Today was Operation: See the Pope. It was a pretty hilarious endeavor . So normally the Pope will have an audience outside, and our teachers gave us directions (pretty much military plans) to stake our a place in line early, and get to the very front so we could have a chance to shake his hand or be kissed! Unfortunately, the night before we found out that it had been moved inside. Which meant he wouldn't drive his Pope mobile through the aisles. That aside, we were still pretty pumped for the Audience We lined up early in the front of the line, and then the gates opened/ And we might have stampeded toward security with a force so strong it knocked one girl over and we might have just left her on the ground and continued our quest to be the first ones there. Once through security, the Swiss gourds were telling us not to run, so we ran. Giggling the entire way we tried to make our crazed running look like walking and we got to the first section and took up as many seats as we could get.
As the people filled in, you could see all sorts of different groups and countries holding flags and banners. And we started having a cheer off. It was such a heart warming thing. Tons of different cultures and languages and groups cheering and singing and chanting. We yelled U S A as loud as we could, people from Africa were doing some dance, these polish people were singing loud and proud in polish. We were all so different, yet we were all there because we were members of the Catholic Church. And it was grand.
Papa Bene came out and the readings were read and reflections were given in several different languages. It was a long morning and we finally left around 1 and made our way to a great cheap pizza place. We hit up a couple super cheap and beautiful Catholic trinket stores and stocked up on gifts. Then spent the rest of the day roaming Rome.
My favorite part of the trip started at 3:30pm. Right at the hour of Divine Mercy, I was blessed to be able to climb the Holy Stairs which Jesus himself climbed the day he died to be sentenced to death in front of Pilate. Each step has it's own prayer and you climb it on your knees. It was a beautiful meditation and I absolutely loved it.
Afterwards we had Mass at St. John Lateran. After Mass we headed to Santa Croce, which contains a Relic Room with actual parts of the thorns from the crown, a nail from the crucifixion splinters from the true cross and a replica of the Shroud of Turin.
It was a beautiful, well spent day last in Rome. Off to Assisi in the morning!
Today we started our day at THE mother house for the Franciscan Third Order Regular friars. For those of you who don't know, they are the wonderful men who run my university. The Church is located basically in the Roman Forum and it is OLD. They just celebrated their 500 year anniversary, but the church has been there way before that! It is called Cosmas and Damien (and of course, the bones of both saints are buried beneath the main altar).
We then broke out into groups on another tour around Rome. We saw the Pantheon, a couple piazzas (not pizzas) and a few more churches. I can't explain everything on this blog because it's hard to remember everythign we learn on these tours. But the Pantheon was really cool. It's the largest free standing dome. It's HUGE. And it has a hole at the top, so it rains and snows inside!
After seeing the Pantheon we went to get gelato at a place called Gelateria Della Palma.... It. is. AMAZING. SO MANY FLAVORS! Like a million. Okay maybe 100. But still. So many different unique flavors. I got cinnamon and chocolate and grapefruit. It was delicious.
We then got a quick lunch at some little Italian cafe. I ordered on whim 'crispy potatoes'. It came to my table and I was like, what in the world did I just order. It was potatoes, gorgonzola cheese, walnuts, and butter covered with a kind of lettuce. It was so delicious! After lunch we asked for the check and instead they brought us out shots of limoncello. We told the waitress we didn't order them, but she said 'For free!!'. Only in Italy would they bring out free alcohol after a meal. Then it was off to the Scavii tour of the grotto and underground ancient burial grounds of Rome which are under St. Peters. Though muggy and hot and led by a tour guide who's enlish was not adequate enough to explain what was down there, the tour was so cool. We actually were walking underground on roads that ancient Romans walked on. Oh, and St. Peter's bones are down there too!
That night, instead of going to the adoration back at our hotel, a group of us were picked up by seminarians and brought to the PNAC (Pontifical North American College) for adoration and praise and worship. It was beautiful. Not only was singing among such holy men in front of Christ an absolute honor, but to see this huge college with 250 seminarians dedicated their lives to Christ was truly inspiring and full of hope. The Catholic Church is so alive!!
Today was a day of touring. As much of a pilgram as I am, I at heart am still a tourist. First us was Mass at St. Paul outside the Walls. What a GIGANTIC church. We had Mass in English and then it was off on a 3 hour walking tour! Really what this means is Franciscan takes us to about a gazillion churches. I will give some brief details of each, but I seriously cannot cover all the interesting and beautiful attributes of everything I saw.
First up second major basilica of the day, Mary Majors. It is an impressive baroque church, but what is more impressive is what it contains. Along with a few Holy saints buried there, the Church highlights under the main alter actual pieces from Jesus Christ's manger.
Next was the Basilica of St. Prassede. Prassede was a roman Senator's daughter. In this church was the pillar at which Christ was scourged. It was pretty intense to pray in front of that.
Walking more.. (oh joy) we headed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This church has the Icon of our lady holding Baby Jesus who is completely dependent on her, and scared for his impending passion. But she looks at us confidently urging us to be brave.
We took a quick peek into St. John Lateran (but we are going to have Mass there later this week so not much detail here) Then it was off to get Gelato at Old Bridge (the best biggest serving cheapest price Gelato in Rome). Otherwise none as the PERFECT excuse to buy more gelato.
After the quick gelato break, and a nice rest for our feet, I was again off on another three hour tour. This time of the Vatican Museum. At first I was not too thrilled for this because I figured it would be a boring tour of art and I don't have too big of an appreciation for art. However, as soon as the tour begin i was immediately fascinated I had many 'jaw dropping' moments, and little gasps i couldn't help but let out! It was just so beautiful. I learned that Italy, the country, is only 81 years old! The Vatican museum, however is the 2nd oldest in the whole world!
Our tour guide explained the Sistine Chapel before we went in, and without even seeing it I was amazed. Michelangelo was incredible. He painted the Sistine Chapel pretty much as a penance. I can't even begin to explain all of the work and effort and beauty and intricacy went into that chapel. A couple cool things, you know the famous painting of God and man touching fingers? Their fingers are actually over a foot apart!! They seriously look like they are an inch from touching, but because the ceiling is curved, it plays a trick on your mind!
After three hours of mind blowing information like that, a few of decided to trust Rick and get back into St. Peter's without having to go back through security. Rick told me that there is door in the back of the Sistine Chapel that leads straight to the Vatican. Well, there was a guard there and the door said 'authorized tours only' but Rick said to power on through them. So we did. After a few narrow hallways, walking past a few more guards we came out RIGHT in the foyer of St. Peters. Perfect end to the night. Thanks, Rick.
Day 2 and Rome and we were off to a running start. This trip we had breakfast and dinner provided for us by the hotel... this means very happy travelers :) :) So after a quick breakfast (bacon included) we were off to a different nation entirely, The Vatican. We got off the bus stop and walked through the underground tunnel and through the columns and wow... it is so regal and grand looking. I immediately loved it. We walked across St. Peter's Square, the large dome calling our names and went through security. We didn't even go into the Basilica first. We started by climbing about 500 stairs to the top of the dome. My first view of the inside of the Basilica was from the inside of the dome looking down. The people looked like ants!! And from the top we saw all of Rome, and all of the Vatican. For a city that contains SO MUCH, it's actually pretty small.
Coming back down we got ready for Mass, thinking it would be in English celebrated by our priest. However, what we didn't know was that they had scrapped our Mass because they had 5,000 people from all over Italy joining together to sing in a choir which only performs once every three years for Mass at St. Peters. Let me tell you, it was PHENOMENAL. It sounded like heaven. So we had a very very long Mass in Italian, and then we scurried out in the square to say the angelus with.... THE POPE! He poked his his head out of his apartment window and prayed very quickly in Italian. We cheered, and prayed, it was great.
After the Angelus we went to grab lunch, which for me consisted of a protein bar and a gluten free pastry filled with nutella i found in a store!
Then we met up with a bunch of seminarians from the Pontifical North American College who gave us a tour of the Basilica. It BLEW MY MIND. I love St. Peters. A lot. It is HUGE and there are so many hidden treasures. Too many to include in the blog, just go visit.
Then we had free time, and we were going to meet up with a Deacon who was going to bring us to see an exhibition on the Shroud of Turin... unfortunately he never showed.. So sad and wet from the rain we went back to the hotel and enjoyed another amazing three course meal.
GLUTEN FREE EVERYTHING. I was a happy camper.
Since this is a pilgrimage trip, every night we have adoration. And the chapel in Rome was RIGHT next to our hotel. So after scoffing down our desserts we made our way to sit with Jesus. It was a perfect way to decompress from busy Rome and reflect on everything you saw.
I will praise and exalt Rick Steve at any chance I get, and today was one of them. Last night we took the bus with the school to Rome. After a seemingly short 12 hour ride we arrived to our beautiful 4 star hotel, dropped our stuff, grabbed Rick and headed out the door. Rick set out a perfect day for us, a guided walking tour of the Roman Forum ending with the Colosseum.
We wandered through the 2,000 year old ruins that were once underground and stood in amazement. We walked upon stones that Cesar and Augustus themselves walked on. We tried to imagine the square as it was in B.C., the center of all civilization. As we took many pictures of many columns, i picked up a 'roman forum rock' and stuck it in my purse... a nice free souvenir :) Anyways, Rick gave us detailed stories of all the history that stood around us. I loved being there, knowing that some of these ruins existed even before Christ.
Next up, was the Colosseum. When we came out of the metro the first thing you saw, practically the only thing you could see, was the HUGE Colosseum. It is massive. Really really big. Like they used to fill up the stage with water and have NAVAL BATTLES in it!!!! It was hard to picture the seats full of Romans cheering over the death of so many people, yet it was so fascinating to know that this huge amphitheatre (built by enslaved Israelites) has been around for 2,000 years.
Next on our list of things we wanted to see was the Trevi Fountain. First we come out of the metro (perhaps spoiled by our first sight of the Colosseum) and we see this fountain... we were like, "that can't be it" so we followed a crowd of tourists and could hear the rushing of water from a few blocks down. We turned the corner and there is was! It, also, is HUGE! We threw our coins in like the tourists we are and we were off.
We had hopes of finding the Spanish Steps, but with Mass quickly approaching we decided to grab some gelato and make our way back to the Hotel. The hotel for Mass, you ask? Oh yes, there is a chapel practically attached to our hotel. It's Franciscan too!
After a beautiful opening Mass for our pilgrimage in Rome, we had a three course meal and now it's time to crash. Sleeping on a bus does very little, an tonight my bed will be a welcome relief and good preparation for out 6:30am morning!
Just got back from Switzerland. What a beautiful country. It is probably my favorite country (besides Ireland) by far. Two of my girl friends and I decided to take our 4 days break to Interlaken. We took an overnight train to Zurich on Wednesday night. I love over night trains, and hate them. I always think it's fun to get on a train and sleep and wake up in a different country. However, it's not very comfortable and if you have to sleep with strangers... you don't. We were lucky because our friends had 3 extra reservation for a compartment so the 6 of us women got one to ourselves. Which is good and bad. Good because we wouldn't be kicked out in the middle of the night and would not have a creepy man come into our compartment, bad because 6 women means a lot of hips. We slid down all the seats and attempted to fit all six of us across. One of the girls ended up sleeping in the luggage rack (she is small so she fit perfectly) and the rest of us spooned like it was our job. We woke up and took a few more trains till we ended up in the gorgeous mountains of Interlaken.
It is just so breathtakingly beautiful there. I loved it the second i got off the train. The sky was blue, the mountain tops covered in snow, and the trees in full Fall. We explored the city and window shopped until 1pm when we were being picked up by our first and biggest excursion of the day. A big ole van came rumbling to our hotel and this crazy long haired man named Ziggy ushered us on with a friendly "You ready to jump off a cliff???" He drove us up into Grimewald and we were getting closer and closer to the mountains, and closer and closer to the most terrifying thing i'd ever done.
At the top Mary Clare and I got harnessed up and were read our last rites. Haha just kidding. But we did sign our lives away. Then it was time to jump. Basically we were jumping off a cliff and then accelerating in freefall for 250 feet before the rope smoothly swings us at high speed through the narrow glacial canyon.... :) :)
Let me just tell you, skydiving was unbelievable. But this... this was TERRIFYING. It was so scary took my breath away made me scream like a little girl and it was amazing. The video is priceless. I got onto the platform ran and jumped, and immediately my body panicked and i started kicking my feet and flailing my arms. My face probably looked hilarious. And then you got to the bottom and swung through the canyon. It was exhilarating. Then watching the next person in line go after me, i was like HOLY CRAP i just did that!!!
After starting our Switzerland trip off perfectly we went back to our hotel for a good 3 hour nap. We then hit the streets for a night on the town. And ended up listening to some live music with friends of ours at their hotel. It was a nice quiet night and we were tired from training the night before so we crashed early and set our alarms for an early 'lofty' goal.
Finally making it out of our comfy bed and onto the train at 11am we set off to hike what looked good on the map. Pretty much we just looked at the mountains and said 'that one' and started off. The area is clearly marked with trail guides and signs. It's definitely geared for a lot of usage. We made it up pretty far and relaxed at the 'top' with a great view of the alps.
By the time we made it up and down it was already 5pm so we spent another quiet night in relaxing and enjoying some actual lazy time.
Saturday (our last day) was amazing. We decided to hike from Lauterbrunnen to Murren and then onto Gimmewald. It was an INTENSE hike straight up the mountain for 2 and half hours. We made great time and encouraged eachother to keep pushing. The scenery was gorgeous, tons of water falls and a great view of the mountains and valley below. Up at the top we wandered through the small mountain towns of Murren and Gimmewald. I only had one question. How the HECK do Swiss people get to their houses??? They literally have a house on a mountain with no road or path leading to it.... it's insane. I have concluded they must never leave their houses, or they ride cows.
Anyways, coming back down the mountain was easier, we took a cable car and a bus! We ended our day at Lake Thun and sat with our feet in the freezing glacier water welcoming the cool relief.
Switzerland was fantastic. I bought some chocolate and some cheese (both of which i enjoyed more than i can express) and I had a great time hiking. I would love to go back sometime, but it is so expensive there! Ah well.. maybe someday!
Oh i almost forgot! The post is titled land of the happy dancing goat because Interlaken's flag is just that... a happy dancing goat
