Despite the date given above, it's actually still late on Sunday according to the time here in Rome and we recently returned to our apartment after what will be our last day here. Tomorrow, when it's really Monday, we set sail (in airborne fashion) to Amsterdam for the second part of our European holiday.
Today we travelled up to the northern suburbs of the city to have a look at the Mosque of Rome. It was a bit tricky getting there, since it's well out of the way of any direct bus route - and even trickier getting back, partly because we got stuck in a considerable late afternoon downpour.
But our least 'touristy' day turned out to be one significant in a variety of human encounters. At the mosque we met a family from Singapore touring Italy in a rented vehicle who'd been robbed of all their luggage, including passports and travel documents, after a brief stop-off on their way from Napoli. This put any problems we had with the rain into considerable perspective. Noi also got chatting to a lady from London (now living in Rome) at the mosque as they prayed together. She was entertaining company, if only briefly so. And then later in the evening whilst waiting for a bus back home from the Metro station we got chatting to a young lady from Turkey studying at the university here who was both charming and fascinating with regard to her experiences of studying in Italy.
All in all, a useful reminder of the incorrigible plurality of humanity no matter where it finds itself, and how unexpectedly pleasant most of it manages to be.
Brief Afterword: Forgot to mention that we encountered quite a number of dogs in the course of our seven-day sojourn, but only two cats. Odd.
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