The last time I wrote we were off to meet Zach's good friend and Duluth seminarian, Jeremy. We met him in front of St. Peter's Basilica, along with another Duluth seminarian Anthony. Jeremy said we had two choices. We could go to Vespers (Liturgy of the Hours-Evening Prayer) with Pope Benedict XVI and Mass later with Fr. Ryan, the newest ordained priest in the Duluth diocese, and I think the youngest, OR we could explore St. Peter's and go to Mass there. We choose Vespers with the Holy Father. DUH! So we got back on the Metro and headed over to St. Paul's Basilica outside the walls. It is pretty close to the site where St. Paul was killed (decapitated, basically) because he was a Roman and they wouldn't kill him inside the city walls. It is here that his body is, although his head is in the Vatican, I believe. We waited outside until we were allowed in at 4, which was really refreshing because it was warm out! It was also really awesome to chat with Jeremy and Anthony, who are super fun and funny, and they answered any questions we had about anything. There were a lot of religious around too, including the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa's order) we could tell by their white habits with the blue striped trim. We got in and got a super good spot towards the middle of the aisle, right where Benedict would walk. Seriously, like four seats away! Brooke and I were just giddy and smiling. It was a first for both of us. Vespers started at 5:30 and we saw the Holy Father walk in, right in front of us! Vespers lasted, maybe an hour? It was mostly in Latin and we had books to follow. The Latin I took helped a little, I could understand things here and there. On the way back down the aisle I got a super good view of Benedict. I even took this amazing video, but sadly, I deleted it. Brooke took one too though, so I'll just share hers. When we finally got out of there we headed to the North American College (NAC) where Jeremy, Anthony, and Fr. Ryan are doing their studies. Fr. Ryan said Mass for the five of us, which was pretty awesome! Then afterwards he took us out for some pasta! I got tortelli and it was terrific! We also got dessert and a sparkly white wine. Fr. Ryan got us after dinner liquors too, and I still don't really like them, haha. Then we headed to our hostel.
Yesterday, we decided to look at the ruins, so we started the day at the Colosseum. We got a small audio tour. That place is pretty big and it's pretty amazing that people used to fight animals. How scary! I especially feel for the martyrs who died there. Then we wondered through the casa di Augutus, the forum, and palatino? We weren't really sure what we were looking at and we didn't wanted to get the audio tour, and it was cold and rainy, so meh, I'll just google it later, haha. Then we had lunch at a cute little cafe and from there walked to St. Giovanni in Laterano. It used to be the residents of the Pope's until the 13th Century and is still the official Cathedral in Rome. It's crazy huge! On our way back to catch the metro we stopped at the church that was closed when we visited it the first time. It is the church of St. Clemente. This is basically, like Kalene explained it- a church on a church on a church. We went down into the excavations and saw the church that originally built around the 1st to 3rd century, in addition to a pagan altar down there. Then up a flight of stairs was another church, then built on top of that was the present day church. They were all very cool and it's incredible how the fresco's and churches are still able to be seen today!
Then we headed to the metro and went back to our hostel and got some laundry done, which was totally needed. We headed out for dinner and got some pasta. Now comes my favorite part- I had gelato for the first time! It was soooooooooo good. It is definitely my new favorite dessert. I LOVE it! I had chocolate chip and strawberry. That night we just kinda relaxed in our hostel, since we have been traveling like crazy for a full week. Time passes so fast!
Today we woke up a little early and started on our big walking adventure. We saw a lot today! We started with the Piazza del Popolo, which also had Saint Maria del Polopo, which is basically like St. Mary of the People. I really liked the church! Then we went to Piazza di Spagna and saw the Spanish Steps, which were kinda cool and kinda small. I am told they are in the movie Roman Holiday, which I need to see. Then we went and saw the "Bone Church", which is really a the Church of the Immaculate Conception, but 4,000 Capuchian friars were buried here. We had to go down below to the cemetary, but it's like a hallway with little chapels. All of them except for the one with an altar are decorated with the bones of these 4,000 friars. It was sweet, creepy and humbling. I wish I could show you what it was like, but we weren't allowed to take photos. But it was quite creative the way they decorated the walls with bones. Thanks to anatomy I could identify scapulars, skulls, jaws, ribs, and vertebrae. Seriously, all of these were used to decorate it. Basically, it's mean to remind us that to dust we shall return and life is short. One quote on the sign at the end said "We used to be what you are now, and soon you will be what we are now." It was interesting, but I'm still processing it. Next, we found the Trevi Fountain. That was pretty sweet. What a HUGE fountain! By then, I was starving for lunch so we stopped. I got the interesting combination of broccoli and sausage pizza and for dessert we had MORE GELATO. This time I got yogurt, berry and coconut. I just can't get over it, it is so good! After lunch we found the Pantheon, where Raphael's tomb is, and Piazza Navona, which I'm told is well known. I really just wanted to go inside St. Agnes Church, but it was closed. Boo. Then we wandered for quite a while trying to find Piazza Campo di Fiori, we decided to leave before we actually found it, but I think we were really just wandering around it the whole time. Meh.
At that time Brooke and I split up from Amina and Katie to go find a note my friend Kalene left for us in a church when she was studying abroad here last semester. We found the church, but it was closed! I'm not sure if we're going to go back, but we'll see how much time I have. Tonight we're gonna go to bed early because Fr. Ryan is going to celebrate Mass for us tomorrow morning at 7 and then we'll see the Holy Father again at a Papal Audience. Good night and God Bless and let me know if you have any prayer intentions you want me to pray for!
