All Finished!

Yesterday afternoon we finished all of our work and helped finish another part of the moving project also!  We have counted up all the books and we packed 193 boxes containing just over 2200 books.  We are very pleased to have successfully completed our task, and with time to spare to see a little more of Rome!

Yesterday we celebrated with a late afternoon drink at a local bar, then met up with Fr. John and the Assumption professor who has been supervising the workmen and moving another part of the collection, for dinner.  We traveled into Trastevere to see the Santa Maria church and to have dinner at one of Conor's recommendations, Il Duca.  I was delighted to be back in that piazza--I always feel like I'm really in Rome once I've been there.  Dinner was quite late, but good.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal.  We got back at about midnight.  It was a good thing we didn't have to get up too early today.  Between the bar and the restaurant I must have had about 6 glasses of wine!

After a leisurely breakfast this morning we tied up a couple loose ends in time to join the Assumption students for their guided tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.  The guide was fabulous and we learned a lot.  Afterward the four of us each had a quick refreshment to rest our feet, then walked around the Vatican wall to enter St. Peter's Square and to visit the Basilica.  I wish we had had the same guide for that part of the trip, because I didn't remember too many of the details about what we were seeing.  However, Mary,who hadn't been there before, was thrilled just to be there and walk around.  After having some difficulty finding a bus to bring us back, we returned "home" just in time for the always prompt dinner.  It being a Friday in Lent, dinner was fairly light tonight, but I have to say that the pasta served almost every day has been delicious! 

After dinner we got talking with Fr. John about the history of the Assumptionists and orders related to them.  It was very interesting.  I think I've written before about how being here has  made me much more aware of the college's identity as part of a bigger whole and that was re-emphasized tonight.  I had to laugh after Mass this morning when I realized that we sang hymns in Latin and French, and prayed in Italian (primarily) and in French.  My head was spinning with all the languages.  And that doesn't count the Spanish occasionally heard in the house!

Tomorrow we will have a leisurely breakfast and plan our last day of sight-seeing.  It's kind of stressful trying to get around on the buses.  I feel like it's up to me to get where we want to go, though the others say I shouldn't feel that way.  Still...  But I have enjoyed being here with these women.  It has been a very congenial group.  We all worked hard and we have traveled around comfortably together.  We also know a little more about each other after having spent so much time together, though there wasn't much chatting when we were working since we had to concentrate on what we were doing.  I think it has all worked out quite well!

In some ways it seems like we've been away for a long time and in others we can't believe it's almost time to leave.  We plan on making the most of our last day!