Culinary Delights and Trips Close to Home

I'm sorry that I haven't been more consistent with accounts of our travels in and around Rome. We have been taking some day trips on our days when the temple is closed. Two weeks ago we visited a couple of tiny villages that were absolutely delightful. We met an American couple (Craig and Jody Anderson) at Church who bought a huge villa out in a small village called Calstelnuovo di Farfa. It's about an hour and a half drive southeast of Rome through beautiful scenery. They invited us and the Thordersons to drive up for the afternoon and have dinner with them. On the way there, we stopped in Isola del Liri and walked through a very memorable village. There's a natural waterful in the middle of town, the manhole covers have unique mosaics on them--which must have cost a bundle.

As is the case with many Italian cities, they have zones where traffic is prohibited for most vehicles and the cities impose hefty fines for simply entering the zones. I got a ticket in the mail from the police in Florence for our last trip. I had no idea I had crossed a ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitata) and the fine was a little over 100 bucks. I got two notices the same day. The first one said if I paid it two weeks before the letter arrived it was only 70 Euros. The other letter said the grace period was past and I owed 100 Euros. Well, we knew this town had a ZTL so we parked on the periphery and walked through. There's a sign where people apparently stop to see the waterfall and take their picture. The town has installed a sign noting that's it's obligatory to kiss there. I was standing next to Eric Thorderson when we noticed the sign and so we ....quickly found our wives and took photos.

There was a pastry shop along the road and everyone wanted to get some hot chocolate--it's winter now with temperatures often dipping into the low fifties. Hot chocolate is one of my favorite culinary memories of my mission. One of my companions noted that Italian hot chocolate was a lot like melted candy bars--consistency rather than taste. You need to add sugar. Before adding sugar to her cup Robyn suggested that I take a photo because it was so thick the spoon stood upright in the cup.

As we meandered towards the Anderson's villa, we stopped at a small beautiful lake.

I didn't take any photos at the villa--I think because I was so astounded at the whole thing. It's huge and was built in 1776. it was amazing.