Today we completed a rite of passage.  We went to services in the San Nicoló church!  Our friend Luisa is very proud of her progressive, generous and socially active church.  So we went to hear the sermon, the prayers and a bit of song.  It was totally fascinating to both of us even though we couldn’t get a lot of it.  And Luisa introduced us afterwards to the priest.  Here is a picture of the church, right here in the old city and a very modern sculpture in front of it.  I keep forgetting to ask about the sculpture.

And here’s me.  All dressed up for church, waiting at the meeting spot, for Luisa and Roy.

After church we wandered for a while heading to a small place they knew of with a view on the river, for lunch.  Bar Terazza alla Ponte–we drank spritzes and ate various pasta dishes. And sat there for a long time.

The view of Ponte Pietra from the terrace of the restaurant:

After lunch we walked to another place for some really great gelato (Gelateria Ponte Pietra).  I went back to the old standby pistacchio and bacio.  Ken is stuck on lemon and chocolate.

We all hung out at our apartment for a while.  I was stressing a bit over what to do with our last few days.  I had planned to go to Milan–check in at the airport hotel and take the train into the city.  I love to walk around and see the Duomo in Milano.  but the weather is predicted to be in the high 90’s that day and so I called our contact person to see if we could stay in this apartment one more night.  Nope,  but…they can let us stay in another apartment just a few blocks away.  So, after lengthy discussions and internet searches, we decided to do that.

We walked with Luisa and Roy back over the Vittoria bridge to where they’d left their car.  On the way back I took this shot of the Ponte Castello.

And we stopped at Scapin, a little food shop and wine bar just over the bridge.  Got some great take out stuff–arancini, veggies and  polpette di verdure.  The stuff was really good and just enough for us for a small dinner.

We are so comfortable here, it’s really nice.