Friday, February 29, 2008

Roma

I faced death squarely in the face when I let Jason drive me to the airport. His U-turn across 4 lanes of traffic was quite interesting.

Leap Year day in Roma /Catania, it doesn't get any better than this!

For those of you keeping score, Contreras family 2 - British Air 0! Neither one of us lost any baggage at Heathrow Airport in London on our two separate trips! This doesn't sound like much unless you know about the black hole of luggage that British Air has become.

Random Thought of the Day: As many of you know, I taught Criminal Justice at Rio Mesa H.S. for many years, my favorite class by the way. For many years I held a very hard stance on punishment for convicts. I have now made a change in my core beliefs in this area and thoroughly believe that all convicts should be given a conjugal visit if they can put together a streak of let's say 57 days of good behavior. I believe this would make things much more positive for all people involved in the penal system.

The Pantheon is my absolute favorite building in the known universe.

Trevi Fountain
We did promise to come back by throwing coins into it two years ago.

Early morning at Vatican City at St. Peter's Basilica

Laurie in front of Michaelangelo's Pieta.
When we visited this sight two summers ago the crowd was 50 people deep and wider than the scope of this photo. 

Two pilgrims visiting the Pieta

This Holy Water fountain in St. Peter's is bigger than any other one in Christendom!

This reminds me, I went to Confession at St. Peter's Basilica today.
The Sacrament of Confession binds the priest to secrecy but not the penitent. That being said, I must relate that after telling the priest my sins he asked me two questions. The first was to find out if I help the poor (thank you United Way)? I gave him a hardy, YES! The second question was if I have ever helped a woman get an abortion? I gave him a hardy, HUH? Random and bizarre indeed! I doubled the penance prayers he assigned me in hopes of getting Brian FitzGerald to heaven some day!

Laurie's first cappuccino of the trip.

SPQR
"The Senate and the Roman People"

2 comments:

DPLassen said...

Gee, if that was the crowd in front of the Pieta (which I've almost seen in two visits), maybe you should have tried your luck with the Sistine Chapel, which in my visits has always been like Grand Central Station with better artwork (and fewer trains).

Hope you're having a great time in my favorite city.

itzbfitz said...

I'm experiencing some whiplash, as powerful Hail Marys direct from the Vatican slammed the brakes on my "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Did you visit w/my favorite priest, padre Juan Jose? And I'm with Dave on the Sistine Chapel. Couldn't see much when I was there, and my strongest memory was olfactory--sweaty, tall Germans, I think.