Need my greens

Been craving green lately--no not veggies, but green space, where you can't hear cars. I was also needing potatoes and leeks to make a yummy potato cream soup, so I headed over to the closest vegetable garden and green space that is smack dab in the middle of our huge city-- the monastery garden. This garden run by the monks is an ancient Roman Amphiteater from Emperor Severius time, 172 BC.
You can see the Aurelian wall built to keep the barbarians out. This Castreanse amphiteather, unlike the Colosseum, is built right up agains the wall.

It used to be three stories and now only the ground floor remains with neat rows of herbs and vegetables and grape vines.

This was my first time to see kiwi growing. There were oranges and pomegranites everywhere as well. I could live in this space!

My friend Jennifer was trying to get me to sneak a sprig of rosemary for her. They didn't have any for sell and these bushes were HUGE. This man overheard, and he kept following her and watching her like a hawk. She said, "I know I know, I'm a thief and it isn't worth my soul not to make it to heaven over a handfull of rosemary, but I need it for my pork roast!"

Behind me is the arch where spectators would have come in, sat down and watched my friend Jennifer being fed to the lions for stealing.

Water is the center of the garden. The monk told us it represents Christ as the living water and should be central to our lives, and we like the plants need it for growth to thrive.

This flower is called a passion flower. A woman there opened it up and explained that this is how the Catholic missionaries converted the Indians to Christianity in America. There are 12 petals representing the 12 apostles, and the stamen in the middle looks like Christ's crown of thorns, and the 3 pistils are like the nails driven into Christ's hands and feet. Since the Indians were very tied to the land this made perfect sense to them: "All things denote there is a God..."

I also learned Italians, at least in days gone by, used these Cypress trees as a reminder to look to the heavens and God. They represent "the ladder" we are to use daily to climb heavenward.

All I know is this was a quiet corner in heaven and I was happy to be there. Unfortuately they closed at one o'clock for reposo (rest time). So, I went home and made the potato soup and gave my family a taste of heaven.