Sunday, my last full day in Rome. The big event for the day was going to lunch with a couple of people. They decided the best place to go would be down to Trastevere. I thought this was one last opportunity to go the same flight of stairs. Instead, one of the people took us down a different flight of stairs. I didn't realize there were multiple ways of going up and down the Janiculum Hill to Trastevere. We walked through narrow streets which in themselves were a taste of Rome, until we found an open restaurant. We were a bit hot from our walk, so we chose to sit inside the air conditioned restaurante. Figuring it would be my last opportunity, I again chose pizza -- pizza ortolono. It was delicious; it seemed a little underdone. Usually the ovens tend to make the crust crispy with little burnt spots. For some reason this pizza was a tad doughy. Still very good. It had some zucchini, eggplant, and peppers. i've been surprised that the pizzas tended not to have onions. i don't recall eating much onion durng the past month.

After our lunch, my friends went with me to a little jewelry shop to get something for my wife. I didn't have much money available, but we found a nice necklace with matching earrings. For me the irony was that our was buying jewelry as a souvenir of my Rome trip but from an artist named Ibrahim, which for me pointed forward to my next trip in the fall to Israel/Palestine.

On our way back up the hill, we returned by even another pair of stairs. It was first a long incline on the road up and then a set of long stairs. We came up near the Fountain of Paul, which was one of the first places I visited when I arrived in Rome. 

I spent the afternoon cleaning up my room and packing my suitcases. Some people were going to get together in the evening to watch Trastevere's Festa de' Noantri (Procession of the Madonna del Carmine). it would no doubt be a sight to behold. Some people in our group talked about the way it would be a fitting conclusion to our seminar, since we had talked about various kinds of processions through the streets from imperial processions to local processions honring the dead or various gods and goddesses. It would have been an interesting reenactment of pagan processinos to watch the parade of Catholic religious and dignataries as the statue of Mary is processed through the streets to a church. But i decided to hang out at "home," get a little something to eat later, and have a relaxing evening watching the last two episdoes of season two of Torchwood.

When I went to find some food in the evening, I discovered that most shops were closed up.  i had remembered there was another pizzeria further down Via Carini. Sure enough the other place was open but very busy and tiny. I squeezed myself into the shop and tried to wait my turn. Eventually I was able to place my order for which and how much of the different pizzas already available. I wanted something to drink, but I couldn't get to the coller to get something, not without a better command of italian phrases for "excuse me," "coming through," sorry for pressing my body against yours." The pizza wasn't quite as good as I had been getting from Simone, but it was still good. I managed to turn in early so I could get up early for my big day returning home.