 years of communism without being discovered! Her mother read it over 60 times, and actually translated almost the entire Bible into Albanian to share with her friends! Quite an amazing Bible. Below is a picture of this Bible.
Thus concludes my tail of adventure. Hope you enjoyed it!
Rachel
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