Dec. 28

It is raining and cold today. Well, drizzling and cold anyway. We went to the park, but didn’t stay long. No one was there except a few people passing through obviously on their way somewhere and an old man walking his dog. Several people thought they remembered seeing him, or his dog anyway, last year.

So we walked down to the Colosseum metro stop and took the metro to Termini, where a few people could eat at McDonald’s and the rest of us could eat at the Turkish kebab shop. It was good.

While we were doing that, some people were shopping for groceries to make the soup for tonight. We took the bus back to Trastevere from Termini and went back to our apartments.

Some people rested, some people cooked and some of us went out walking around.




Kevin, Scott and I took Rudy out to see some sights in the area.

We took him to Santa Maria in Trastevere and actually went inside the church this time. We had not gone in before. I didn’t realize you could. You can’t during mass, but it wasn’t time for mass. It is probably the oldest purpose-built church in Rome. The original building (not the one there now – it’s been rebuilt several times) was built around 320 AD (sometime after Constantine’s conversion – don’t yell if my date is wrong; I can’t look it up right now).

We also stopped for coffee (hot chocolate for me) and gelato. We intended to go to the grocery store, but forgot.

We also went to the cat sanctuary at Torre Argentina, which was open this time, so we went downstairs into the little shop, where Scott bought me a T-shirt and I got to pet a lot of cats. The woman took me into the quarantine area, too, where they keep the cats for three months after they get them to make sure they aren’t sick. One had a neurological condition and could barely walk, but she said he is much better than when he came in and couldn’t move at all. Now he shakes a lot when he walks. He doesn’t get to go outside.

Tonight, we are going to the train station, I think, with soup and other stuff. I think we’re not going to the park because no one is likely to be there since it is cold and rainy and also because we didn’t see anyone earlier to tell them we would be back.

Later.
We went to the train station, hoping to see some guys, but not too many since we didn’t have enough soup for 100 and didn’t want to start a riot or anything. We met a couple of guys when we got near and gave them soup. Then we went on and split into two groups, one that went ahead to look for more guys and one that stayed near the station. The guys who had soup went to get their friends and before we even got back to where we were going, they came running around the corner looking for us. So we gave out all the soup and most of the crackers and apples and oranges, along with all the hygiene kits and all the gloves and hats we had with us at the time. We left when we ran out of soup.



Normally, we eat with them, but didn’t tonight because there wasn’t enough for us and them. So after we reconvened in the biggest apartment, we split up and went to eat. Our group ate in a restaurant we ate in last year and then went to the Blue Ice place for gelato.

And now it is time for bed. So good night.