Tuesday and Wednesday in Rome

Ben's dining room

Girls, horses & Policemen

Baptist Youth Group

Train through Borghese Park

Gates of the city

Borghese Gallery

It's a Kenley Original

Carol praying I don't get hit by a bus

Plaza Del Popolo

A small Basilica

No drop ceilings here.

Working off his student loans

Home of the poet Shelley

My scooter's here somewhere

The cars keep getting smaller

We just happened into this courtyard 

I'm ready for the buses

Our bus driver went on strike

Plaza Novona

Bernini made this statue

Another obelisk

Rafael

His tomb in the pantheon

Os in the dome of the Pantheon

Fountain in Plaza Navona

Caravaggio's St. Matthew hangs in a French Church

"He's Our SOB"

We went to the Borghese Gallery today.  This is the top museum in Rome.  This is the one that you need reservations for (they are booked thru May 15th Frank).  Scipion Borghese was the nephew of Pope Paul V and was made Cardinal for the sole purpose of stealing art for the Vatican.  This is where the term nepotism comes from.  He could steal whole art collections better than Govenor Ed Rendell (The Art Of The Steal).  Old nephew Scipy got to keep a lot of the loot for himself, especially some pieces thought  a little risqué or pagan for the Holy Sea. However, what goes around comes around and Napolean walked off with a sizable chunk of the collection which now hangs in the Louvre.  So for 16 euros you get to spend two hours with Caravaggio, Raphael, Bernini and Rubens.  

Roma In The Rain

Leaving Ben's flat; a quick stop at the shrine before crossing the street.


Went to see a Salvador Dali exhibit.
I know, it looks like the Republican hopefuls.


All the obelisks from Egypt are now in Rome.


Can you hear me in the back?



Italian Soup, Mm Mm Good.


Rome is one giant "Stair-Master.


Moses; I forgot why Michelangelo gave him horns.


The chains that bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in the Carcere Mamertino.



This fellow didn't tithe.


Every church is like an art gallery.


Real cannellini beans.

Arrived in Roma

We arrived in Roma after the wonderful nine hour Airbus 303 cattle call.  The plane actually had about thirty empty seats.  Forget about the free wi-fi, what you need for these long trips is a Propofol IV Infusion.  Short of total intravenous anesthesia, nothing can blunt the pain of having some elderly Delta-Dawn blowhard  talk for seven hours to a complete stranger in the row behind us at 65 decibels.  I now know more about her life than I do CP's.  She spoke with a southern-whine that bypassed my cerebral cortex and drilled into my brainstem like retinal angiography.  Her bloviating wit managed to clear out the other three passengers in her row allowing her to stretch out for a one hour nap after the eighty one year old ex-pat guy she was talking to feigned death.  Rows ten to twenty would have gladly dropped the loud-ugly-american out the door over the Azores but we all held our tongues till we were on the airport tram where we all let out a group WTF.  Luckily, Delta-Dawn was in the next tram and couldn't hurt us any more.


It's raining and cool here in Rome.  We had a nice nap and are sitting on Ben's patio just enjoying the eternal city.

A Miracle In Fletcher

It is a miracle, I found a good book at the Branch Library.  Three Free Sins seems a lot like the writings of Larry Crabb.  However, I didn't find Larry Crabb's book as enjoyable as Three Free Sins.  Three Free Sins reminds me of another favorite book of mine by John Eldredge.


I didn't want to prejudice myself and read the Amazon Reviews before the book, so I just read about fifty pages first.  The reviews gave it 4.25 stars.  It had ten 5-star ratings and two 1-star ratings.  I read the reviews and decided that two readers missed the premise of the book.  I just didn't want to get into a Ron Bell controversy.


I'm about a third through the book and what I like is that it kind of builds upon itself.  Other books of this kind usually make their point in the first two chapters and then just rehash the point for another 200 pages.

The amazing thing was that I found it at my local branch library.  It was right there in front of me; between the biographies of Whitney Houston and Justin Bieber.

I'm In Contempt Of Court

Well they finally caught up with me. I'm supposed to report for Jury Duty June 6th. For thirteen years I lived in a rural county that didn't have jury trials.  In Utah my jury summons came the day I was loading up the moving van.  Don't they know I'm important to the health of the county? How am I supposed to prosper on $20 a day?

Borrower Is Slave To The Lender

Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel,
Matthew 27:8-10 

They took the thirty trillion of debt, the price set on him by the people of the United States.

Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now’s the time for your tears
                                                               Bob Dylan