I find it strange that of all of the accents that you here in a foreign country the one that you don't hear is your own. It took me about 20 minutes to realise that the priest I heard preaching today was an Australian. I will give it that his Australian was somewhat tinged with a touch of something else but it was a surprise none the less. There still some other Aussies left in Rome as we found when we bumped into sister Maria Buongorno this morning and again this afternoon. I suppose that our movements are somewhat predictable as tourists but twice in one day is a bit eerie.

After a lunch of pizza slices and water from the fountain in the piazza in front of the Pantheon, we went on one of those adventures that inevitably happen when Gina is in charge of navigation. She had the right bus number but unfortunately the wrong direction. We ended up at the terminal way out in the burbs behind the Borgese Gardens before boarding the same bus to go back the other direction to get to Trestevere.

This section of Rome is written up in may older guide books as a place to be well avoided because of its run down nature and likelihood of crime. These days it could be considered the Balmain of Rome, having been gentrified. We had gone there to see a church that had been recommended as being one worth seeing, Santa Maria in Trestevere. Apart from some quite nice mosaic it was not especially interesting. The frescoes were not of a high quality. There were a lot of visitors, though, so maybe it has some feature that I missed.

The rest of the area is quite pretty. The buildings have a more rustic appearance than those in the centre of Rome and would offer many opportunities for drawings or paintings if one had the time and was not following in Gina's dust. Unbeknown to her, I got a couple of photos of her disappearing into the distance which I will use if called upon to give a presentation when we get back to school.

This evening we met the MLC group again for dinner. This time everyone one ate in the same ristorante, That's Amore, just near the Fontana di Trevi. Apparently this is a regular stop on the tour but Robert and the other regular teacher were not impressed with the service this time. The waitresses were very surly, giving the impression that we were an imposition on their time. There is no such thing as the customer always being right here. We followed dinner with gelato at the fountain.

Tomorrow Gina and Lizzie are off to London and Amsterdam with Robert and I will be left alone in Rome to learn to cope with being a solo traveler. Now that the time has come I am feeling a bit apprehensive but I suppose I will just have to get over it.