Day One. After a good flight, more or less on time and not at all bumpy, I arrived in Rome where I was met by Fr Murray and F Andre. We set off back to the centre of Rome, stopping a the autgrill for a snack on the way. It ws 1.30 by then and my spoon or two of Muesli was a distant memory. Easyjet do not pamper you with meals and anything y u have you need to buy. Desperate, I had a mug of coffee which was, foretunately, quite nice since it cost me 2.20 sterling. I cant find the pound sign!
Shown my room which is on the seventh floor, a sort of very mini penthouse suite, I peeled my anti thrombosis stockings off with great difficulty and had a shower. The temperature must have been in the upper eighties and very soon there was a massive crack of thunder which rumbled on for nearly 15 minutes before the rain began. There are two parakeets nearby making their unmistakeable call and almost invisible in the tips of the acacia tree outside. The room has a splendid view onto, of all the surprises in central Rome, a field! It might be a park, more likely and if there is a chance I will try to find my way to it alond a road I can see round the back.. Also if I can solve te technology, I will try to send a picture of the view.
i gatherJohn Cella ofm is in town tonight and we are going to join him for supper. John is the director of the Franciscan Pilgrimage Programme so in a real sense, our boss! He does the hiring and firing too! However he can always be counted on for a good and generous meal, so that will be nice. I shall be starving by then, muesli and salad having vanished over the horizon!
tomorrow we shall work at the papers, medical snags, bookings etc etc, have our own post mortem on last year and get everything as ready as possible. The next day will probably be shoppng for the Christmas pranzo and going to Assisi to collect things like the pilgrim´s handbook which is distributed at the start of the pilgrimage here in Rome. Tuesday is a rest day and Wednesday the pilgrims arrive and the show starts.
I am typng this on the portable keyboard which we once bought for something else, but which was so light that I brough it along as a possibility. It is working a treat and in fact it is easier to type on this than on the iPad itself, though the latter can be done of course. Very high tec ' it connects magically by blue tooth which is so mysterious it might as well be magic!
Love to one and all
Ft

Two days later
That first day we were all very tired, Andre had flown overnight from the States and had no sleep, I had had an early starttoo and felt tired enough to lie down after dinner and fell asleep, not waking until about 5.oo, juat in time to get ready to be taken out by the boss. We went to his favourite place, the restaurant by the sea, but by the time we got there it was almost dusk and threatening rain so we sat inside and considered the menu ' all fish and sea food. They offered  plate of assorted fish caught that day which is what I chose and was given a plate with about ten fish on, mostly small, six inches or so,all beautifully coooked, fried actually, and crunchy. I am afraid I did not eat the heads though probbably could have done. Murray had turbot, the first time he said, and a huge fish came, white and beautiful. John and Andre had mussels and spaghetti, a great Italian favourite, and Nancy had salmon. Naturally everyone tried evrything except that I kept off the shellfish, remembering how sick I was after the same dish in Greccio two years ago. Sad as they are delicious.
Afterwards we were cheerfully full and had a lemon sorbet to wash it all down, just right, cool and sharp. The afternoon thunderstorm had not cooled things off much and it was extremely hot in spite of the sea breezes. Then we made our way back having helped John spend the programme´s money in that friendly way. The next mornng Murray and I took him to the airport, leaving at 7 and avoiding the worst of teh rush hour. As a resut of this early start we were back by 8.30 and without getting lost  though we did take one wrong turning but managed to extricate oruselves without having t seek help of any sort. The traffic in Rome is incredible and very noisy and on the whole most people ignore the rules of the road.
The rest of that day was spen going through the lists, checking eveyrthing and making a few planse, sharing out the work etc etc ' all the usual stuff. Tomorrow, Ruesday, will be full as well and ten a rest day before the prilgrims attive on Wednesday, but I will make this another letter as i want to try out the blog and see how I amgoing to do it and whetehr anything arrievs at yoru end. If it is not a nuisance, I would be reassured by a short email saying OK or something )or not! Love to one and all
Ft