Exhaling at Home (Opus Gloriae)

Our view. Our walk.

Because it's too beautiful to keep to ourselves.

Colosseum II

Because you can't sit on ancient columns everyday.
But here, they're just laying around everywhere!

Colosseum

Lunch and the Lounge and dodging the downpour

We paused for lunch on the steps of a Museum on the Capitoline Hill, just before we had to dodge the downpour in the covered walkway. With lots of other people. And the umbrella guys popped up out of nowhere again, offering "a special price." And one of them was chased down by the polizia and dropped one of the good umbrellas.

As it continued to rain, we opted for more food at our favorite English-speaking restaurant, Scholar's Lounge. A welcome reprieve from dodging raindrops.
Took a photo of the ever-present law enforcement. Just because.

Then, on our way to the Colosseo, it rained more! The ubiquitous umbrella guys offered us ponchos for 2 euro (usually, they are twice that). So I bought two. Kids had fun acting like teletubbies. Or something. Heh.

Roman Forum

My kids did "Julius Caesar" this year, so it was awesome to see the very spot where those events occurred (no one would reenact "Friends, Romans, countrymen..." on the spot where it probably happened, but photos were taken; stay tuned for the Mulderink Vacation Video :-)

Finally, the temperature dropped below 80, which was very welcome. I was a little chilly.

Did you know they marked the spot?

The place where JPII was shot is now marked with white square stone.

And Papa Francesco blessed us and all our religious articles.

North American College

A walk in the cool rain.
For Mass in ENGLISH!
And BRUNCH!
And the view from the roof.
And then, a quick walk to St. Peter to see the Pope again ;-)
Pray for these fine young men, preparing for the priesthood: Joe, Nick, and Tim.

A lot of Rome looks like this.

Rob found shoes!

Heh. He will hate that headline.
But anyway, the girls shopped at H&M, then ran to church in the pouring rain to pick up Rob from Mass. But we were early, so we stayed for the Consecration and Communion, and tried to dry out a bit.

Then, back out into the rain to find a bus. On the way down the Corso, I spotted shoes for 29 euro! And Rob found a pair!

Huzzah!

Borghese Museum

A very long, hot walk to find shoes for Rob (whose shoes he has worn for about 6 years have officially collapsed from Roman roads) turned up nothing under $225. Hm.

We made it to the museum (where many of us were looking for a place to sit ;-) and then several hours of beautiful artwork.

As we left, the wind whipped up and actually made us cold! A dark, threatening sky that refused to rain.

But the umbrella guys were everywhere! When we came, we were told we wouldn't need an umbrella - as soon as there is a dark cloud, there are umbrella guys everywhere. And it's true. I don't know where they pop out of, but there they were!