On Monday it was nonstop rain! What a minute! This is the reason we are here instead of Portalnd: To get out of the rain! I decided (before the rain) that I would venture down to the Cisco Office and work on the lab which consisted of an hour long commute using public transportation.
I took the Metro A line to Termini (central train station) and then took the Metro B line all the way to the end. The rain held off to a little sprinkle until just before I got there. A mighty gust of wind destroyed my umbrella towards the end! Whew! While working there the rain was relentless. Tru and kids soldiered on with homeschool and the rain finally let up by 3. I left the office around 5:40 and made it home by 7.
But let us talk about more exciting things! Sunday was glorious! We started the day going off to church. Our first sacrament meeting in Rome! So fun to see all the people here.
Everyone got their own translation device and I liked being in the first ever combined Elders Quorum. “More Power” said the old dude next to me after I told him: mi piachera che siamo tutti insieme”
We learned about a cool BYU program that had like 20 study abroad kids there and met the dude running it and his family. Looked like a cool experience for those kids.
Tivoli
About 30 min away by car is the town of Tivoli. Perched on top of the foothills it has an amazing view and is just so dang pretty. In this town is a 16th century villa that was owned by an important Cardinal. It is called Villa d’Este
We payed 16 € to get in (kids free again hurray!) after finding some crazy tight parking spot that cost 2€ to park. The main attractions? The gardens. Oh dear heavens they were just wonderful. It was the perfect time to go and fall in love again!
We decided we need to build some water features on the farm.
But can you guess what my favorite water feature was? Was it the goddess of fertility with her many breasts spouting out water?
Of course not, that would be silly. In fact it was none other than this incredible fountain here
I know what you are thinking: where can I get one of those for my own backyard? But let’s break this creature down. The head of what I think is a woman. The wings of a bird, the tail of a fish, the front legs of a horse and breasts spraying out water. Now I’m no Cardinal but I can appreciate magical creatures and this one is probably the most interesting one I’ve ever seen. I think it’s called a hippocampus from what I’ve seen from my extensive research. But I’ve never seen one quite like it.
Rome Temple
On our way home Trudie was still filling adventurous so we went to see what we could of the LDS Temple. It was beautiful but quite under construction so we couldn’t really get close to it.
Looks really nice. It will be exciting for this Temple to be completed. We only wish we could be here when it is. Perhaps we will need to come again next year!
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