Vatican twice
Thursday morning we got up early to leave at 7:30am for an appointment at the Vatican Excavation office (Ufficio Scavi). After a late night, it was definitely hard to leave our beds. Tickets for this tour are hard to get -- only a few people are allowed per day, with reservations made months ahead of time. We took the Metro all the way across town, with about 15 minutes of walking on each end. At that hour, it is often faster and always easier than driving. Basically, we had a guided tour beneath the basement (grotto) of the Vatican, going back to the old cemetery (necropolis) on which it was built. There are lots of crypts, discovered in the 1940s, including the one holding Peter's bones. As with anything of that age, it is not possible to know for sure that it was Peter's tomb, but the story is fairly plausible. I read a great book entitled The Bones of St. Peter a few years ago, which brings the mystery story alive. There are several levels of cathedrals built right on the spot over the centuries, including the current main altar in St. Peter's. It was surprisingly warm and humid down below, which our guide said was intentional to preserve the ancient frescoes. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour, which we had never done before. Surprisingly, this was all found when Pope Pius XII wanted to LOWER THE FLOOR of the basilica in about 1940.
From there we headed back on the Metro. Dee was really tired and her knee was hurting, so she went directly to Institute for the day, which was half way home and much less walking. Karen, Dave, and I went home. Karen is still suffering from a cold, but she wasn't about to miss stuff. Both Karen and Dave slept a while on the subway home.
We relaxed at home for a while, then drove down to the Institute. I brought a change of clothes for Dee, as we didn't wear missionary garb to the tour. From the Institute, I took Karen and Dave on the subway over to the Vatican museum for a 2pm guided tour. The weather continues gorgeous, and the line was shorter than I have ever seen it, but they had skip-the-line tickets anyway. Once I got them inside, I came back to the Institute. Fortunately the Repubblica stop on subway Line A is right around the corner from the Institute.
We had a pretty relaxed afternoon at the Institute, which was very welcome. I worked on my lessons, but we were both very tired. After their three-hour tour of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's basilica, Karen and Dave took the subway directly home and took it easy for the evening. Karen got to sleep by 8pm and would sleep for eleven hours, which was very good for her.
Our evening at the Institute was fun and different. Anziano Mansell was in Pescara to get his permesso renewed, so Anziano Smith was with two other missionaries, who needed to go teach a lesson in the evening at Roma 2. So they left him there with us, with me effectively being his companion for the evening. Andrea, a long-time non-member participant at the Institute, had a missionary lesson there also, which went quite well. He is now dating Almendra, our Peruvian returned missionary, and suddenly he has gotten much more interested in the church. Way to go, Almendra! She is an awesome gal.
For English class we had two new students, Saima from Pakistan and Tobia from Rome. Tobia had come once to Taco Tuesday a few weeks ago. They were both doing well in our English conversations, and we had a lot of fun. I was co-teacher with Anziano Smith. Saima is a fashion designer, having recently finished an internship designing mens' shoes at Ferragamo, and we had her describe her work. At one point, I replied "yep, gotcha" to Tobia to indicate that I understood what he said. That led to a discussion of American slang, such as gotcha, gonna, wanna, etc. Tobia's mom knows a lot English, and she told him those words were wrong. We agreed that they are technically incorrect, but everyone uses them and understands them. It was a very enjoyable hour.
Several of our GANS were there playing cards, and Tobia joined them after class.
By 9pm, Anziano Smith's two temporary companions were nowhere to be seen. I contacted them and they were running late, so we agreed to meet them at their apartment, which would be faster. That worked out ok, but we didn't home until 10pm, by which point Karen and Dave were already asleep. It wasn't surprising, given how full the last two days had been.
