From Rome to Florence

Each day brings its own surprises, and today was no exception to the rule. We got up at 7:00, met for breakfast at 8:00, and left the hotel headed for the worship service at 9:00. We allowed plenty of time, since the service began at 10:00. We had to take our large backpacks, since we were leaving for Florence after the worship service. We took the Metro for two stops, then walked a couple of blocks, arriving 15 minutes before the worship service…or so we thought.

When we entered the church building (looking like a group of five turtles with all of our belongings strapped to our backs, we noticed that the men were up in front of the group making appropriate comments prior to serving the Lord’s supper. How could we be late? It wasn’t until later that we learned that the previous night was the time that all of Italy “springs forward” one hour. We had the correct time for the service, but had no way of knowing that our watches were wrong by an hour. However, we arrived in time for the communion service and two songs. Their Bible class follows the worship service, and we stayed for that, even though we had no idea what they were studying since we know only a few words in Italian. We took out the Italian Bibles and turned to familiar passages (Psalm 23, Acts 2, etc.) and read silently to ourselves.

After the service we met some interesting people. One man introduced himself as being from Kentucky, and in the conversation we found out that he is the Chancellor of the college where our friend Joe Olson is a professor. Small world!

Also, we spent some time talking to Sandro Corazzo, and his son, Stefano, who work with the church in Rome. Brother Sandro insisted that we sign the guestbook, and he proudly showed us the names of several people we know who had worshipped with them in the past (including Pat Boone in 1962, and also Olympic star Bobby Morrow.) We also recognized the names of many of our friends.

Sandro has devoted his life to converting the Italian people, and has spent hours translating Bible commentaries into the Italian language. He took us to his office and showed us the copies he had finished translating. He told us the interesting story of his conversion. He was the first convert in Italy after WWII. His story is an interesting one, but much too long to include here. Such a delightful man! What a treat to meet him and spend a few minutes talking to him. His advice for us to take home to the Christians in the U.S. was, “keep the faith”.

We took the metro to the Termini Station where we had lunch and boarded our train to Florence. The girls are getting as good at reading the 24-hour clocks as they are at going through ticket turnstyles and quickly hopping off and on the Metro. We have even observed the girls ordering the flavor of their gelato in Italian. We have learned a few basic phrases, like “excuse me” or “thank you”. We have noticed that when we thank them, their reply is, “Prego”, which we think sounds a lot like a brand of spaghetti sauce. How much you learn in a few days!

The train trip to Florence was delightful. We hummed along through the Tuscany area at top speeds, and reached Florence in about an hour and a half. During the trip I worked on the blog for today, Olen played Phase 10 with Lacey Beth and Kara while Emily wrote in her journal. After the card game, Kara worked on the poem book she is writing about the trip. Lacey Beth, on the other hand, has become extremely interested in Rick Steves, since he recommended the pizza and the gelato we had last night. She asked to read the pages on Florence that I had removed from the book to help us on this trip.

We walked from the train station in Florence to our hotel and checked it. We are staying at a hotel located in a building that dates from the 18th century. In Italy we have not been able to get connecting rooms, so at night after we all shower and are ready for bed, Olen goes to the “triple” room and sleeps in the single bed in the room with two of the girls. The third girl stays in the other room with me. This way everyone feels safer, and we alternate who sleeps with Grandma. We don’t move any backpacks or personal belongings. We just make a person-swap at bedtime. It works nicely.

After checking in, we took a bus to the Piazzale Michaelangelo, which is a square that gives a hilltop view over into the city of Florence and the Arno River below. It was quite hazy this afternoon, so the view was not the best. We hope to go again if it is clearer tomorrow. We walked down the hill and into the old part of the city, stopping for dinner to enjoy the local delicacies. From there we headed toward our hotel for the night, but not before stopping to enjoy some local gelato. We are getting pretty educated in our gelato choices. This was good, of course, but we all rated this slightly below the gelato we had on our evening walk in Rome.

Another beautiful day. We are back in our hotel and are about to call it a day. What a successful day it has been. We are thoroughly enjoying spending time with these girls and sharing the world with them. Tonight Lacey Beth told us that she thinks we should just take them every time we go on one of our trips. Now…there is an idea…