Fabrizio, Marina e Sara

 When you visit a place for the first time it can be a totally visceral experience. The Campo dei Fiori is the largest outdoor produce market in Rome, the daily routine just simply put, chaotic. It resembles an urban city version of Disney's Fantasia. Grace and I have spent many hours watching the events of the day unfold. From the very first vendors arriving early in the morning to the closing of shop...early in the morning.

No matter where you go, a certain group of people will be nice to you, the merchants. Sure it is transient, a fleeting moment, but, that isn't a permanent thing, that's up to you. In order to break the ice you need to establish yourselves as part of the normal routine. Not just scamper from shop to shop, site to site, etc., but really take some time to observe, to sit, to relax, to question. It worked for us.

These are our friends. At the start they were friends that we had not met. Now they and many others are much more than simply friends, they are part of our large adopted family. Accumulated over the years. Not blood, but chosen. In
 many cases closer than blood. These are the people that changed Rome from a place to visit to the place where our hearts live.

It started with a simple question. Grace asked Antonio why Fabrizio was alone this day. Marina had to stay home with her husband, he isn't well. Grace got up and started helping Fabrizio. Later I helped him break down for the day. That's all it took, care, concern and a little effort. Soon the other vendors wanted some of the "cheap American help", we were now part of the routine.

Fabrizio and Sonia invited me to go to an A.S. Roma soccer game. I had watched the twins and Britney play soccer... this was different. When I returned, walking across the Campo, new hat, new scarf, etc, Grace was astounded. I don't wear hats, only as a joke. Who won? What was the score? I was not just a self-concerned tourist, but a part of the community.

Hope is with us to the end. At the risk of offending, nothing in my life has compared to the feeling of belonging that I...we, discovered here in the very heart of Rome.  The many pictures of an absolutely radiant Grace visably attest to the powers this place and these wonderful people have over us. To return is a dream, to return together an unrequited one. Perhaps-later.