Here we are about halfway through Lent. I always look forward to Lent as a time of reflection, prayer, acts of charity and kindness, a time where I am really going to make some progress on growing closer to God -- and becoming a better person. I know it's not a time of self-help - which I've said enough to my kids that my daughter commented that a newly proposed Lenten action is something I should be doing anyway, but, as I answered her, it's easier if I am doing it for God.
This action is fasting from buying single-use plastics. I had just read some doomsday article about China reducing the trash it imports. Understandably- surely they have enough of their own. In addition, I have been reading Beverly Cleary books with the four year old. While reading the Henry books, I am struck by some of the differences in daily life between now and then. Third grade Beezus drags her four year old sister Ramona around town. They gnaw on cabbage cores. Henry takes out the kitchen wastebin and dumps it in the trashcan without it ever being in a bag. He feeds Ribsy raw horsemeat that he buys from the butcher once a week. He saves pennies. He delivers newspapers on his bike - not like our newspaper guy who throws them out his car window without slowing down.
This isn't really a Lenten promise - my new fast this year, in addition to sweets and wine, is fasting from buying things we don't need, which has a more spiritual dimension because the savings will go to charity. For instance, I ordered online 4 sets of new twin sheets and four new towels and washcloths two weeks ago before my son and his four friends from school came here for spring break. When I was washing all the linen in preparation for their visit, I realized how old and threadbare everything looked. But the kids arrived before the linens, so I had all the beds remade and the towels with hydrogen peroxide bleach marks freshly washed and folded before I had the new ones in hand ready to go. I took them back and the $100 will go to charity. I also took back a sweater I bought for me when I was shopping for sheets. I still think we "need" new linens - but I also want to get rid of the bunk beds and get new beds. A couple of the mattresses we have are hand-me-downs from my in-laws. They have served us well, but the bunk beds won't survive another move. Still, we have two more years here, and by that time we may not need three sets of bunks in the house. We'll see where we are when we get to that point.
Also for Lent, I thought I might do a better job at morning reflections. They are still not a routine item. But in the spirit of reflecting on life and love, here are a few more photos from our trip - mostly as aids to my own memory, as usual. This photo-log picks up at the end of our second day in Rome, actually our first whole day.
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| The city fountains are still apparently safe to drink from even though the pipes may be centuries old. |
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| Our last church of the day was Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, one of my favorites. |
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| The beautiful statue of Sta Cecilia in death over her tomb. |
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| In the crypt below the main church - this church has some well-preserved ruins. |
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| A little chapel has been restored beneath Cecilia's tomb |
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| A bone laying in a niche in the crypt - human or animal? |
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| St. Valentine's Day was being celebrated on our second day in Rome |
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| A little fire pit outside the restaurant where we ate dinner - Carlo Menti's in Trastevere. This was our most delicious and best priced meal. Three cheers for Trastevere. |
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| On the train on morning three - heading to Assisi. Someone was very excited to ride a train. |
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| Arrival in beautiful Assisi. First we visited the church in the lower town where the little church were St. Francis was praying when God told him to rebuild his church is located inside a bigger church. It also has a side chapel over where St. Francis died. No Photos allowed. |
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| After a bus ride up the hill to the medieval town, we had to walk a few blocks to our little hotel. |
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| Albergo Assisi- We had practically the whole place to ourselves. I had originally booked another location, more of a bed and breakfast, in the country, but when the owners learned we weren't arriving by car, they suggested we stay at their other property in town. It was simple but convenient, and each room had the prayer of St. Francis and the Our Father framed and hanging in the room. |
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| The girls had their own room. |
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| A room with a view - of the garden |
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| View through a gate of the Umbrian hills. |
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| Flowers for mom. |
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| This was our prettiest day of the week - bright sunshine, and deep blue skies. |
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| A friendly villager |
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| At the church of San Francesco |
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| Photos inside were discouraged, but here is a quick photo of the lower church. |
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| A moment to run and be loud |
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| Inside the upper church with Giotto's frescos of the life of St. Francis |
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| My favorite- The Sermon to the birds |
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| Posing outside San Francesco |
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| A place to buy puerco |
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| The church of San Rufino - this is the baptismal font where both St. Francis and St. Clare were baptized. |
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| Claire and Clare |
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| Outside of St. Clare's childhood home |
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| Heading up the hills - San Rufino in the background |
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| Heading up to Rocca Maggiore, the castle overlooking Assisi |
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| A view of the town |
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| Looking through a castle staircase opening |
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| Practicing to be royal |
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| Heading up the tower |
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| The view from above |
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| Which Renaissance person would you like to be? |
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| Not sure why Jesus is on this stone |
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| The moon was out early |
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| A gum bedazzled fence |
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| Lookng down a driveway |
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| In the crypt of the Church of St. Clare. No pictures at her tomb. This is St Clare's clothing - and her hair is in the silver box. A very pretty blond color |
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| St. Francis's clothing. The sock has blood from his stigmata. In the box on the bottom, there is a salve that Clare made to apply to his wounds. |
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| Inside Chiesa Santa Chiara. The cross of San Damiano - that spoke to Christ - is hanging in the back. |
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| Guarding Santa Chiara |
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| Time to run and be loud again |
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| Sunset on the way back to our hotel |
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| Goodnight, Assisi! |
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| Morning train to Florence. Our oldest son joined us for a late dinner in Assisi after he had class all day. There weren't a lot of restuarants still open when he arrived, so we ate by the bus stop - a forgettable meal, but we were all really hungry so it tasted good. There were no bad meals in Italy. |
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| Our fanciest apartment - in Firenze, a two bedrrom apartment with a kitchen and a loft in an apartment building with a wrought iron cage elevator - very fun. The girls got the biggest room this time. |
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| The view from outside our apartment - the Duomo at one end of the block, the Ospedale degli Innocenti at the other end. |
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| Saturday afternoon in Florence - outside the duomo. We went to mass on Sunday morning there, right under the done, so we did not go inside on Saturday. |
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| Street art - I think this is Brunelleschi looking at his dome. |
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| Our architect tour guides. |
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| Girls with braids. |
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| Perseus outside of the Uffizi - here I made a mistake by not buying the tickets online. We ended up going to buy a combo ticket for the Uffizi, Boboli Gardens, and the Pitti Palace, (which we didn't really spend any time inside - other than to say, here it is!) in order to get a reservation. |
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| You need shades to pose in front of Ponte Vecchio. Lots of crowds in Florence - including other American college students. Ben ran into some friends here. |
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| Admiring the gems in the shops along the bridge |
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| Still celebrating Valentine's Day or just flowers to be pretty |
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| College student abroad outside Boboli Gardens. |
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| Enjoying the view and the sunny skies. |
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| The Bargello - a former prison, now an art museum. On Sunday after Mass, we split forces - Ben and I and LK toured this museum, while Dan and the youngers went up the tower at the Duomo. Then the girls and I walked around Florence while the boys went to the Duoma museum. We wanted to get fresh air, exercise, and shop the flea market, while they examined the exhibits on architecture. |
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| Outside of Pitti Palace - Some musicians were playing Vivaldi in the piazza. |
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| More Boboli Gardens - the Medici's back yard |
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| View of Florence from Boboli Gardens |
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| The Medici's court jester |
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| Treats keep everyone happy |
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| Caravaggio's Medusa at the Uffizi |
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| But not as many admiring this nativity |
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| Crowds in front of Botticelli |
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| I am forgetting who's Annunciation this is... |
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| The street restaurant where we ate dinner - the best part: Limoncello after dinner. I also tried the Aperol Spritz aperitif that everyone was having around town, as Ben pointed out, but it wasn't my favorite |
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| Sunday morning - looking back down our street. |
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| The Ospedale - a nice looking orphanage |
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| We had time to visit the Accademia before Mass -- and before the crowds |
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| Looking at David while Michelangelo's Pieta - one of three we saw. |
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| Hall of marble - student work |
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| Under the duomo |
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| Sunday Mass |
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| My breakfast seed bread |
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| View from the cathedral bell tower |
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| Inside the baptistry |
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| And the famous baptistry doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti |
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| Donatello's Magdelene - at the duomo museum |
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| Michelangelo Pieta number two - at the duomo museum |
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| From the piazza Michelangelo on the other side of the Arno - we had to walk fast to make up for spending so much time at the flea market - where we only bought a couple leather bound journals. |
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| We met up again at Santa Croce - burial place of many famous people |
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| A tournament of Calcio was happening - the barbaric original verson of soccer. |
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| Dante's tomb |
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| The tomb of Michelangelo |
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| Inside Santa Croce |
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| The courtyard outside Santa Croce - who would know that a large crowd was just on the other side of the wall |
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| Pageantry |
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| The end of a wonderful day in Dante's hometown. |
After watching a little Calcio Fiorentino, we had to hoof it to the hotel to pick up our bags and make it to the train station. We had hoped to visit San Lorenzo to see some more Michelangelo sculptures, but our time was tight, so we went straight to the station - and thank goodness we got there with time to spare. In our biggest travel snafu of the trip, I realized I accidentally booked the train tickets from the OTHER Florence train station - I didn't even realize there were two stations. No trains would arrive at the station before our train left, so we ran out and grabbed two taxis - we wouldn't fit into one - and rushed across town. It cost us about $50, but we made it with time to spare because our train was late. That left us time to eat some bread, salami, and cheese my husband had picked up at the market while watching calcio. He also had some chocolates and kinder eggs that lightened everyone's mood. And I succumbed to getting a cafe at McDonalds at the train station - our one purchase from that chain because it was the only option at that station, which was really a suburban outpost - which explains why the tickets were cheaper!
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| Phew, we made it back to Rome! After the mistake at the train station, the late train, and a long wait for a bus into Rome from Termini, we were late checking in at our last place, an AirBnB with antiquities inside the apartment. I feared an extra charge, but the lady was nice. Time for a little Sambuca before bed. |
Posting this has taken a long time, partly because of our busy schedule since we returned (we had company three weekends in a row - first Navy friends, our son and his college friends, and then one of my college friends and her family. I really should have kept those sheets), and partly because we have over 3000 photos from the trip since four of us were operating cameras. I took a lot of photos of art at the Uffizi, most of which are off-kilter and out of focus because of dim lighting. I intend to get the photos organized and do a photo book, but I have yet to do that with our Ireland photos from 2017, so I don't think it will happen this time either. I'm still planning to sum up our last two days in Rome, too.
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| While I had Sambuca, the kids ran down the street to get gelato at Della Palma, gelateria with 100s of flavors, all delicious. |
In the meantime, I will try to get back on track with my schedule so that I can go to bed early and get my morning meditations done.
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| Della Palma had a display of ginormous Chupa chups - a favorite |
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| Our apartment was right around the corner from the Pantheon |
