Unbelievable, but after spending several days trying to go online after work at hubby’s workplace (right outside the “palace” gates)… we are online, in our backyard. Because the signals don’t reach up to our apartment. Right now, we are in the parking lot, under the palm trees… and it’s REAL high speed.

And now I don’t know what to write. One of these days I’ll try to use dd’s laptop to upload pics, but for now, short blurbs will have to do. To be honest, I don’t know how long this free internet thing is going to last. We still have our Wind connection that hardly ever works…. don’t know if that one has a money-back guarantee, but at this point, I’m letting dh worry about that one.

This will serve then mostly as notes to my mom and relatives that want to get updates from us…. and then notes to myself on “things to remember”.

Palm Sunday in Rome

… was a bust. We got there really early, and parked at the place recommended to us by Italian friends. However, we followed our GPS for walking directions instead of just using the map… and still got lost in the process, and took several wrong turns, etc. I’d forgotten just how difficult walking around in Rome is, unless you’ve got a guide or are used to how the streets are configured. So while we got there at 8:00, with plenty of time to spare to get to the Vatican in time for Mass… by 10:30 we realized we were too far away to make it there. Between kids wanting to stop because they were tired or needed a potty break… and getting lost… you get the picture. We still managed to get lots of pics taken, and got some gelato in there. And yes, we did make it to the Vatican, at around 2:30 pm. Waaah. We sat around the square (circle really) and breathed for a bit, then went back to our parking spot… all in all 10 hours of walking that day. The kids were such troopers, I’m proud to say, and nary a complaint was heard.

Got home at around 8:30, had a late dinner (we stopped at an Autogrill on the highway for a snack) and dropped into bed exhausted. Woke up around 5 am (?) to tremors, which lasted about 2 1/2 Hail Marys… we were camping out in the living room — which we do on weekends. Hubby went to work and came home that night telling us that the epicenter of the earthquake was 1 1/2 hours away, in L’Aquila, and that people had been e-mailing finding out if we were okay. We hadn’t had ‘net access in several days so I had to wait ’til Tuesday to e-mail some people and tell them we were fine. That week we had two aftershocks, mild… the first one we were at the grocery and hubby rushed to find me but — haha — I hadn’t even felt it. The next time we had just tucked everyone in bed and were getting ready to sleep ourselves… so we had some good practice in planting ourselves under our doorways. Life’s an adventure, I tell ya.

Holy Week
In the morning we attended Lodi (early morning Liturgy of the Hours). And then we had planned to do a visita iglesia on Maundy Thursday — basically a pilgrimage to see Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in 7 churches — but didn’t get to as hubby came home with a bad ear infection.

Good Friday we went to Church for the Veneration of the Cross and met a couple of wonderful parishioners who spoke English. One reason being that they wanted to make sure Migi was qualified to receive Holy Eucharist. He was asked while we were in line for Communion, but since we didn’t understand each other my dd simply gestured that yes, he can be given Communion! Afterwards we explained that he had received his first Holy Eucharist in the US. Apparently here in Italy children don’t go until 9 or 10 years of age.

Saturday we decided not to attend the Vigil anymore as we planned to leave early the next morning to attend Easter Mass at the Vatican… which we did! After about an hour of getting lost again, thanks to my mistake of setting the GPS on “Pedestrian”. It wouldn’t take us into the GRA! And we didn’t realize it until after half an hour of going round and round a certain road right outside it. Duh.

Easter!
Anyway… Easter in Rome… awesome. What can I say. The kids were so excited to be HOME. I hope they take that experience into adulthood as one of their life’s highlights and share it with their kids as well. Pics next time, I promise!

Oh… yeah. Our Lumix is dead right now — it died on Saturday. Which means we’re using the kids’ Coolpix… will have to have the Lumix serviced when we get home 🙁

Easter Monday is officially a holiday here… so nothing’s open. Forget the American practice of shopping the 50% off sales after a major holiday — no such thing. Well, I don’t know really. I’m still hoping to see some of the humongous Easter chocolate eggs tomorrow when we get our groceries.

Have to stop — hubby’s laptop is out of battery. Will try to go online again later or tomorrow!