Last Wednesday for Greek club, I took the night off from cooking and everyone brought pizza instead. Thursday I met Amanda bright and early and we spent the day shopping. Bought a cute dress (I ended up wearing it at the wedding Saturday) for 30 euro. Tried on a few pairs of shoes but the only ones I liked were $$$ so I decided to wait. We had lunch at La Fiametta (sadly, no lemon pistachio pasta anymore, but a very good cannelloni), drank some chilled white wine and had so much fun out.
After shopping, I met Pat & we went over to John & Leah's for drinks. Here's the progression from day to night on their roof.
A few of our NYC friends had arrived for the wedding by then. So good to see Mike & Emily especially - they'd had the most stressful trip (lost luggage, $$$ Venice, Italian bureaucracy) and seemed happy to finally be with friends in Rome. Everyone was tired so it was a relatively early night.
Friday was the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul - the biggest holiday in Rome. Translation: everything was closed. So Reginaldus made sure our weekly Latin trip was out of town. We met early at Termini and took the train, then bus to Cicero's birthplace in Sora. Gorgeous day - river, hills, monasteries.
We even enjoyed a subsidized lunch at a restaurant decorated like Egypt but serving Italian food. Then we went to another monastery with a beautiful courtyard and a distillery.
After touring the grounds with an adorable Italian monk and seeing their private library, refectory & church, we ran across the street to their shop. We bought some coffee liquor for home & Heineken's for the bus ride back. Here's Pat with my shopping buddy Amanda.
Returning to Rome around 9PM, some classmates joined us for a late dinner in the Ghetto. Jewish-Italian food = fried goodness. Finally tried the zucchini flowers.
Saturday was the wedding. John & Leah had asked me to take some photos and I quickly became a wedding photographer (aka bossy) but everyone called it professional and seemed relieved.
The day began at the Basilica di St. Pancrazio for the ceremony - a full Latin mass celebrated by none other than Pat's teacher, Fr. Reginald Foster.
He has been such a driving influence in John and Leah's relationship so it was completely fitting - and the reason for holding the wedding in Rome in the first place. He was wonderful - funny, gruff, and moving. Plus some of Leah's friends formed a choir and sang beautifully together.
After the Mass, I assembled the families for some formal shots then we all walked through the park to the reception lunch at Ristorante Scarpone. Amazing food & wine and touching toasts. After the lunch, we all walked down to the fountain on via Garibaldi for more photos. I somehow wrangled everyone together for this shot.
After the wedding Pat and I went home to relax a bit before meeting Mike and Emily for quiet drink. We wandered around and found a cute wine bar near the piazza Navona. Then meet the group for gelato at John & Leah's place. On the way home (meaning we only spent 2 hours), we stopped into a classmate's party at his apartment on Campo di Fiori I can see why the New York Times just wrote about obnoxious tourists in the Campo at night. But the apartment was nice and we ended up having a sing-a-long with Pat on guitar. Still, an exhausting night.
Remind me to thank our wedding photographers again - it was amazing to document their day but something I really think I'd only want to do for friends.
Sunday was another early morning. We met the wedding party for a private bus to Subiacio; the monastery of St. Benedict. 
Another gorgeous day outside the city. The murals in the church were incredible but the setting was better up in the mountains. We walked all over, picnicked along the path and even took a hike straight up into the woods. Needless to say, most of us were sleeping during the bus ride home.We parted ways with the group and Emily came home with us for a relaxing dinner at home. Unfortunately every grocery/bakery/butcher's shop was closed for Sunday so we ended up walking down the hill and meeting Mike for dinner in Trastevere instead. After Pat vetoed a wine bar we went to a tourist trap with very good cheap food instead. Surprisingly good choice! M & E were flying back this morning - we're sad to see them go but happy we got to spend so much time with them.
We're hosting one of Leah's cousins for the next couple of days here. But otherwise we're back to normal after a wild week of food, drink, travel and fun. I've even uploaded all the wedding photos to Flickr but still need to do a quick edit. The rest of the week should be fun too - especially since our NYC friend Kristin is arriving Wednesday. Oh, the shopping we'll do! Now that I think about it, I should probably take a nap while I can.
PS: Congratulations to Sue & Dan on the arrival of their beautiful baby Henry! He's adorable and I'm hoping her 6 hour labor is somehow contagious to former roomies. I can't wait to meet him when we return next month.
