We began our Saturday adventure with Will and I being escorted out of the metro by the police. I was trying to take pictures for Caden, our grandson, for his school project. Then I wanted Will to take pictures because it’s quite dark underground on the metro and I knew we would get better pictures with Will’s camera. We quickly learned that you are not to take pictures there. We were approached by an angry policeman who abruptly motioned for us to go upstairs with him. We could tell he was determined to get us out of the metro. Upstairs, he motioned to a picture of a camera with a slash through it, and spoke in clipped Italian. Unfortunately we could not understand him. Will finally realized that what he wanted was for us to delete the pictures. Will deleted his pictures. I tried to delete mine, but didn’t know how. Finally, he indicated it was good enough and let us leave. You can take pictures in any church here, but not in the metro. Go figure! It was an honest mistake; we did not know.

We went on to the Castel Sant’Angelo – a military castle by the Tevere River. Admission was free because it’s Rome’s birthday this week. We basically spent the afternoon there, wandering through this huge castle and looking out over Rome. Afterwards we went in search of a famous Gelateria called the Old Bridge. Gelato is a mainstay here on any excursion. Close by we found an open-air market and purchased two ties for Will. One had to be purple stripped. I will always think of Rome when I see purple clothing. We also found a fine oil painting of Venice for only 15 euro.

We NOW have curtains in our apartment in the bedroom and the kitchen. Sister Pearson has a sewing machine so I could remodel some sale curtains I found. AND, we have a picture on one wall – our new oil. It’s a bare canvas without a frame, but it’s great to have a picture up to enjoy. When Will went back to Utah, he brought back some pictures to frame and hang. Giuseppe, our Italian friend, insisted he would take them and frame them. We are not sure when we will see them again.

We are into missionary transfers again. 18 missionaries are going home. 5 new missionaries are coming to the Italy Rome Mission. Many companion-ships are being changed. We are in charge of setting up travel schedules in and out of Rome for all this movement. Last transfer, we were working with others – learning; this time the responsibility falls squarely on our shoulders. It is going to be a busy week!