Home in Rome

Ok, this is a tour of the outside of our house and complex.  This is the brown door of our garage.  Mind you, FOUR cars must fit into that garage.  FOUR!!!.  Our space is #3 and it's a very tight turn to get around the corner and not hit car #2.  Tom is amazing.  Truly amazing.  But backing out of this garage is a trick.  It's much better if some of the cars are gone and we can turn around inside and drive forward out.  You may also note how the apartments seem to be built one on top of the other.  They are!  Now keep your eye on the brown garage door....

The gate to our complex.  The driveway gate and the pedestrian gate just to the right of the gate.  Oh and when you drive out of the driveway, you can't see if there are any cars coming down the street b/c your view is completely blocked by the brick wall.

Further down the street.  Notice that to drive into the driveway gate you have to be sure not to hit the car that is parked practically in front of that gate!

As you first enter our street.  This street is very typical.  Two way traffic in which it is impossible for two way traffic to flow, no sidewalks.   You can still see the brown garage door at the end.

Our street.  Via Villata!

If you make it out of the driveway without getting hit you still have this challenge:  This is at the end of the street.  You can see the street sign on the left hand side.  Tom loves this intersection.  Not!  You take your life in your hands everytime you are here.  The stone wall on the left blocks the view of the oncoming traffic completely.  There is a mirror but as you can see the van in front covers that.  Not too helpful.  So you nose yourself out into traffic and hope and pray you don't get mowed over.  Oh, and don't forget that there are buses, scooters, pedestrians with no sidewalks to walk on, parked cars, sometimes double parked cars making it impossible for two way traffic to flow.

This is the street that goes beyond our driveway. (brown garage door on the right corner)  Straight up and it's a two way street.  We count our blessings that at least we don't have to deal with this!  We only have to make sure we don't hit anybody flying down the road as we leave our garage gate.

Inside the gated complex.  Yes, note all windows are gated.  There is no robbery here b/c it's impossible to break in.  So we feel safe.  They do keep our little complex very clean.  The lemon tree is just outside our terrace.  We are on the 2nd floor.  So we have somebody below us as well as above us, but it's mostly quiet. 

Second floor is ours.  We have TWO air conditioning units.  I praise God for that blessing.  It's hovering between 30C and 33C mostly every day now.  38C is not unusual.  In F that ranges from 85 to over 100.  You need A/C (but our poor sisters don't have it!)  The Elders are on the first floor, not under us, but to the left...you can see their door.  We like to eat breakfast on the terrace and 'hide' behind the lemon tree.  Our landlords live above us.  Two young girls live in the tip top attic part (no A/C).

Now a tour of the inside.  Yes, that's Anziano Herway.  But we are at home, and we just had a very busy activity.  We deserve to wear comfy clothes and relax.  And you wear summer clothes because it's so hot!  This seat is the coolest place in the apartment b/c it's right under the A/C unit.

Our living room, which doubles as an office, which will double as a guest room if anybody is desperate enough to stay with us.  We bought most of the furniture at IKEA and assembled it ourselves.  The kitchen table we moved  in here b/c it was large enough to use as a desk.

Our bedroom.  Nice new mattress that is awesome.  Barred windows.  And there is a reason for that.  It's a poor area.  But the bars do make it safe.  We haven't been robbed yet!

Our foyer.  I love it.  Nice and roomy.  The only place in the house where I can do yoga.  So the foyer doubles as the yoga room!

The European kitchen.  We bought an outside table to put in here b/c it's so small.  But it's functional.  Gas stove.  Again barred windows.  Outside on the terrace is where I hang my laundry.

Front door!  Welcome to our missionary home!  (barred windows!)

We love having the missionaries in our building.  We have the Elders.  Just one building up the street are 4 Sisters.  We interface with them almost daily.  It's a welcome sight to see them.  I was out taking these pictures when I hear "Hello Sister Herway!"  It's the best part about where we live for sure.