And We’re Back

I took this picture in Assisi, which was indeed as magical as everyone told me it would be.

Our trip to Italy was amazing. It was awesome and inspiring and beautiful and fun and tiring and a dream come true.

There is a good chance that this blog might become an All Things Italy diary, but I’ll try not to make it too painful. Maybe I’ll figure out how to do little spurts of info, perhaps five things at a time.

So for today:

1. Yesterday on the flight home from Rome I watched FIVE movies and drank two glasses of wine. Because I could.

2. On the way over, I watched NONE movies because I was so paranoid about being exhausted from jet lag that I spent every moment of those nine hours either eating, drinking water or trying to sleep.

3. When we got off the plane in Rome, our friend Father Tim had arranged a driver to pick us up. Waiting for us was a man holding a sign  with our name, and then he lead us to a big black Mercedes that carried us from the airport to the city.

4. We were greeted by Fr. Tim, who asked if we could put our things down, freshen up in about ten minutes so we could walk over to the Papal audience in St. Peter’s Square. And the next thing I knew, Paul and I were sitting about twenty rows off of Pope Benedict’s left arm, watching him deliver his weekly address.

5. Finally: gelato. Lots of it.

We are glad to be home, but Rome is certainly captivating. We did lots of travel during our trip (Assisi, Pisa, Vicopisano and Viareggio) and when we came back after five days away, I felt so happy to be back at home in Rome.

And of course, now we are back at home home, and that feels even better.