Catacombs

Saturday was a fairly relaxed P-day. In the afternoon we did our first sightseeing since arriving in Rome, which should give you an indication that things are getting settled and fairly routine. We went with the Balzottis to see the Catacombs of Priscilla, which are less than a couple of miles from here and which we pass every day on our way to the Institute. Who knew? Dee did a Google search of things near our codice postale (zip code equivalent) and those catacombs popped up at the top of the list. There are about 8 miles of tunnels and 40,000 tombs in the walls, some which still have remains sealed inside. You can read about them here and here. The catacombs have art dating to 220 AD. One of Dee's favorite items was a wall plaque that included a typo. By the time the plaque maker gets to the fifth line of carving, he sure doesn't want to start over, so he just scratched it out a little and went on :) We took the tour, which involved a fair amount of walking, but fortunately my leg is doing quite well today. It was fascinating, and we may go again to get the English version of the tour instead of the Italian one we did today. Sometimes it helps to get a tour in English, and sometimes it doesn't -- depends on how heavy the accent of the tour guide is! <g>

We also had some time at home for paperwork and catching up on some stuff. We tested the chops of our electrical circuits by running the heaters in both bedrooms while also using a hair dryer. No circuit breaker popped, which is excellent news! It's rare for us to have someone sleeping in the other bedroom, and we haven't needed heat at night for a while, but fortunately we can heat both bedrooms if necessary. We also bought some pizza bianca at the farmer's market right outside our door and devoured it.

In the evening we went down to Conad to buy some food, mostly for us, and to the Chinese store for some kitchen supplies. Conad tends to be more expensive than Lidl, our discount store, but it's convenient. Even though it's more expensive, some things are much cheaper than in the USA. For example, their store brand pasta is 39 cents for a 500 g (1.1 pound) bag. It's always fun to see what they have at the Chinese store. This time we found tiny ziplock pill bags, which are handy for all manner of things. We were able to use our new chip-and-pin credit cards, although the new PINs that I had set didn't work -- we had to use the default PIN they had set at the factory. In any case, it's nice to know that the cards are working.

We just had transfers, so our sister missionaries are down to two: Sister Ricks is now a senior companion and she has a greenie from the United States, Sister Bryant. Sister Ricks is top notch, and we're expecting that Sister Bryant is wonderful, too. 

Tomorrow is a fairly easy domenica (Sunday), particularly compared to last week: no lessons or talks. It's Fast Sunday, so we're looking forward to hearing testimonies. We love being in this ward. However, next weekend I get to teach Seminary, Institute, and Sunday School. Dee will teach FHE. Nice!!