Ten Day to Rome/Assisi - Part II

On Monday, we had another ridiculously early breakfast, than Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, in front of the Chair of St. Peter. 

In a way, it was awesome that we were having Mass there, but at the same time, it felt kinda…off. Like it didn’t quite fit. I got that feeling from most of the Mass’s we went to over the week, because, I dunno, those churches were built inspired by the Latin Mass, and so the Novus Ordo Mass felt a little awkward in them. Maybe it was some of the terribly ugly second altars built (seriously, WHY?!), but it did feel a bit unnatural.

After Mass, we went on a walking tour with Dr. Carreno, who is Columbian, and very jolly. From what I can recall, we saw Castel Sant’ Angelo, the Bridge of the Angels, St. Phillip Neri, Sancta Maria Sopra Minvera (where I saw some Asian tourists taking selfies of themselves with the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena right behind them…odd), the Pantheon (I remembered it bigger), the church where the original Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon is (this was my favorite church – it was smaller and felt like a homey parish church), the church of St. Clemente III, and some other places that I can’t remember.

We had some free time for lunch, after which Krista and I had a Scavi tour.

We thought we had to meet right outside of St. Peter’s, on the steps (like we did for the tour on Sunday), and because we were running late, we cut. 

Again.

Then we found out that we were supposed to meet at a different left colonnade (meaning we didn’t need to cut the line) and then chilled out there before the tour.

So the current St. Peter’s Basilica is built on top of Constantine’s St. Peter’s Basilica, which in turn, was built on top of a pagan cemetery (with some Christians). The Roman’s had this thing, where instead of completely demolishing buildings, they would just level them out, then build on top.

Some archeologists did some excavations about 50 years ago, looking for the bones of St. Peter (which they think they found), and also found the old pagan mausoleum, so the Scavi tour is basically a tour of that mausoleum.

We got to see the oldest “picture” of Jesus – three mosaics of Him, represented on a chariot of fire (replacing Apollo), as a shepherd, and then another mosaic which was partially destroyed. Those were actually really cool and my favorite part of the tour, but honestly, I was really distracted the entire time because I had to go to the bathroom.

When we finished, we/I made it a priority to get to a bathroom, then we wandered around (I don’t remember where) until dinner.

After dinner, there was an optional praise and worship thing with seminarians from the North American college of Seminarians (or something along the lines of that), but Krista and I both opted out of that. People told me later how awesome it was and how loud the drums were, and I just “smiled and waved.”

Tuesday, we had Mass at St. Cosmas and Damian in the Forum. 

St. Cosmas and Damian is the motherhouse of the Franciscan TOR’s, and has had Mass said every

day consecutively since the 4^th century (I think). It was a smaller church, but very interesting. It had some really old mosaics, then some side altars with varying styles. It was pretty interesting, and afterwards, one of the priests there showed us their reliquary, where they had a TON of relics stashed, including the arms of several saints.

There was more interesting history about the church, but I missed out on most of it, because I was out cold during the homily. This was a recurring theme throughout the pilgrimage – I don’t know why breakfast always had to be so dang early!

Afterwards, another tour of “Ancient Rome/Early Christian Church” – in my group, led by Dr. Carreno again, ending with the Coliseum. I don’t remember much, but we stopped at one church that supposedly holds the pillar Christ was scourged upon.

It was actually quite small, and if Christ was chained to it, He would have had to crouch down in a really humiliating primal position. It was pretty amazing.

In the same church, there was a large red stone on one portion of the mosaic floor that covered up the opening to a well, where way back, some noble Roman ladies had secretly buried the bones of martyrs.

After, we had lunch with Dr. Carreno, Sr. John Paul (who is ridiculously smiley, has a hilariously loud laugh, and makes the most ridiculously facial expressions) and then two other girls.

We sat in this park, which was previously some sort of palace for Nero – he burned down part of Rome just so he could build it. Lunch was short but relaxing – we had a little entertainment provided by this lady “walking” her small, super fluffy and super energetic dog.

The dog was absolutely nuts, pouncing all over the place, alternately scaring the flocks of pigeons and in turn, being scared by the flocks of pigeons.

After lunch, we parted ways, and again, we wandered around. Krista and I actually planned on going to the hotel early and napping before supper, because we were so dang tired, but we decided to stop at the Circus Massimus for a little bit, as it was one stop before our hotel.

We ended up spending a bit over two hours there, talking, watching this guy play with his adorable little brother (or his son?), and then stopping in Sancta Maria in Cosmedin, which didn’t strike me much as a church. It looked like it was made for Byzantine Mass, the way certain parts were sectioned off.

On Wednesday, we got up ridiculously early to get good seats for the papal audience. It was raining and pretty dreary. After waiting two hours outside the square, they opened up the gates, and that’s when people went a little crazy. It was like I wasn’t even moving of my own accord – the people from behind me were what moved me. Some other students apparently got elbowed by some crazy old Italian ladies, and were quite disconcerted with the entire thing. I actually didn’t mind/didn’t pay attention – I got separated from Krista, then put some headphones on and listened to Irish drinking music, which made all the hustle and bustle almost make sense. At least it made it less annoying. Plus, I didn’t get elbowed…that I know of.

Once we got into the square, the FUS students quickly grabbed some sections for the good seats (though a good section got confused and sectioned off the wrong seats).

There we waited in the drizzle for another two hours, listening to Argentinian music, until Pope Francis appeared, took about 20 minutes to make his rounds in the Popemobile (in which everyone went absolutely CRAZY whenever he got close to them) then he walked up to the stand, sat, and everyone calmed down.

The next two hours were spent reading the papal address and the Gospel reading for the day in at least six different languages.

After the English part, I basically dozed off for the rest of the audience.

After all the readings, everyone said the Our Father in Latin (whoaaa….it’s like, there was one language which made it possible for us to pray together, making it kind of…universal…hm, fancy that!), ending the audience.

Krista wasn’t feeling good, so she headed back off to the hotel, and I spent the rest of the day with Christine, Jessica, Mari and Chiara. 

Christine and Jessica are more soft spoken girls, who usually wear long skirts and generally quite calm people. Mari and Chiara are “louder”, super funny, and make the funniest faces at each other whenever they’re talking. It’s really quite entertaining just to watch their faces when they talk.

We walked around, and I forget most of the places we walked to, but I remember that we accidentally walked into a large market place with the annoying hawkers, where some of the girls picked up some things (like scarves). Then we still had some time to kill before Mass in the evening, but we couldn’t get into the Holy Stairs (real close to St. John Lateran, where Mass was to be offered) because it was having it’s siesta.

That’s actually something you have to keep account of in Italy, and Europe in general. A lot of churches and stores close down for a couple hours mid-afternoon for a siesta, which can be inconvenient if you’re a tourist, but if I was a resident, I would love it.

So we spent the next hour and a half in St. John Lateran – I think Chiara and Mari wandered around the church most of the time, but Jessica, Christine and I sat in a chapel blocked off for prayer.

Lest you think I spent that time well polishing my halo, I actually spent most of the time snoozing in preparation for Mass (I was able to stay awake for the homily!)

Then we did the Holy Stairs and then returned for Mass.

After Mass, dinner, then another Holy Hour in Santa Galla, with maybe one or two praise and worship songs, which was a lot nicer.

We left early (surprise.) the next morning for Assisi, where I spent the few hours on the bus in a blissful nap (except for one part where this guy sitting behind me had music BLASTING out of his earphones, and yet somehow, was managing to sleep amidst all the racket)

Ten Day to Rome/Assisi - Part I

Our second/last ten day started with classes off on Thursday, so Friday morning, Krista and I took off for Florence. It took us the whole day to get there, and I missed my first train on the way! But it wasn’t actually our fault though, so I don’t really count it as a mark against me.

When we arrived to Florence, we had to stop at a fancy hotel to ask directions to our humble hostel, because, as the hotel man put it, our printed Google map instructions “did not need to be this complicated.”

When we finally found our hotel, we had to check in. I gave the lady my name, but the lady had trouble finding it, which had me worried. Then she suddenly exclaimed “ohhhh, Preaaaaaatttzzzeeah!!” It was really funny – I felt my Italian heritage very validated there. 

Then we got to our room, felt too tired to wander around in the dark, so we got to bed early.

The next day, Saturday, we wandered around Florence, popping into some churches that I forget the name’s off, then spent most of the remaining time wandering around the Florence leather markets.

EVERYTHING WAS SO PRETTY.

But it was annoying, because a lot of the stalls had the same pretty stuff, with each stall having an Indian hawker who would pester you as you walked by, saying things like “bellaaaa, look here!” and other annoying things.

With the last hour before we took off for Rome, we visited the Doumo, which was really pretty on the outside, but rather bare on the inside. Krista was freaking out over the symmetry…she’s also played some video game that was set in Florence, so she has “climbed” up the Duomo before.

Then we got a cheap yummy lunch, and accidentally bought ridiculously expensive gelato. 

We stopped in a gelato shop really quick, tried asking the guy how much the gelato was, and he played dumb and gave us the impression that the gelato was two euro for a small (which is a good price). So we picked our flavors, then he started scooping and scooping and scooping tons of gelato on the cone, then gave us these whopping mounds of gelato, took us over to the side counter, where, rather conveniently out of eyesight, were the prices  - ten euro for one cone.

So basically 14 bucks for one (admittedly large) ice cream.

Urgh.

We took a two hour train to Rome, then took a metro to our nearby hotel, where the entire school was staying for the five days we had in Rome.

Our room was really nice, though the bathroom was odd. I’ll try to upload the video “tour” later.

We just chilled out at the hotel until Mass at a nearby church, Santa Galla.

The church looked….confusing. It looked like it was under construction, like things were rather scattered about. Plus, when we got in, no one could figure out where the tabernacle was.

After Mass, a super yummy supper, then sleep because Krista and I were too tired/lazy to go out and do anything.

The next day, Sunday, there was early breakfast, then Mass at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls scheduled. However, one of the girls I used to do Rosary with (Christine) and I had both talked to Professor Cassidy about getting to a Latin Mass in Rome, so using the information he gave us, we decided to give it a go. We talked about with another kid, Morgan (a future SSPX seminarian), and he wanted to go to, so we set a time to meet up later.

The Mass was at noon, so we were able to go back to sleep for a little while, then later left the hotel and walked to the nearby bus stop with about two hours before Mass started. Morgan actually never showed up after we waited some time for him, so we figured he changed his mind.

Mr. Pipp told us to take Bus 30, and that it took about half hour for the bus to make its rounds.

We waited for 45 minutes.

Eventually we realized, after looking at the bus stop board info thing, that Bus 30 didn’t run weekends – only Bus 130 (which we had watched stop by once) did.

Ugh.

We were getting worried about making it to Mass on time, so we hopped on the next available bus, even though it didn’t get us as close as Bus 130 would’ve.

Bad idea.

I don’t know why (Providence, maybe?), but that bus really took it’s sweet ol' time stopping in all these residential areas, making loops over and over again, and basically taking forever to get to our stop.

It drove us crazy every time some person would get up to press the red button for the bus to stop, or the bus would have to stop seeing someone waiting.

Eventually, when the driver completely shut off the bus, we asked him about our stop, and he said “thirty minutes”

So we waited thirty long minutes.

When we got to our stop, we pushed that dang red button with a vengeance, made our escape, and immediately tried making sense of our surroundings.

You’d be surprised, but I actually got us pretty close to where the church was – I would’ve found it right away too if the street numbering system hadn’t been so weird and a certain Italian shopkeeper hadn’t put us off the scent.

Anyways, we ran like mad men/tourists to the church, with our backpacks swinging like little papooses.

The church was in the general vicinity of the Campo de Fiori piazza place, so we ran around like nuts trying to find the number on the building. We were running about 20 minutes late, so we stopped outside of a little restaurant and almost walked in to ask the guy working there for directions, but he stopped us dead in our tracks with a little exclamation and hand waving.

He was mopping, so he told us to stay outside and ask our question. So we asked him about the church, he apparently didn’t recognize the name, but told us we were close, and gave us some directions.

Then we ran around for another 5-10 minutes, trying to find the church, when we got a hang out the numbers, and started walking back, where we found the church, right on the opposite side of that little store! To be fair, only the front of the church looked like a church (and it kinda reminded me of the temple in one of the Indiana Jones’ movies), but danggonit, now I wonder if that shopkeeper was toying with us ("bahahaha, stupid Americans! if they would only turn around, they'd see the church!")

Anyways, we got into the church, which was beautiful (but I’m not sure if I’m a little biased because I was so excited to finally find it), and found the priest in the middle of his sermon.

The rest of the Mass was heavenly, and the choir (I think just a three- or foursome) was really good. I was SO. HAPPY.

Afterwards, we walked to St. Peter’s with Morgan, who had quite randomly showed up sometime during Mass – I noticed him as we were getting up to receive Communion, and I must have looked really surprised (because I was), because he gave me this really funny, innocent look.

We got to St. Peter’s square late as well, so, following the instructions of one of the RD’s, we cut the line to get into the church in time for the tour.

What fine, outstanding examples of young American Catholics we must have seemed.

We were actually quite smooth about it – none of us wanted to be the one to break in, but Christine suggested we cut like we were just breaking through the line to get to the other side of the square. Very clever, but because neither of them would take initiative, and I sure as heck wasn’t going to be late, I got us in.

The people were actually quite nice about it – I don’t even know if they noticed, but that could just be my pride, thinking I was really smooth when in reality the people were probably laughing behind their hands about how clumsily “sneaky” we were.

We got in to the basilica pretty quickly, thanks to my my Wit, Cleverness, and we were a little behind on the tour, but not much. The seminarian that was leading us told us a lot of interesting stories, so I think I’ll remember them when I get home. If I have time (unlikely), I’ll put them in here.

After the tour, we had a little free time before dinner at the hotel. I honestly don’t remember what I did – most of my Rome evenings I have confused already, and I’m only keeping the general schedule in line by actually looking at the hard copy I have. I’m pretty sure I just wandered around a little bit with Krista. We saw this little dress shop that had super pretty dresses with decent prices, but alas, alack, they were all too short for me. It is times like that where Krista can take pride in her shortness.

There was holy hour after the delicious dinner, so we went to that.

I don’t know why they feel like they HAVE to pull out the guitar for every liturgical function, but at least they restrained themselves to only a couple annoying songs before we got some solid hymns, like Tantum Ergo and O Salutaris Hostia. I think even a lot of the other students didn’t like the praise and worship songs, because they only had one or two the next holy hour, and the last holy hour I attended, Father stressed the fact that the hour was supposed to be a silent one.

Thank the good Lord.