John and I have arrived at Rome. The flight over here from Malta was fairly fast, empty and un-eventful (except for John beating the snot out of me (in rummy)). We landed in Rome's Fiumicino airport. The Sisters at the Casa Santo Spirito, where we are staying like to go to bed at 8PM, so I had arranged with them for our late arrival. When I did so they requested that we take a taxi to get here quicker. Once we picked up the big backpack we headed for the taxi door and started to look for a taxi driver who could take us to St. Peter's. We met a man, whom I will call Mario Andretti. He never introduced himself properly but said that he could take us to St. Peter's for 70 Euros, We just had to share the ride with 2 Catholic women from France. So, John and I put our bags in the back of the car, and with John in the front seat and myself shoe-horned into the back behind the driver with the two women to my right we took off like the start of the Le Mans. John reports that we were doing 120 kph shortly after we departed the airport. Mario drove a BMW with a check engine light and a problem with the transmission (the car kept going clunk occasionally), and wove in and out of Italian traffic like he was driving in the Grand Prix. I have never seen John more fervent in prayer. I sat in the back monitoring our impressive progress on google maps while John measured our progress in Traffic Violations per Minute (TVM) and contemplated the feeling of a faceplant in an airbag. 2 Red lights, speeding past a police car, working the cell while straddling lanes and weaving in and out of traffic spaces so small that a Smart Car would feel uncomfortable in them. I think we set a world record (both in KPH and TVMs to go from Fiumicino to St. Peter's on a Saturday night. John is sure his Guardian Angel is mad at him again... I just think that the Sisters were praying for our speedy arrival and Mario was an answer to their prayers.
Anyway, check out our short commute to Mass in the morning - this is from the window of our room at the convent.
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