After that, we kept walking and ended up in St. Peter's square, where we sat and kibitzed a bit. Christopher, being here last spring, was here during the emotional time of John Paul's illness and death, and Benedict's election -- he spent a lot of time in the square, and it was good to talk at last about our different experiences, him here in Rome and myself back at the home campus in Minnesota.

Then it was getting close to dinner, and hey, Trastevere is THE place to go for food in Rome, generally speaking... so why not? We walked down the Tiber (passing the Regina Caeli prison, by the way, another place filmed for the movie "Scarlet and the Black") and ended up at a great little family resturante -- with great homemade gnocchi!! (FYI - if you're coming to Rome, Thursday is called "Gnocchi Giovedi" because it's gnocchi day! Practically every restaurant will be serving hot fresh gnocchi, and boy is it good, a real Italian speciality.) Christopher was really enjoying the gnocchi, however, I don't think he was enjoying my camera's flash! LOL!