{"id":899,"date":"2008-11-23T16:10:26","date_gmt":"2008-11-23T16:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/11\/and-on-to-rome.html"},"modified":"2008-11-23T16:10:26","modified_gmt":"2008-11-23T16:10:26","slug":"and-on-to-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/11\/and-on-to-rome.html","title":{"rendered":"And on to Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Got there in plenty of time for the next flight. Gatwick has an odd system – well at least BA did. They don’t post gates until about 30 minutes before a plane takes off. So there’s always a crowd of people around the board, waiting, waiting, waiting.
\nNo wine on this flight.
\nBut it did have the amazing plus of flying down the Italian coast. It is so silly, but I always get such a big kick out of seeing geographical realities from the sky. My father talked about seeing Britain from the sky – taking in the shape of the island. I felt a frisson as we made our way down the real live map, which is not a map at all, but simply real.
\nGot to Rome – early. (I want to share the exact words of the pilot when we landed – they were so charming – but that’s back in the apartment. Later.) Caught the F-1 (not the Leonardo Express the ticket guy thought I wanted) to Rome Trastevere..and there was David waiting for me!
\nAn odd thing. I was thinking about it at Mass\u00a0 – so odd to go through your day in Alabama and then find yourself at Mass in Brighton the next day. Equally odd to see your son waiting for you at the Trastevere station in Rome.
\nI had the directions to the apartment, he sort of knew where it was (it’s in Monteverde, he lives in Trastevere. Yes, it’s away from the Center…but it’s very nice. And it’s cheap. As I said. They have buses here. I’ll ride them.)
\nMy father had warned , “You know, it’s up a hill. You should probably get a taxi.”
\nWhatever, Dad.<\/em>
\nUm…many, many steps later, carrying suitcases…
\nYeah. There was a hill. But hey…I need the exercise!
\nWe found the place, after walking right by it once. The proprieters came to meet us, gave me a great orientation\u00a0 – she even had maps on the wall with bus stops and routes outlined, and so on. I practiced locking and unlocking the door in front of them, we said Ciao<\/em>, and David and I went in search of some pizza – just from one of the countless storefront by the slice places in Rome, but my cherry tomato and fresh mozzarella and tiny mushroom slab was delicious, as is usually the case.
\nLast time, my favorite kind of pizza in Rome was slathered in green olives, sometimes with onions. Looking forward to that.
\nAs well as to seeing a few things I’ve seen before as well as many things I missed last time. Missing everyone else terribly, especially that special joy that comes with traveling with small children – and I\u00e0m not being sarcastic. As much as I was glad I wasn’t dragging them as I was racing to jump on the F-1, there is something irreplaceable about being with children as they experience the new and sometimes the strange.
\nSo…that’s it for now. Time for sleep, and more tomorrow, I hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Got there in plenty of time for the next flight. Gatwick has an odd system – well at least BA did. They don’t post gates until about 30 minutes before a plane takes off. So there’s always a crowd of people around the board, waiting, waiting, waiting. No wine on this flight. But it did…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAnd on to Rome - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/11\/and-on-to-rome.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"And on to Rome - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Got there in plenty of time for the next flight. Gatwick has an odd system – well at least BA did. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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