You're not going to believe this!!!!

This blg entry may take more than one post - bear with me!
Background:
     Before we left for Italy, Pat's colleague and our friend, Arthur brought a conference on St. Augustine, taking place in Rome to Pat's attention. He said he was going to be in Rome that week and it would be great to go. Included in this (free) conference was a tour of the pope's summer palace, Castel Gandolfo. So they signed up. I thought I might like to go along for that tour too.
       Fast forward to yesterday. It is the first day of the conference and the bus leaves for the tour at 3:30 PM.   In the morning, I try to go to the market, which turned out to be closed for some unfathomable reason.  While I was walking back, Pat calls and says that Arthur thinks that I can get in on the tour. So I scurry home (as fast as I can scurry with a cane!). Pat shows me the flyer. Evidently this is not just a tour; it is a concert (of an opera entitled "Augustinus") and a multi course dinner after.
      Ok, so we are waiting in the middle of a street near the Bernini columns (the meeting place) and the buses show up, as does a woman with a list of names. I figured my chances of getting on this bus were slim to none as only Pat and Arthur's names were on the list. As she is checking names for th 2nd bus, the woman on the first bus says they need 10 more. So they shepherd 10 of us, including me, onto the bus!!   YES!!!!!   I am in!!!!!
      So we ride (in horrendous traffic) for an hour and a half to Castel Gandolfo, listening to the conversation of a bus full of Germans!! All I kept thinkng of was the MC from Cabaret!!! LOL!!!
    to be continued.......