Rome: DAY 70 CHURCH GOING

SEVENTIETH DAY

CHURCH GOING

November 22, 2005 

The response to my blog yesterday was so strong that I am forced to tell you that the plumber came and restored the heat late in the evening.  It is lucky that he got here because it went to freezing last night and tonight is supposed to be even colder.  We put off IKEA for another day because the truck we wanted to rent from Avis was not available until tomorrow.  I think that was all for the best because we know that going out past the Ring Road is going to be hell on wheels. In the meantime, everyone in
San Francisco is telling me that they are having the best fall in history with temps in the 70’s and golf at its finest.  Oh well, those folks aren’t in Rome. 

We have discovered this wonderful walking and talking guide, Nancy.  Every Monday and Tuesday she leads tours of every kind around different parts of Rome.  The format is that everybody gathers around a predetermined spot at 10AM.  The size of the group is about 15 and Nancy leads us around that piece of turf for about 3 hours.  At the end of the tour everyone is invited to stay for the no host lunch in the area.  Kim has gone before and raved about it, but I thought it would be just another guided tour.  I am glad to say that I was mistaken.  We were investigating small churches from the Piazza Barbarini to the Trevi Fountain.  She not only described the art in the churches in a manner that held our attention, we covered four, but the history and archeology as well -  very informative, indeed and fun.  She has a coterie of faithful marchers, all women, and they are devoted to her. I won’t recount the particulars, but her conversation is intellectual, sophisticated and understandable. Rome is at its best.  In the various churches we saw the supposed head of John the Baptist, the Madonna of the Well (a tile with her face on it miraculously appeared in the well in the 1500’s).  If you drink from this well you will be cured of your aches and pains and I took lots of water and a relic of the cross at the Oratorio of the Crucifix.  Our guide Ms. Nancy pointed out that if you combined all of the relics of the cross found in Rome, you would have a Sequoia.  After John the Baptist’s head what is there left to see?  We repaired to the restaurant Abruzzi for lunch and had wonderful antipasti and a fab Spinach and Ricotta crepe.  Kim is in heaven as we ride back down the hill to our little castle by the Tiber. 

Eating in Rome starts a little later than at home.  Breakfast is not important, a cup of coffee and a cornetto.  Lunch is late at about 1 or 1:30 PM and dinner never before 8PM and mostly later.  This suits me.  My favorite time to write is between 6:30 and 8:30PM.  I sit at my little kitchen table and write this blog while Kim is doing the cooking thing in our odd little Italian kitchen.  It is a favorite time and we talk all the while it is happening.  I know a couple of things I didn’t know before. The Herald Tribune is not covering sports, there is no television that I am hungering for, I don’t need a car here, the apartment is the right size, a flatter city is easier to walk around, and we should have more fountains in San Fran.