Anyway...We got to worship pretty early that morning. The little church building was pretty neat looking, but it was a small building. This building had pews instead of the miserable chairs in Trieste. It also had window units that they used.
The preacher at this congregation is one that we help support. And we helped support his Father-in-law until he passed away. Now we send some money to his widow because if you preach in Italy but you aren't Catholic you are not recognized as employed, so she has NO money to live on. This particular congregation has been in their building since the 50's. They could sell this building and make millions of Euros, but they still wouldn't have enough to buy another place. Real estate in Rome is ridiculous!!!! Several members of this congregation were related to one another. Once again, these brethren were very sweet and friendly. They had a guest book they call "The Book of Life". They pass it around to visitors and we all signed it and put down where we were from. This book has been around for many years. Once again we sang in Italian and, once again, the fruit of the vine was real wine!!! GOOD GRIEF!!! After worship we stayed around and visited for a while. In a bit we walked down the street to this really neat restaurant. It was a very cool (as in temperature) place. So I really didn't mind staying. However, the room we were in was long and very narrow. I went on down to the end of the table and ended up being separated from the adults. I really liked the kids I sat with, but I felt like I was being antisocial. I couldn't understand the menu and some the people with us were helping, but I was too tired to ask for help. I even dozed off with my chin in my hands. I ended up getting a calzone that really wasn't good. But that was the very least of the meal. They brought out plate after plate of meats and cheeses (including fresh mozzarella!!!!!!) We weren't charged for any of that. We stayed there for about 3 hours. From there we started walking - and walking - and walking...My stupid blister started coming back...Needless to say, I was not a happy camper - AGAIN. We ended up back at the Colosseum. It was amazing from the outside - again. From that point it seemed a bit more tolerable. We passed a really neat statue of Julius Caesar.
If you'll notice at the bottom of the statue are the letters SPQR. We actually had that when we were studying Latin a few years ago. I couldn't remember what it stood for. It took Logan a bit to remember the Latin saying, but he remembered what it meant.
Senatus PopulusQue Romanus - The Senate and People of Rome. It really made me feel good that it had stuck with Logan all this time!!! We saw that everywhere in Rome - even on man hole covers:
Once again we walked through the streets and they were very hot and crowded. We came through a street and suddenly we saw this:
This is the Trevi Fountain. It is absolutely breathtaking!!!! I didn't get very many pictures and they aren't as good as I would have liked. But we were supposed to go back after we ate dinner and get pictures after dark. Unfortunately, we didn't go back. The fountain is really lit up at night.
We finally got to our last restaurant in Italy. It was probably my favorite. It was called:
We stood around outside for a while. While we were waiting we decided to look at the menu. (Even though our meals were pre-planned just for us) Here's what the salad page looked like:
There were pictures all over the walls in this restaurant of people like Dean Martin and Audrey Hepburn. I took pictures of their pictures! We weren't all that hungry because of how recently we'd had lunch. I did eat some of the food, but I mostly enjoyed the atmosphere. We were all exhausted, but we laughed and enjoyed our last evening together.
After we left we started walking again. (It was getting dark but I was still sweating like a pig.) We all walked to Hard Rock Cafe'. It looked so much like the ones in the US, but we still enjoyed it. We walked around and took pictures. I felt a little awkward walking among the paying customers, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. But I was able to get quite a few. Here's one of my favorites - I imagine Kelli's too!!!
Here's one of Logan's
It was a really neat place. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...We were right across the street from the American Embassy:
After HRC we split up. Some of our group went back to the hotel, the rest continued sight-seeing. It was too expensive to sight-see independently in Rome because you either had to take a bus, subway, or taxi back to the hotel. On top of which, I am very uncomfortable on public transportation. I won't even take a city bus in Houston downtown for jury duty. And, I was so afraid of getting lost and not finding my way back to where we were supposed to be. On top of which, I was so exhausted every night, that I was more than ready to get back to the hotel, take a shower, and rest. We also wanted to get all of our stuff packed up and ready to go very early on Monday.
Obviously, we made it through Ike in one piece. It could have been so much worse. However, I feel like I've written too much for one reading. I'll go in to more detail tomorrow.
Knit On and More Later,
Shama D
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