Yesterday, in the late morning we headed out to see the pope's Sunday address. When we arrived at the Vatican, the weather was gloomy, and while we were waiting, it started to rain lightly. When the pope finally arrived for his short address of the crowd, the light broke about a minute into his speech. We had been told that he would speak a minimum of three languages, but were very much impressed when he spoke a total of 8 - Latin, Italian, French, English, Ge...

We got into Rome on the afternoon of the 6th, arriving at our hotel - Texas Seven Hills, where they "got paintin's on the ceilin'." We spent the rest of the evening walking all over Rome - we caught a glimse of the Roman Forum, a museum designed by Richard Meier to house an altar, and the Spanish Steps. After we ate dinner, several of us walked past the Trevi Fountain and poked into San Carlito del Quattro Fontaine on our way back to the hotel. To get r...