POTUS in Rome

Obama spent Thursday in Rome, meeting with the Pope, who lectured him on the evil of covering contraception under Obama Care.  He next met the Italian president and then the prime minister before touring the Colosseum. He was accompanied by a fleet of cargo planes who delivered the armored vehicles for his convoy, including an ambulance. The entourage included 100 secret service agents who apparently behaved themselves here, unlike in Amsterdam.  You don't want to mess with these guys, drunk or sober

Also in town and staying with us were Martin and Anna from Stockholm. Martin is the son of our old friends Lars and Eva Maria Vidaeus who live in Maryland and Stockholm. Anna is his delightful girl friend.  

Today, Friday, they were off to the Sistine Chapel while we hit the road for a day trip to Bomarzo the seat of the counts Orsini, one of whom created an extremely weird garden called the Bosco Sacro (sacred grove). It is a wood filled with gigantic statues mainly carved out of the local tufa in situe.

The place must get very little direct sunlight since the magic of the statues is largely due to their being covered with moss.  They languished abandoned and known only to local shepards for 400 years before being rediscovered in the 1930's by Salvador Dali amoung others.

The hike through the garden was followed by a late lunch in Bomarzo at the very unpretentious Trattoria da Zena.  Imagine the perfect Itallian grandmother in her kitchen and you have the lady who runs the place.