Today the sun rose over Rome at 06:37, shortly before my arrival, and it will set at 19:47.
The Ave Maria Bell ought to ring at 20:00.
Happy feast of St. Liborius.
Passport check went alright, quickly. As it turns out, the fellow sitting next to me on the plane saw I was posting to this blog. He works for a Catholic information entity and he recognized it.
Taxi, right away. Nice driver. We had a good chat coming in.
Things went smoothly. However, had I arrived later in the day…
Due to the national air transport strike announced for 9th April, from 10:30am to 2:30pm, some flights could be delayed or cancelled.
Passengers are therefore invited to check the status of their flight with their airline. pic.twitter.com/vGjD3XVlW1— Aeroporti di Roma (@AeroportidiRoma) April 8, 2025
And there is a national railway strike coming up.
So, Roman streets are bumpy, what can I say.
Again, from a moving cab. The side of the Church of San Nicola in carcere, built into an ancient temple. Though the cab window.
Time for some breakfast.
They didn’t have any of my preferred simple cornetti, so I got one with some pistachio cream.
Here’s the visual jasmine report (and I don’t mean the Jesuit).
WORK has started in The Parish™! I didn’t think it would start until long after Easter. This restricts the use of the nave, but it will be worth it. I’ve seen some photos of what is being uncovered as years… lots of years… of smoke, etc., is being gently removed. No one is better at this than Italians.
Back in the Campo again…
Tonight for supper I had due spaghetti and a little roulade of chicken and prosciutto, rosemary and veal filling accompanied by a lovely “bio” Chianti with no additives. The artichokes are in, but I’ll probably go to one of my favorite restos for those. Rosina near The Parish™ does an incomparable job. And right now FAVE (“fá-vey”)! Raw fave, fave beans, out of the pods with pecorino and cold white wine… heaven. And there’s fave in tegame! So many options. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have liver and with fave and that nice Chianti.
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This post made my day yesterday!
P.S. The option to log-in and comment was not available yesterday.
The strikes you mention brings to mind the year our youngest daughter, freshly married, along with her husband flew to Venice in the fall of 2014 to do her doctoral research. We went to visit her in May 2015 for a two week vacation. Because of strictly enforced immigration laws in Europe her husband could only stay for two months at a time, otherwise he would never be allowed in Europe again. Anyway, on the evening before we left we learned the vaporetti (sp?) drivers were on strike starting about 6 AM in the morning. There was an independent water bus still running, but by the time it got to our stop, it was full. Since our plane left relatively early, we lucked out and got seats on a water taxi that raced across the lagoon to Marco Polo. I lost my hat, but the driver made a wild turn and retrieved it. I was very grateful until I had time to notice how badly it smelled.
By the way, my daughter studied women in a Venetian convent. In the course of her research she read a letter written by a 17th century bishop complaining that no one paid any attention to the Church’s prohibition on forcing women into convents. Since my daughter was expecting by the time of our visit, we learned that an easy way to jump the line at a good restaurant was to have an expecting mother in your party!