I could use a good snow storm about now.

 It's so hot here the mosquitos have died.  I didn't know that was possible. 

We've had a fun and interesting week. We came across Phil Abbott and his wife on Monday and went out for...pizza together.  Robyn then convinced them to let us take the to our temple square and show them around. It was ten o'clock at night and none of the buildings were open; but we still had a good time.

I believe that some of the finest flower gardens in Rome are those at the Rome temple. These beautiful flowers only come out in full sun and they close up when dusk approaches.

That's me (Alma) standing in full sun next to the amazing flower display. I've tried to use sunscreen whenever outside and I noticed the other day that compared to some people I see, I could be mistaken for a pale vampire.

Most people take photos of this temple so that you can see the whole building; but I like the view through the flowers and olive trees.

We went to a birthday party for the temple president the other day.  A day or two before that, the people from our shift all went outside for a group photo in our white clothes. Many of the same people are in the photo from the birthday party.

They are the sweetest people I have ever known. It's so interesting to me that we can meet someone and within a day or two feel like they're some of our closest friends.  There is a high turnover here, in that people come for two or three weeks (often their vacation) and then return home. We learn about them, love them, and then they're gone.  We got really attached to a couple from Palermo, Sicily.  The husband, Alberto, always called me brother Alfred because many Italians say that instead of Allred.  

He calls me Alfred just for the fun of it because he can pronounce Allred with no problem.  The other day, they were headed back home to Sicily and Robyn and I drove them to the airport.  We both cried when we said goodbye.

The night before they left, they invited us over for some tiramasu. He also showed us how to make arancini. They look like oranges; but they are deep fried rice balls with meat and vegetables inside. 

A few minutes ago, I was sitting here on my bed writing this post and noticed a photo of one of my grandkids scroll across the screen. I miss them dearly but at the same time cannot believe how much fun we're having.  I expected this to be fun but had no idea how happy we would be here.

A Trip to Florence for the World's greatest ice cream.

 

Here is a group of some of our American friends who also work in the temple with us. The fellow on the far right is Paul Winder.  He's been here a couple of times at 90-day visits.  Italy doesn't allow foreigners to stay longer than 90 days unless they obtain a special visa--the Church gets visas for the missionaries they call, and it took us about 6 months to arrange for our visa--not as missionaries: but as bums.  We can't work for wages while here, we can only spend. Our visa is an elective residence--meaning we can stay as long as we don't become a burden on the economy.  Standing between  Robyn and the lady in the orange shirt is one of the temple missionaries--a retired Judge from Monticello, Utah. His wife is in the straw hat. Everybody else is here for a 90-day stint.  On Monday, we all took the train to Florence and spent the day doing whatever we wanted.  I ended up walking 12 miles (according to my smart watch.) I was looking for the best ice-cream in the world, and I found it three times.  I also gained one pound that day.  Robyn and Marina Spence spent most of the day in museums, and the rest had a wonderful day.  The photo was taken in front of the baptistery of Florence's main cathedral. Rick Steves says it's "pajama clad."

While walking, I found "Purgatory Street (Via Purgatorio); it's a dead end--a fact I found slightly entertaining. Here's a photo showing both the street name and the fact that it goes nowhere. I wonder how people feel about living on Purgatory in such a beautiful city.

   I ate $12 worth of ice cream as well as a sandwich later in the day. 

My favorite gelateria was closed--apparently always on Monday, so I went looking for other ice cream locations based on reports from other people.  The championship now belongs to La Carraia.  Not nearly as many flavors as Vivoli's, but I found today that you can really only have 6 or 7 flavors in a day anyway. At 6 flavors and 12 bucks a day it would take a week to try them all.  Never before have I had such delicious ice cream. 

Hopefully, this postscript will be in a place that Robyn will never read it, or she'd make me delete it.  One of the women ordinance workers came up to me the other day and said several of the women had decided that Robyn looked like Audry Hepburn.  She asked me if I agreed.  I said she reminded me more of Mary Tyler Moore from the Dick Van Dyke show. She said most of the women thought Hepburn was a better match. Yesterday, as we were waiting to leave at the door of the temple for our spouses, I was standing next to an Italian woman and so introduced myself.  Many of them are doubly surprised as I just tell them my first name.  Doubly surprised because in Italy, Alma is a fairly common woman's name, and a guy named Alma is obviously a member of the Church.  Just as I said my name, there was a slight commotion at the recommend desk and we all looked over there to see what was happening.  I don't know what it was that got our attention but I saw that Robyn was still dressed in white and at the recommend desk.  I said to the lady that I had just met, pointing to Robyn, "Ecco, mia moglie!"* 

She said, "Oh, my. Your wife is beautiful!"

I said, "I tell her that all the time, but she says I'm crazy."

"Is that so?" She answered. "Well, I'm going to tell her right now you are right!" She walked up to Robyn and said, "You are a very beautiful woman!" Robyn said "Thank you" and then looked at me with a little exasperation, and her eyes said, "You are in trouble, Buster."  I was just an innocent bystander that time.   

*(Literally translated, that's "Behold! My wife!" but it isn't nearly as biblical as it sounds.  In the grocery store, when you're next up at the checkout you can say, "Eccomi!" which is "Behold me!" --which really is only a slightly assertive, "I'm next.")