FAIR MORMON CONFERENCE

In May the Stake put on a FAIR Mormon Conference. Camile Fronk was one of the speakers. I know Sister Fronk from watching her on the BYU channel. She is a professor at BYU. She gave a lecture on the women in the Bible. 

VISIT FROM COUSIN CLAUDIO

I never thought I would get so many visitors while living here. Latest one was from Claudio, my cousin Bruno's son. I first met Claudio at my nephew's wedding in 2013. Claudio now lives in Germany, but was in Rome for a friend's wedding. We met over lunch and did some catching up.

VIA APIA WAY WITH CATHERINE

On Catherine's last day in Rome, we took the bus to Via Appia Antica. I showed her the ruts where the ancient chariots rolled along this road. The Appian Way was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindici, Apullia, in southeast Italy.

PANTHEON

May 21st a trip to the Pantheon. I like the history behind this, now church.The Pantheon is on the site of an earlier building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa around 27 BC. This building was competed by the emperor Hadrian dedicated probable 126 AD. 

The Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unenforced concrete dome. 

Today it is a church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs.

The hole in the top of the cupola is the only source of light. 

COOKING CLASS WITH SILVIA

On May 20th, Cath, Ruth Stevens and I went to Silvia Guidara's house to learn how to make ravioli stuffed with pumpkin. We also made tiramisu. Once again, it was a lovely day. We ate under a great big tree, stuffing ourselves with pasta and dolci.

SPERLONGA

Probably the best part of the trip with Catherine was spending a few days in Sperlonga.
We rented a car and headed south, Not quite as far as Napoli. What a beautiful resort town. We stayed right on the beach. Nice accommodations. We got there in the afternoon and quickly changed into our bathing suites. We layed by the beach reading and sleeping. Not many people there because it's still not high season. We were good with that as we had the beach practically to ourselves.

 The water was a bit cool this time of year. I'm writing this in August, but we were there the end of May. The weather, however, was perfect, hot and sunny.

In the evening we walked the hilltop town. I bought a great pair of shoes and some leather goods.
The next day, we rented a boat and had a tour along the whole shore. Once again, we were the only ones on the boat. The rest of the day was spent on the beach again. I did go for a swim in the big pool.
We had dinner by the water and had a nice fish dinner. Expensive, but nice. We headed back to Rome that night. getting in quite late.

EATING AND SHOPPING WITH CATHERINE

If you can't spend your own money shopping, the next best thing is watching others shop. Catherine did her best to support the Italian economy! While shopping, we discovered Queen's Chips. A great place that sells only french fries in a huge cone and you have your choice of sauces. So good!