July20, 2015

This morning I leapt up and charged to my 6:30 am painting spot. It is so beautiful and cool at that time of day. They light only lasts about one hour so it is a quick trip. In the beginning the city is all in shadow. Then the sun hits the right side of the buildings making nice contrast and then it hits both sides of the buildings and the party is over. The only evidence I had had of the goats was on the bottom of my feet, but yesterday, at dusk, I saw a large group cross the road. Those goats are big and their poop is everywhere I have been going to paint. 

After the morning painting and first breakfast we headed up to second breakfast and then went to see Victorio at the commune. We paid our garbage bill back to 2010. It has finally been calculated and we went over the papers of all the things he paid for us. We were like fine whatever, how much more do we owe you. It is impossible to imagine what we would do without him. He was impressed that I could say, “quanto lei devo?” ha I will speak Italian one day. 

Amazingly he let us buy him a coffee. Luckily that was in the true internet cafe. We hung out there a long time in the air conditioning. Victorio just threw back his coffee and returned to work. Jim went off to buy some milk and just as he got back Noel arrived. We had a good conversation with him and showed him Bernie on the internet and also Airbnb. Surprisingly there are some places listed near our house and it is pretty cheap to get a whole house in Rome. So next time some people come that want to spend time in Rome that would be a good way to do it. Jim will probably stay in CVS. He is over Rome and really so am I. It is much more amazing here and there are no pickpockets. Not that I want to imply there are any in Rome, but I think there are more than NYC.

Victorio told me that he had opened the church of San Elizabeth. This is only the second time I have seen it open. I was excited enough to walk home and get my camera and walk back. Sweat was involved. I took a lot of pictures and I feel pretty sure than many of the carvings are not Christian symbols. 

What is this guy doing with a castel and a mirror???

We invited Victorio to dinner on Friday and he has requested onion rings and to think he scoffed at them the first time. I don’t think he cares if we have any other food.

I did not photoshop this cat's eyes. This is the colour they were. Just a little creepy.