Forza Roma!

Last night Italy played France in what appeared to my low level of soccer/football-awareness to be an important match. In the spirit of the evening, I went out to an Irish pub (with people who are really Irish!) to watch it. Game night is game night, the world around, and I had a great time gesticulating and yelling at the television with all the Italians in the pub. Luckily, Italia triumphed over her Gaullic opponents, saving the job of the head coach and one of the Italian players. Outside, people were honking their horns and waving Italian flags, shouting "Forza Italia!" at the top of their lungs. It was a wild night.

This morning began sunny and hot, more so than any day I have experienced in the week I have been here. We attempted more recruiting for the tours today, but again got no bites, not even for the free Pantheon tour. After my resounding success at the Pantheon yesterday, I was disappointed to be again thwarted in my attempts to explain the Forum. I hope that soon we will get some interested tourists, who can see how good we are firsthand, and then pass us on to their friends. I am preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. Either way, being in Italy is such a treat that I can't complain too much; standing in the shadow of the Colosseum or in St. Peter's Square sure beats standing around anywhere else. I am finding a bit more time to see the rest of the Roma Homa I love, and took Dara to Il Gesu to show him Gaulli's unbelievable ceiling. It is my favorite ceiling in all of Rome, which is a considerable honor, given that the Sistine Chapel and Santa Maria Maggiore are both contenders. Still, the angels and demons escaping the bounds of the ceiling of the Gesu are an artistic feat beyond even Michelangelo's imagination. I wanted to go into the apartments of St. Ignatius, which are next door, but they were closed. As if in return for being denied entrance into the apartments, however, who did I find on the next bus I rode but Father Ignatius, the Ugandan priest I met last Sunday on the way to St. Peter's! It was beyond serendipitous, and Father Ignatius laughed his deep belly laugh when I told him where I had just been.

I never cease to be amazed by Roma and all her citizens and sites.