The second time she visited us was soon after I had remarked to my fellow travelers that I thought we were revisiting some familiar territory and perhaps going in a cork screw kind of direction. Then, in a quiet sort of neighborhood the bus pulled over to the curb. We began looking around to see what might be of such special interest. One building across the street had a lovely set if stained glass windows and we began speculating about the purpose of the building .... Maybe a convent or a girls school or .... What? When our lady from below finally blessed us with another visit, we immediately pounced on her with our question. But sadly she said she had been wondering about that building too. So, we could now see that we were all in this together and we probably wouldn't be around when the answer arrived. What she had really come up to tell us was that the driver seemed to not be feeling well. In fact, he was probably quite sick and they would be expecting another driver to replace him sometime soon along the way.
Then she left us and after some minutes we took bravely to the road again. Yes, I was saying to myself. We've passed by here just a short time ago. At the next major stoplight we pulled over into an official bus stop. Almost immediately we were being yelled at by some men with hats for sale. That was of course as timely as the water had been because it was getting hotter by the minute. Our driver soon appeared outside the bus right next to the hat vendors and we wondered what was going to happen next. He didn't look well and seemed to be rather frantically looking up and down the street, probably for someone to come and rescue him. Meanwhile I began taking an interest in the hats and asked the vendor how much they were. He said 3 euros and that seemed like such a good price that I began pointing to the one I might want. He misread my lips and threw up a white one and I threw it back. This went on until I had one that would work and began groping in my purse for the money. I threw him the three euros and he said I hadn't given him enough. We all three defended our cause, saying emphatically that he had said three, not five. As the bus was pulling away, all the vendors were calling up to us and we were answering back like a chorus. The bus took off and I put on my new sun protector. At the next stop Linda and Elaine did commerce with two different parasol sellers. That was almost as fraught with angst as well as comedy because they kept throwing up the wrong color for Elaine. Then the bus was about to take off so one of the men actually boarded and made a quick leap up the stairs to get his money. Some recriminations took place as he exited and we were off and running again.
Our lady came up one last time to tell us that our stated destination at the Forum had been reached and we were quickly ushered down the stairs and off the bus right between the Forum and the coliseum. What a thrill!
Well, I've used up a lot of space telling you about the only ride we had on a bus the whole day. And I'm too sleepy to continue for now. I'll try to get back to the fabulous time we had at the Forum and the Coliseum in the afternoon as soon as I can. We're being picked up at 8:30 tomorrow morning by Averil and Bruce who've arranged to show us the Vatican and all that it entails. Who knows when I'll get caught up with this saga? It's enough to say that we're having a wonderful time and thinking about getting back to California at the same time. Elaine and I both send greetings to our friends at PacificTextile Arts as well as the Senior Center. See you all soon.
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