Che Bella Vita

January 9, 2018

Dearest Friends and Family,

We like you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration here in Roma. The country celebrates Christmas much like we do back in the States, with decorations, store sales and the like. They however have a wonderful tradition that we don’t do and I would love to implement back home when we return. Each church displays a Nativity Scene, some very large and others more modest in size, but what is missing is the Baby Jesus. He is not placed in the manger until midnight, Christmas morning. Generally, they have a midnight Mass and at the end of the Mass the presiding Priest places the Baby Jesus in the manger. We had the privilege of attending midnight Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas eve, at the end of which the Pope carried the Baby Jesus out and placed him in the manger. We attended with two of our wonderful new friends, Brother and Sister Finn who procured the tickets for the four of us. Prior to, we had a delightful dinner together and very much enjoyed their company.

Sorella Knies and I spent an evening with President and Sorella Pickerd and their son and his girlfriend. We attended a live nativity near San Giovanni Basilica. They created an old Jewish village, with a blacksmith, tinsmith, shoe maker, bread maker etc. and included a wonderful manger with Mary, Joseph, live animals and of course the Baby Jesus. It was set around the Porta Asinaria which is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, which was built in the year 270 A.D. It is through this gate that Roman troops stormed in the year 536 A.D. to reclaim the city for the Byzantine Empire from the Ostrogoths. As a reminder, these dates predate the United States by almost 1,000 years and more! It is just too COOL!

One night after a long day at work, the office couples all went out to view all the beautiful Christmas decorations adorning all parts of old Roma. We also happened on to a church that was having a choir/orchestra Christmas concert. Almost half of the songs were sung in English which brought tears to our eyes. We listened and sang those very familiar and beautiful songs in our hearts and some of us with our mouths. The Christmas tree and nativity scene in front of St. Peter’s was beautiful and all the lights around Roma were magnificent. We also spent a delightful Saturday with the Thomas’, see the pictures below.

Then there was New Year’s Eve. I set the alarm for midnight in case I might have fallen asleep, but the alarm would not have been necessary because at the stroke of midnight it sounded like World War III! Looking out from our back window and out from our front balcony, (don’t get too envious, it is about 10 steps from the front to the back) all you could see was smoke and fireworks going off like crazy and I do mean crazy. Across the piazza and several other places, they were firing Roman Candles from their balconies and I even saw two apartments where they lighted sparklers on their balconies and carried them inside and then back out again! Cherry Bombs exploding, reverberating in between the buildings, firecrackers going off every second and fireworks lighting the sky for 45 minutes to an hour. It was fun, but it was CRAZY!

The next morning the Assistants to the President, Anziani Vance and Campbell, and I took the subway to Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus). Why you might ask. To RUN. We jogged over 5 miles in the center of Circo Massimo where anciently they held chariot races. It was the largest stadium built in the Roman Empire and could accommodate over 150,000 spectators and measures 621 meters in length and dates back to 200 B.C.! While you were nestled in the warmth of your homes, we were running where spectacular events occurred thousands of years ago. Now that really was COOL!

The Burkharts from back home came to Rome for a visit. I will cover their visit and our time together in our next Blog. Until next time, remember…”have a wonderful day in the neighborhood, because it’s a wonderful life.”

Love always and forever,

Anziano e Sorella Knies

One night after work