March 17, 2018 - Settling in to our New Old City

It is Sunday and time to blog. This last week, we have started to slow our tourist pace down a bit, and tried to get settled in here more as locals, and get more comfortable with our new surroundings. It felt good to slow down and get oriented to things like local grocery stores and nearby gelaterie (of course!). We all three went to church last week, and it was an interesting experience. A portion of the ward is made up of people who are here from the United States (mostly Utah) to work on the LDS temple that has been being built in Rome for several years, now. There are some couples and families, and they come and go for different jobs in the process. There are also many local Italians in the ward, as well as plenty of tourists, so it has the feeling of a rather diverse and transient group. Everyone was nice and helpful, and they translate the meetings on headsets for those who don't speak Italian, or even have some classes in English. The bishop is Italian, and he has one American counselor and one Italian counselor.  The American counselor is here sub-contracting on the temple, and his wife is the Relief Society President. Even though there are three wards in Rome, our ward still meets across town from where we live, and many members in our ward live quite far from the center of town, so we may not get to socialize with the members as much as we had hoped. But Hannah turns 12 in a few weeks, and will join the Young Women's program, and then she will have weekly activities to attend with them, which we are all looking forward to!









We are lucky that this lovey little gelateria/pasticceria is in our building, on the ground floor, just below us! The best gelato we have had in town, yet. But, of course, we do need to keep comparing, just to be sure.....


We have been out doing several walking tours, at a nice leisurely pace.






Last Saturday, we happened upon a wedding at the Trevi Fountain. There was such a crowd, it was truly nuts. It was a really nice day, after lots of cold weather, and you could feel that the whole town was out for springtime and strolling. Then we headed to the Spanish Steps as evening approached, and just happened to be in one of the best places possible to catch a fantastic sunset, with all of the rest of Rome out enjoying the evening!











Such a beautifully perfect evening! We walked from there to Piazza del Popolo (or People's Square), a great public gathering place. It is nice to see that a place once used for public executions, now has a much more pleasant use.......bubbles and music!


It was fun to see everybody out and about.













Romulus and Remus oversee everything in the Piazza.




we are not sure who these statues are, but they were beautiful in the evening light around the piazza.


Then a peek at the Fiume Tevere (Tiber River), on the way home.







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