Many of our friends have asked us, "Tell us about the food!" 

It's a most excellent adventure. I mentioned earlier--that we were being force-fed pizza because we couldn't yet cook in our kitchen. Well, we've been able to cook for several days, but for some reason, we're still eating pizza.

The application process for our visa required that we draft a letter to the consulate explaining why we wanted to live here. I talked Robyn out of her first draft--but I regret that now.  She wrote, "We have retired from our day jobs and would now like to move to Rome to eat pizza and gelato. We have rented an apartment for the above stated purpose."

We haven't got around yet to the gelato because, to be honest, it's been on the chilly side during January.   But the pizza! Wowie Kazowie. We went to one of my preferred pizza emporiums the other night and I ordered my standard: Calzone. That means A giant sock because the bread is folded over and all the cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, ham and spices are inside. I like it because it stays hot longer than one that is open to the air. Also, it's only half as big on your plate--I can't eat a whole pizza but have no problem with one that's folded in half.

 Here's Robyn working on her Cappriciosa. If you look closely, you can see artichoke, olives, prosciutt0, and a couple of eggs. With ham and eggs on the pizza, I thought it could be the Italian version of a breafast burrito--only pizza doesn't get served in restaurants until after at least 7:00 pm.  

My pizza is much less a vision of color there in the foreground--just toasted brown bread directly from a wood burning oven--with all the deliciousness waiting to be discovered. 

For about half the price of this sit down dinner you can get take out pizza at a place near our apartment. It's run by a couple of Egyptian brothers and they make a fine pizza--also falafel and shawarma. Two pizzas or two shawarmas cost 5 euros each--about six bucks. It's more than we can eat, so I have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

I've been dying to write about one of my favorite food items in Italy: oranges.  There are lots of varieties and they undergo a transformation during late January until mid-March.  They go from bright orange to blood-red, the famous blood oranges of Sicily. Here's a photo of an orange from when we arrived two weeks ago.

 You can see a couple of cells of dark orange among the lighter hues. This is the beginning of the transformation.  By March, they'll look like raw meat on the inside.  Here is an orange from earlier this week. You can find them everywhere at open fruit markets. When I was a missionary, I ate them until my teeth ached.

What a wonderful world this is.