Today we set out to find our conference and get oriented to our part of Rome. The Sunday session of the conference looked like it was a short walk from our apartment so we headed out on foot. That is when we learned that the instructions left a lot to be desired. It was smoking hot as we walked around the entire walled site of the private university. Who ever heard of putting a whole university behind a wall and locking it up on the weekends? When we were at the point of giving up, a woman asked us if we were looking for the conference. She escorted us to a beautiful building and we were able to register. Actually, Karen could – they didn’t have my name badge. It was a total confusion. We decided to let it all go and head back to finishing up the last pieces of our presentations. We passed this image as we left campus outside the physics building.This would be a bit of a disconcerting an image as one went into write an exam.

Our next step was to figure out how to get to the actual conference the next day. We learned that a bus that stopped just near our apartment would take us, non-stop, to the university in 20 minutes. That was a bonus. We met up with Archie and Kim for dinner and found a delightful little restaurant on Urbana street. Our landlady left us a who list of restaurant recommendations and we were happy to take her up on them. We looked out of our window as we turned in for the night. We could see the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore to one side and heard the stereotypical sounds of an Italian accordion player rising from the street below.