So I've now been back from being on holiday in Rome (17 Feb - 21 Feb) and I can certainly say I walked a good deal of the city of Rome. I probably walked more than I have ever walked (at least over a five day period) ...I'm guessing at least between 15 and 20 miles the middle three days and at least 5 to 7 on the first and last day (when I was only there in the evening and the morning). Can't be sure since I didn't have any real way of tracking my movements, but it was enough that my feet hurt more than they did when I ran the marathon earlier this year. It got to a certain point where they just kept hurting, but I kept going...there was just too much I wanted to see. Each night gave my body enough time to recover.
Rome reminded me a lot of Athens because of the ancient buildings interspersed throughout the city. It differed from Athens by being substantially cleaner, looking relatively nice (compared to Athens which looked like it was falling apart), and being relatively smoke free (again compared to Athens and Paris which smoking seemed to dominate outdoors). Most places I visited that did cost money didn't cost much more than 12 Euros. I think one place cost 16 Euros (maybe the Vatican museum) and a couple cost as little as 6 Euros. The two hour flight from London Gatwick wasn't too bad and the food was overall amazing. Living there full time I think I would get sick of having mostly pizza/italian resturants around, but I guess it's a little like that in London with Pubs/fish and chips shops.
Some things to note:
The next two weeks I will be preparing for another BB course, this one for "Senior Church Leaders" e.g. those in positions of senior leadership or authority, whatever that means for their respective denomination, whether it is a Bishop, Archdeacon, or Rural Dean, etc... but tonight I am leading a "review of the emotional journey" of the past year for the local Mennonite Church. I'm hoping it will be prove to be insightful and useful for members of the church, but there's really no way of knowing until it happens.
Also in the next two weeks the LMC Trustees will *most likely* be making some serious decisions about the future of the Centre. Time is starting to slowly disappear, so their window for decision making is starting to close. They've got two meetings in the first two weeks of March, so prayers for them as they work to come to a common mind on a couple of important issues would be appreciated.
- Sam
Rome reminded me a lot of Athens because of the ancient buildings interspersed throughout the city. It differed from Athens by being substantially cleaner, looking relatively nice (compared to Athens which looked like it was falling apart), and being relatively smoke free (again compared to Athens and Paris which smoking seemed to dominate outdoors). Most places I visited that did cost money didn't cost much more than 12 Euros. I think one place cost 16 Euros (maybe the Vatican museum) and a couple cost as little as 6 Euros. The two hour flight from London Gatwick wasn't too bad and the food was overall amazing. Living there full time I think I would get sick of having mostly pizza/italian resturants around, but I guess it's a little like that in London with Pubs/fish and chips shops.
Some things to note:
- Wine in resturants is sold by the bottle - either small or large
- There's a reason Romans conquered the Greeks and not the other way around
- The Vatican, while amazing to visit, had an odd feel to it, partly because of the money spent (St Peter's and the Vatican Museum itself), and because of the massive wall surrounding it
The next two weeks I will be preparing for another BB course, this one for "Senior Church Leaders" e.g. those in positions of senior leadership or authority, whatever that means for their respective denomination, whether it is a Bishop, Archdeacon, or Rural Dean, etc... but tonight I am leading a "review of the emotional journey" of the past year for the local Mennonite Church. I'm hoping it will be prove to be insightful and useful for members of the church, but there's really no way of knowing until it happens.
Also in the next two weeks the LMC Trustees will *most likely* be making some serious decisions about the future of the Centre. Time is starting to slowly disappear, so their window for decision making is starting to close. They've got two meetings in the first two weeks of March, so prayers for them as they work to come to a common mind on a couple of important issues would be appreciated.
- Sam
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