Loud fireworks for New Years Eve

Monday morning I woke up late, feeling pretty cruddy. I quickly decided that I was not going anywhere for the day. Dee and Chiara headed downtown about noon, and I then tried to nap, unsuccessfully. For the afternoon, I took it easy physically at my desk, working ahead on my lessons and also finishing the last two months of the history of the Institute for 2018, sending it off to Sorella Balzotti to add to the mission history. She said that I won the prize for the first on to submit their history. My part is about 40 pages, with lots of photos. Every couple of months, I use this blog to review what happened that was unusual or memorable, writing it up briefly and copying photos into a Word doc.

Finally I left the apartment in the late afternoon for a walk to the Chinese store to buy some paper towels, which were running low here. It was a pleasant surprise that my energy was enough for that, though I did feel really chilly. Later I drove down to the Jonio metro stop to pick up the girls after their afternoon adventures. Chiara was actually feeling the cold! On the way back we stopped to fill up with gas, and my credit card didn't work, yet again. It seems to be on and off these days, so I will start carrying another card with me until the new on arrives. So I just put in a 10€ bill to get the tank mostly full, good enough for now. While at the Esso station, our doorman Paolo got out of the car at the other pump. He came over and gave bacetti (kisses on the cheek, the traditional greeting here among friends) to Dee in the back seat.

The girls had gone to see the "church of the bones", which is a weird and fun place to go see here in Rome. Read up on it here -- Chiara was appropriately grossed out and amused. Then they walked past the Quattro Fontane (Dee's favorite) and did some jewelry shopping, followed by a trip to the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth), well known from the movie Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn. Unfortunately, the line was way too long, so they just saw it from a distance. Then they found a Brazilian sushi place nearby and had an interesting dinner -- fortunately I was not there, as raw fish is not my thing! Dee did make cook dinner for me when she got back, which was kind of her.

Chiara eating sushi

Fun decor at the restaurant

After we got home, I helped Wes and Alyssa install Acronis backup software on her laptop. I have a bunch of paid-up licenses to the software that I bought over the years whenever Frys had a huge rebate on the product. The product is highly recommended -- it has saved our bacon a number of times over the years. Wes installed TeamViewer on her laptop so that I could log onto it remotely and configure everything. Merry Christmas, Alyssa!

Fireworks started going off in the afternoon, with increasing frequency and intensity as the evening progressed. Some of them sound like artillery shells exploding nearby (in our piazza), shaking the ground. I am grateful for earplugs, but, if last year was any indication, we may not sleep until well after midnight. 2018 has been a wonderful year for us, completely spent here on a mission, with lots and lots of great memories.