Wednesday, May 23. There is something about Italy! It is so beautiful here. Agnese picked me up at 9:30 AM and drove me from Verbania and up to  Sacred Mountain (Sacro Monte Orta), with its extremely old deserted churches from the 1600s scattered about. Very peaceful and beautiful place. After walking around there for a while, we walked down to the gorgeous Lago d’Orta. First we walked around the really nice town of Orta, then hopped a boat to the small Island of Silence (San Giulius Island), with a monastery in the middle. Walking around that tiny island town past all the messages of silence scattered around was very special. Then we hopped back on the boat and took a nice walk on a 45-minute slice of the lake coast. Simply beautiful. Somewhere around there was Villa Crespi. Then we drove high up on a very curvy road into the mountains at Motorrone to a small ski area. We trekked up the fairly short but steep rest of the way to the top. Gorgeous views of the lakes below in all directions. On our way down it started to rain—pretty hard. Got to the car fairly soaked, but it was totally worth it. On our way home, this time we drove through the lovely tourist town of Stresa. When we got back to Verbania, Agnese dropped me at my hotel, where I had another luxurious bath to soothe my tired legs. I decided I was going to take the chance to try to walk to Agnese’s house, instead of having her pick me up, as she was cooking dinner. Armed with map in hand and explicit directions, I proceeded to get lost. I couldn’t see the names of a couple of critical street signs. It was supposed to take me 17 minutes, but ended up being more than twice that long. I arrived just as Agnese was taking out her bike to try to find me, as she was getting worried. After a nice dinner, I received another very special shiatsu treatment from Agnese. That woman has a gift! Just before the dinner, much to my utter shock, I could not find my long sleeve shirt that I had wrapped around my waist when I began my walk. We looked everywhere for it, then drove off in her car to try to find it and couldn’t. A total mystery. If it had fallen off my waist as I was fumbling around looking at the map and trying to figure out where I was going, I would have felt it fall around my ankles. But no—nothing! That shirt was a gift, too, from a very special person, and I loved it. After being bummed out for a while, oh well… Agnese then drove me home, and except for the very end when I couldn’t find my shirt, this was probably the best day of my trip yet.