Catacombs, Napoli pizza

Tuesday morning, Dee and Karen walked over to the small open market down the street to look for jewelry. There are a few vendors who know Dee well by now, Abdul from Senegal and Said from Bangladesh. Karen got a bunch of stuff, some for herself and some for family, doing a good job of negotiating price without even having to try hard!

Dee took the Metro to the Institute, leaving about 11am, to prepare for Taco Tuesday alone. Meanwhile, I took Karen and Dave to the Catacombs of Priscilla nearby. I was going to take the English tour with them, but was unable to find parking, so I just dropped them off. Then I ran back home and did some quick food shopping at Conad, because the rest of the week and weekend is shaping up to be crazy, all in a good way of course. Karen and Dave have the $10/day roaming plan from Verizon, but they usually leave their phones in airplane mode. They took my 4G hotspot device with them, turning it on after the tour to message me via WhatsApp. I left to get them before that, because it had been long enough, and I picked them up outside just a few minutes after their tour finished. They really loved the catacombs, even if the guide's English was hard to understand. From there we just continued on to the Institute, arriving in time to assist Dee with Taco Tuesday prep. Karen and Dave are very helpful and competent in the kitchen, so we were ready in time.

Our group was fairly large, with more people than seats around the table. It was fun to introduce the kids to my sister.

 

With Ugo

 

Fabrizio, a young dad (former GANS) who works nearby selling tickets for opera shows, was there. These shows are not at the Opera House, but at an Episcopal church around the corner. He had offered us free tickets many times, but we have never had a schedule that worked with the evening shows. After a few tries to figure out when the four of us could go, we realized that we will be back from Napoli Wednesday night just in time to see their most popular show, The Three Tenors (a takeoff on the original group). He was able to get us two free tickets, and two at a good price, so overall we will pay less than 20€ apiece. It will make for a long day Wednesday with an early Thursday, but why not? Hopefully our train back from Napoli will be on time.

At 3pm we had a student council meeting. Joyce is doing  a great job, calling regular meetings and running them well. We planned upcoming activities, including Halloween and November, and Dee shared some of her chocolate chip cookies with everyone. 

Halloween party flyer

Meanwhile, Karen and Dave walked over to the church Santa Maria degli Angeli, just around the corner. It has some amazing artwork and a fun meridian line, a sort of sundial, on the floor with light coming in from a hole above. That kind of thing is right up Dave's alley, as an engineer. They loved the church!

We left together about 4:30pm to catch our train to Napoli, leaving and arriving on time. We checked in at the hotel near the station (same one as in July) and went out for pizza at Pizzeria Pellone, about a 15 minute walk away. It is the favorite pizzeria of the young missionaries, and we even ran into a couple of them (Hernandez and Compas, here for their permessos) as we were leaving. Pizza Napoletana has a well-deserved reputation as the best, and each couple shared a pizza and were filled.  We also had to have some pastry on the way home.

Pizza Napoletana is very thin, large, with a definite raised edge. It is cooked at 400 degrees centigrade, which is over 800 fahrenheit, for about 90 seconds. It has to be made with a certain flour and water, too. It's terrific.

 

Dee called home to her dad, who had left a voice message that afternoon. It is indicative of the situation that he had no recollection of the call nor what it was about, although she was able to remind him. As always we are grateful to Lynn and Jim for helping and buffering them.