Leaving Rome - ciao!

7.4.11

Happy Birthday America! Well the fourth of July has never been quite like this for me. I’m on a train from Rome to Florence as I type this and as I watch the tall trees, rich green foliage and fields of yellow flowers speed past my window I can’t help but wonder if you are eating cotton candy at an Independence Day parade. Are you going to see fireworks? Have a cookout? Well, whatever you do, I hope you enjoy and you are reminded of the riches of freedom we have in Christ and also in the country we reside in until we reach Heaven - when we will at last be truly home.

When we arrived at the train station, less than a block from the little hotel where we stayed while in Rome, we weren’t exactly sure which train to get on. Things here are not very clearly marked and the people who walk around the train station helping people find things don’t work at the train station and expect you to pay them when they help you. People do anything here to make money off of tourists. We stayed clear from those guys. Eventually we found the right train and walked down to one of the last cars in order to find seats. We sat down in two empty seats and shortly after we started moving realized that we were supposed to be sitting in an assigned seat number. We took out our tickets and.... we were sitting in exactly the right place! Oh, God is good. He guides and directs us even when we are completely clueless! It is so comforting to know that the Spirit of God counsels over us - even we don’t know what to ask for. We often have no idea what we need, but the Lord knows AND he delights in giving good gifts to His children. I am so humbled by this. I feel the Lord has been so near to us and has protected us and guided us - undoubtedly more than we even realize. By HIS grace, we are leaving Rome without being pick-pocketed!

Kelly and I woke up this morning, our last day in Rome, and we walked less than a block to this little cafe we call “first gelato” - as you may guess, it’s where we had our first gelato in Rome. We ordered some food and ate off of each other’s plates. I wonder if people look at us and think that Americans have strange eating practices. I’m guessing not one local would want to share a meal with either of us for fear we would eat off their plate, too! We both ordered a cappuccino - rather surprising for Kelly, a non-coffee drinker - but she needed to have the experience of trying one. I was sooo proud of her! But..... I ended up drinking both which explains my slightly increased level of nervous energy at the m.m..mm..moment. We enjoyed a croissant, ham and cheese omelet, and AMAZING toasted bread.

When we get to Florence, we will check into a hotel which will be home for the next 2 nights. We have decided that the trick for traveling internationally from city to city is always staying at a place that is close to a metro train or bus stop. If you can learn to use the public transportation and plan your days well, you can cover much of a fairly large city in only a few days. We anticipate Florence will be a bit of a slower pace than Rome. We basically walked from 4pm to 10pm yesterday.... and hey, we even found a bad part of town! Don’t worry, mom... we walked behind other tourists that were arm-in-arm with their boyfriends... a strategy I’m convinced really works. If you’re with a man here, they don’t bother you. The other thing is .... there are a lot of British and Australian people who stand outside of tourist attractions like the Colosseum and the Vatican handing out flyers and talking up these big crazy parties that go on every night. When Kelly and I passed this one guy in front of the Colosseum - which we now refer to as “the hot mess” - he said to us in his suave, Australian accent, “Hey girls do you want to party tonight?” Kelly and I looked at each other, both knowing what the other was thinking and we just looked at him with the “I don’t speak English” face and a slight shake of our heads, smiled and kept walking. “You don’t speak English?” he said. “You sure look Australian.” Yup. That’s it. best compliment ever. You know how badly I’ve wanted to be Australian?!? Since I was a little girl my sister and I used to practice accents and once of our favorites was the Australian one.

Here’s a picture of the “hot mess” - he’s in the center of the picture with the white t-shirt. that’s his bottle of “juice” on the rock.

ooooh! internet time running out! gotta go! more later!