Happy Sunday friends! I hear it's cold and rainy in the Lone Star State...in Roma, it's beautiful! Blue skies, about 78 degrees....couldn't be nicer!

I had the most fun day yesterday. My friend Ann, who is also my leasing agent, let me tag around with her checking clients into apartments, so I got to embrace my inner voyeur, and see the interiors of some really cool places. One apartment in particular, overlooking the dome of the Pantheon, with a terrace that was to die for!!!!

We had lunch in the Jewish ghetto, my favorite spot, enjoying artichoke carpaccio and salmon risotto...yum-o!!!

Then we cruised around the area called Prati, looking at a couple of nice apartments, and strolling through all the street vendors. Fun day!

This morning I went to church, and sat with my precious friends Erin and Luca Scordari. Erin is from Dallas, Beaumont, and Palestine (that's East Texas) and Luca is from Roma. Erin and I enjoyed a LONG lunch together on Friday in her neighborhood of Cornelia, and she and Luca have invited me to their house on Tuesday for dinner. Luca is a chef, and promised me to wow me with his favorite Roman dishes.....can't wait!!!! It has been such a blessing to get to know Erin and Luca, and fun to have a buddy while here.

Erin is going to put me in touch with a free-lance writer friend of hers who can give me the scoop on getting in front of some of the English-language magazines in Rome. I would love to submit some pieces to them while here...say a prayer that God opens that door for me.

This afternoon Ann and I will go see a movie together at the English language theatre that is down the street from me...I think it will be the Woodstock movie....

What I continue to love about this city is how it teaches me the value of seeking out the similarities between people I meet, and not the differences. Particularly related to friends I have met at church, there is such an international flavor to the congregation (even though I have gravitated to my fellow-Texan), and I love seeing God at work in people from all over the world. There were visitors at church this morning from Wales, the Czech Republic, Nigeria, and of course different places in the US, and God brought all of us together today to worship.

I think that's pretty darn cool!!!

I have included a picture I took of the Trevi Fountain last week.....bella Roma!