Some people (most people) called me crazy for going to Italy 2 weeks before my wedding but I wasn’t about to miss a chance to see first hand how God was going to use the film Imperdonabile for his good (and hopefully give me another opportunity to help him). Cory knows that this is my life’s calling – to serve God through film so when Giosué asked if I could come to help film at the premiere, Cory’s response was “why are you even asking? Just book the tickets.”
So off to Italy I went. I flew into Rome and took a train up. Trains in Italy are supposed to be easy but they never are for me. Last time I got delayed so much I got stuck in Bologna and spent the night at a friend of a friend of a friend’s house instead of a train station.
But this time around, I gave myself extra time in case I had any flight delays so I had about an hour and a half to kill but my train never showed up on the Termini station schedule. I figured it was getting delayed but with 15 minutes to go I knew it should have been up there – even with a delay.
Something clicked in my head and I pulled out my ticket to see the one thing I didn’t want to see. Tiburtina. My train was leaving the other train station. And I had to take the metro to get there. So I raced over to buy a metro ticket – I must have looked frazzled because someone else helped me so I could get it faster and I race downstairs skim the map because I’m really pushing it at this point. I race through the gate – except it won’t open. Ah the friendly guy bought a train ticket not a metro ticket so I have to go get one from the news stand and I hop on the first metro and study the map inside hoping I’m on the right one. I am.
Now I’m completely frazzled but I see my train on the board and rush to the platform where it’s already waiting. I find my seat next to a guy who is spread out and not moving. He tries to tell me that’s not my seat and I pull out my ticket (he doesn’t speak English) and looks thoroughly confused. Then starts saying a bunch of stuff trying to get me to understand but I have no idea. And then I realize. I’m on the wrong train.
My train is on the other side of the platform. (If you get on a train and don’t have a ticket or a ticket that is stamped and dated you can be fined a lot of money). So I hop off and get on the other train – find my seat and am finally bound for Florence.
Like I said, trains are supposed to be easy in Italy but something like this always happens. User error.
Finally I was off in the rain and I was able to relax – almost as much as my seat buddy.
Eventually I did make it to Florence and met up with Giosué to see what the game plan was for the week. I came early to be available for whatever help he needed. And when he didn’t need help, I set off looking for adventures.
My first day off, I set off to do a little hiking in the Tuscan hillsides.
The trails were very well marked (contrary to some research I had done).
I found where Da Vinci tested his flying machine. There is a plaque and everything.
It rained most of the time I was in Florence so I did a lot of walking but since I’ve lived in Florence and also have been back several times, I’ve done most of the touristy stuff – multiple times. So I just meandered around on foot and took advantage of the fact that you can walk everywhere.
One night, Giosué took some of us out to dinner. Being the gentleman that he is, he dropped the ladies off at the restaurant. And when we came back to the car, we all started laughing at his parking job. He was thoroughly confused. I told him he parked too close to the other car.
He replied “What? No! Look! I can stick my hand between them!” We continued to laugh. Apparently, if you bump a car, then you’ve gone far enough – according to him.
The night of the premiere came and it was a packed house. They had sold out of tickets which is uncommon for a documentary without a famous name attached according to the theatre staff.
Everyone just about showed up which is also unusual. But the screening went great. They had a Q&A after with Giosué (director), Mary Beth (producer) and the moderator was someone from Compassion. There were a lot of great questions and responses.
Giosué had a great vision for this project. His goal was not to present the gospel the night of the screening. He had people from different churches around Florence to invite their friends (most were unbelievers) to the premiere. He had a conversation guide for all the church members to help ask questions and start conversations about the film afterwards. He wanted them to invite them into conversations because they are the ones who have relationships with their friends – not him. And they can do a better job following up vs a blanket invitation to the gospel by a stranger on stage.
The day after the screening, Giosué had friends who called and wanted to meet to talk about the documentary. He said this was very uncommon because usually, people will just talk about it the next time they see you. So the fact they were asking to meet up was really encouraging. And many people at the screening said this was happening with their friends they brought too. So I would say the screening was a success!
I stuck around for another couple days before heading back to Rome to fly out. I’ve been to Rome 4 times now I think and it just rubs me the wrong way. But I thought I should give it one more try so I decided to make a day of Rome.
I saw a few sights but after a couple of hours fighting tourists I just couldn’t any more. So I went back to my hotel and called it a day. I had to leave at 3am anyway. I needed to rest up anyway because I had a wedding in 10 days.