It has been sunny almost all day today and warmish – well warmish for us Canadese! I had the most spectacular lunch yesterday! Walking home from classes I ducked into what I thought was a little hole in the wall to grab a bite and wait out the rain. Turned out to a beautiful Enoteca, all vaulted ceilings, burnished woods, with a 25 pg. wine list at least (talk about verticals!). The place has been in the same family since 1915 and the food didn’t disappoint. I had a split of Pouilly Fume, an out of this world “Artichoke Fantasy” – done three ways and then a perfect fois gras with poached pear. Oh Boy! Definitely worthly of a return visit. Needless to say dinner was very light.

We lost the Bishop – apparently he’s more advanced than the rest of us – probably just as well – the “uniform” made me quite nervous even though he seemed a convival sort. Our Thai lady was also away today so it was just Yvonne (Just call me Yvonne dear, you don’t have to bother with the “sister”, which immediately indeared her to me) & we had a blast. For a Sister she has quite an earthy sense of humour. There are a number of words in Italian which you have to be careful of: pane, panna, penna & pene which are respectively bread, cream, pen & penis – I’ll leave it to your active imaginations what we managed to come up with, with that combination! I’ll tell you I may never feel comfortable ordering bread again without checking pronounciation very carefully!

Two great pictures above of the Piazza Navona which I took early this morning on my way to classes – no tourists!

Ciao, alla prossima volta!