Thursday/Friday: We board a train late Thursday night, which we have a reservation for (unlike many others) and head to Zurich. About 100 Franciscan students are standing/sitting on the floor until we get to Salzburg, when all but our crew of 3 exit the train. We then continue all night to Zurich, Switzerland. Here, we walk around the city and have a short breakfast, get back on the train and head to Milan. This train ride=most beautiful two hours of my life. Sun shining over the mountains, the snow-capped peaks of which are showing over the clouds, the sun is reflecting off of the lakes in front of the mountains, just unbelievable. After arriving in Milan, we find out hotel, check in, and head out. We see the city, the beautiful Duomo, and find the Church of St. Ambrose. We see pretty much everything Milan has to offer that we could get to in a day, and then finish the night with some gelato.
Saturday: Wake up ready to head to Rome. The first stop, however, was the open-air market outside of our hotel. After that, we head to the train station, get our reservations, and board a train for Rome. After arriving in Rome, we get our first experience with the Metro. We successfully take it to the right stop, but then leave the metro station walking in the wrong direction. We finally figure it out,and get to our hotel after way too long of a journey. We head to mass with the school at the Sacra Coure down the street. We then have our first Italian meal at the restaurant. Wine on the table, a first course of pasta, a second course of meat, and then a dessert-let's just say I was ready to eat like that all week. Then we head out from the hotel, board the metro, and head to the Trevi fountain. Lit up at night with gelato, it is absolutely beautiful. After finishing our gelato (this one was for you mom, just like I promised), we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. A very good start to the time in Rome, but it was all about to get that much better.
Sunday: We had mass at 10:30 scheduled, so we chose to get up early and get to St. Peter's Square. As I walked through Bernini's columns, all I could do was smile and proclaim "welcome home." And there we were, at our home, at the home of our faith, and at what is quite possibly the most magnificent place on earth. After gawking at the square for a while, we decided to go up to the cupola. We payed the entrance fee, and began to climb the 551 stairs (there was an elevator for part of it, but that cost more, so we obviously walked). The first thing you see, halfway up, is the inside of St. Peter's from inside the dome. Saying it takes your breath away doesn't do it justice, but it was definitely quite phenomenal. We then continued all the way up, until we finally reached the very peak and stepped outside to a view of everything that Rome has to offer. After taking pictures and jut staring for miles at the beauty of this city, we were in complete and total awe as we made our way back down. After walking into St. Peter's, we marveled at its beauty for a while before making our way to the front for mass. Mass was in Latin, and was had with about 100 cardinals and bishops-it was fantastic. Immediately after mass we headed out into the square for the angelus with Pope Benedict. Although he only spoke English for a short period of time, we were glued to every single word he spoke (go look up what he said, it was pretty amazing). After the angelus, we then decided it was lunch time. We went back to the Trevi, and found a small pizza place down the street. After eating brick-oven pizza with some Chianti, we were pretty satisfied. We then grabbed some gelato (you will begin to notice a theme for the week) and headed to the first of the tours. Where did this tour begin you may ask? Oh, you know, just outside the Colosseum (which, interestingly enough, was a site for protesters the whole week-we wanted a showdown with the cops, but it never came). From the Colosseum, we saw things just as St. Peter in Chains Church (that has the actual chains used for him), Mary Major (one of the major basilicas of Rome), a Church that has over 2300 martyrs from the catacombs, and St. Clement's, where you can see the excavated remains of a church from the year 97 AD. After that, we returned to the Colosseum for a while, and then went back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner, we went to our first of four holy hours at the Church down the street, and then we set out on the town...for some more gelato. And that was day #2 in Rome. Oh what a day.
Monday: The tour that was offered by the school on Monday was long, extensive, and would have been very crazy-so I obviously did not attend. Instead, we hit the highlights on our own. First, we went to the Capuchin Bone Church (underneath the church there is a sort of exhibit made completely of the bones of old Capuchin friars)-it was very powerful. At the end, there is a quote which says "We were once where you are; you will one day be where we are." Needless to say, that hit hard. After that, we went to Our Lady of Victory, where there is a beautiful statue of St. Joseph, and an AMAZING statue of St. Theresa in spiritual ecstasy. After that, we found our way to the Spanish Steps, where we did that tourist thing and sat for a while. We then made our way to St. Peter's and had lunch near the Square. Later that day, we went on the Scavi Tour. This tour took us into the excavations beneath St. Peter's, where excavators from the Vatican found ancient Pagan burial chambers, as well as the bones of St. Peter. It was one of the definite highlights of the trip-I absolutely loved it. We then went back for dinner at the hotel, and afterwards I went with a couple of friends to the North American College. This is a place, near the Vatican, where many American students live while studying in Rome, most of whom are seminarians. We went there to meet up with those seminarians and do Praise and Worship with them, which was amazing. Afterwards, I met up with people in St. Peter's Square, where we played frisbee for a while. After that, we headed to the Spanish steps to see them lit up at night, which was amazing. Finally, we almost got kicked out of a metro station (it was late, the man was angry, and we were goofing around-it turned out okay though) before getting back to the hotel to end day number 3, another phenomenal day.
Tuesday-Today began with a trip to Saints Cosmas and Damian Church, a church which used to be the courthouse for the old Roman Forum, and is now the mother Church of the Franciscan Friars. After that, we toured the ruins of the Ancient Roman Forum, which was a history major's heaven. We left that tour and then proceeded to enter into the Colosseum, which was simply breathtaking. The beauty of the place, mixed with the history that you could simply feel from being there made it something truly special. After the Colosseum, we returned to St. Peter's Square, simply because everything we did needed to begin from there. We had lunch near the square, and then a couple of us went into the Vatican Museum. After enjoying the Papal Gardens, the exhibits at the museum, and the beauty of the place, we went to the real reason for our going-the Sistine Chapel. All I can really say is wow. The beauty of the chapel is un-paralleled in my opinion. We simply stood in the middle of that room and stared, because it was the most marvelous sight I could imagine. After we finally peeled ourselves away from there, I visited St. Ignatius of Loyola (after stopping for gelato of course), my confirmation saint, at the Jesuit Church in Rome. I then visited St. Paul's outside the walls, another beautiful basilica in Rome (one of the 4 major basilicas). I then returned on the metro for dinner and enjoyed another delicious (although sometimes slightly small-portioned) dinner. After dinner, the night consisted of gelato and a trip back to St. Peter's Square to enjoy its beauty at night once again. Once again, a long and marvelous day came to a close.
Wednesday-Tuesday night was a fairly early night of sleep because Wednesday, and a papal audience, meant an early wakeup. We got to the audience and stood in some pretty hard rain for about 45 minutes waiting to get in, and once the doors opened we ran. Getting to our seats by 8:30, we sat as far up as we could and waited patiently for the entrance of our Holy Father. He entered, and the audience happened (mainly in Italian, but he spoke about 6 languages). When they announced that Franciscan University was there, well, we were loud, and made sure that he knew we were pretty happy to see him. After the audience, we hung out in the area around St. Peter's Square, doing some shopping and some eating (I bought a nice Italian tie, and, just like every other day, got some pizza for lunch). After lunch, we headed in the direction of the Sacred Steps and St. John Lateran. The Sacred Steps were brought to Rome by St. Helen, the mother of Constantine, and are the steps Jesus climbed a few times to meet Pilate. These steps are now covered by wood, but you can still see and touch parts of them, and you climb them on your knees. After this powerful and moving experience, we went across the street and had mass at St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Pope and the home of our Church. This Church contains things like the first baptismal font that all Catholics would have used after the time of Constantine, the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, and a table that is believed to be the table that the Last Supper was celebrated on. After this, we went down the street to Santa Croce, where there are multiple actual relics from parts of Christ's passion. This took us right to dinner, and after dinner we did a tour of Rome-literally (but only partially on accident). We began at the Spanish Steps (we did all of it to see everything at night, lit up, one last time). We then walked to the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon (the largest unreinforced dome in all the world), through the Piazza Novona to get the best gelato in town (a highly debated topic, but it was delicious), and to St. Peter's Square. After spending a few minutes there, 4 of us jumped on the metro for the Colosseum, which is gorgeous at night. Since the metro was closed, a series of walking, getting fresh delicious donuts, making slightly wrong turns, and continuing to walk for an hour got us, well, not very far. So we took a bus. Little did we know, we went the wrong direction. Upon realizing this, we got off, and with the help of a kind Italian man found the bus we needed to be on, and finally at approximately 2:30 we wound up back at our hotel. It was the perfect way to end our time in Rome.
Thursday-Early in the morning we awoke, boarded the bus, and began our voyage to Assisi. A couple hours of sleeping later, and we were at the sight of the original Porziuncula (a replica of which, called the Portiuncula, is on campus back in Steubenville). We looked around there for a while, and then took a bus up the hill into the heart of Assisi. After checking into the hotel, we set out to see the town before we had mass at St. Rufino's. After wandering the beautiful, quaint streets, and then going to mass, I proceeded to feel pretty sick and fall asleep for a while. After a few hours of sleeping, which required me missing dinner and a Festival of Praise meeting, I woke up and went to play Mafia until the wee hours of the morning, ending the first day in Assisi. It was a good day-we didn't do much, which would be a theme of Assisi, other than relax and enjoy the town.
Friday-This day began with mass at Santa Chiara (Saint Clare's), and then there was a walking tour. I did my own walking tour however, which simply means that I wandered and found cool things. We visited a few places, including the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi, which was very powerful. After visiting his tomb (and the gift shop), I went back to Saint Clare's tomb and the chapel with the original San Damiano cross. After lunch, I went with a friend to the train station to go one town over to visit her household patron, Blessed Angela of Foligno. Finding a bus to the train station was much more difficult than Rome (they're just not quite as efficient in this little town), but eventually we found our way to Foligno. It was a beautiful church, and a really great time of silence in front of Blessed Angela, while looking at a picture of John Paul II kneeling in the same spot only a few years ago. After visiting her, we returned to Assisi for the Festival of Praise, which was simply amazing. We had the festival in the Church that the friars live in now, and it was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. After the festival, I returned to the hotel to play some uno (there isn't all that much to do in Assisi at night, we had to entertain ourselves) before bed. Once again, a relaxing but amazing day.
Saturday/Sunday-After sleeping in (until the cleaning ladies just started cleaning right around me), I woke up and went back to the tomb of Saint Francis. I stayed for a while, and attended mass in Italian there. I then went back to lunch, and after lunch we set up for the hermitage walk. The hermitage of Saint Francis is at the top of a very large hill, and was about a 1 hour walk, straight uphill, and we were going pretty quick. We spent a large amount of time just enjoying it-it was a beautiful sunny day, and we could see for miles. It made a lot of sense from up there why Saint Francis would have put his hermitage where he did, it was a simply breathtaking place. After the time there, we made the trek back down the hill, got the last gelato, and went to a Vigil Mass. Then there was dinner, and after dinner went up to the castle. We climbed the walls of the castle and sat there just looking out on a clear, starry evening-literally the perfect way to end this 10-day. After this, we returned for some more mafia and shenanigans around the hotel (pouring water out the window, stealing mattresses-the usual) before packing and preparing for a 6 am departure. We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning, loaded the bus, and made the long trek all the way back to our home in the Kartause in Gaming. And here I am, not even able to put into words all that has happened in the last week.
And so, if you didn't realize, it was a long and busy week. We did a lot, and didn't do much in the way of stopping. And yet, even though we are all exhausted and dreading being back in class, it was worth every second. I loved the big city feel of Rome, and the relaxation that was Assisi. I loved every minute of it, and can't wait to get back to Italy.
I know you probably want more (I'm funny right), but I think that is all I have. Obviously, more than that happened. There were jokes, random funny tour guides on the street (and i quote "Come on guys, I have no career or anything, this is it, help me out"), and some pretty crazy sights. All of those stories, however, will be reserved for another time. In one word, the only way that I can truly describe Rome and Assisi is...Wow. Good bye, and in the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, Pax et Bonum, Pace e Bene, Peace and Blessings.
