A Reunion With An Old Friend

Sunday, July 2, 2006 This morning we worshipped with the Florence congregation. The faithful were all there- Luigi and Liliana, Paolo, Andrea, Gianfranco, Natascia with her children, Sarah, Mario and Marco. We had a wonderful worship time together and then left to have lunch at La Tortuga, a small neighborhood restaurant. We followed our lunch with our first gelato of the trip at Piazzale Michelangelo. It was a beautiful day with a wonderful breeze and we sat on the steps enjoying the view. As we headed towards the villa, taking the back "walled" road to Le Bagnese, we decided to stop at the villa of Terry's best friend as a child, Nicola Del Croix ( a descendent of the French painter). Terry was totally surprised when Nicola himself answered the door! They had not seen each other in 37 years! It was quite a reunion. Nicola now lives in Ethiopia and works for the EU. We visited about an hour as his family kept bringing out more wine, appetizers, bowls of pistachios, etc. They caught up on their childhood friends and talked of their school days, and their difficult teachers:) Those teachers did something right. It is interesting how many of their group are working as Ambassadors from Italy, a doctor in Uganda, PhD's, etc.--all from a little public school in a small neighborhood in Florence. Unfortunately, Terry was committed to speaking up at the villa so we had to say our good-byes. When we got home this evening we were able to get ahold of the children. They were all celebrating Brandon's safe arrival home from China at the Rainforest Cafe . It was a wonderful day.