When in Rome.

I think this travelblog is going to be one ongoing one for the whole week. I am in Rome for about 8 days, and we have a lot of sightseeing we are going to do. The best part about it, is there is NO school (we are DONE!) and we just get to spend the time traveling, my favorite thing to do. Some of the highlights of the trip include attending a Papal Audience, going on the Scavvy Tour to see under St. Peters Basillica, touring the Vatican museums (for free this Sunday), and seeing the Collesum and Ancient Roman ruins.

Wednesday, April 22nd, we had a Papal Audience. I got up at 5:35, and we had to leave at 6:30 to get to the Vatican at 7 to wait in line and get good seats for the Audience. The gates and security opened at 8:00, and we had a strategy of "runners and blockers" in order for us to get to the front and have the best seats. I'm not usually a fan of big, pushy crowds (especially crazy, pushy, Catholics who want to see the Pope)and at first I didn't want to be a runner, but at the last minute I decided it would be fun. I gave my backpack to a friend, and once through security, a few of us ran to the front row where we spread out, and stood on the chairs waving to our group members who were following. We managaed to all get seats together, and in the first 3 rows. This all happened by 8:30 am, and we then had 2 hours to kill before the Papal Audience began.

As we were sitting there, a few of us realized that we didn't have any items to get blessed during the ceremony. We decided to make a quick trip to a little shop, and buy some items to get blessed. I found a really pretty rosary bracelet, a small crucifix, and some little medals. I bought my stuff, and had to head back through security again to my seat. Unfortunately, by the time I was going back, it had gotten a lot more crowded, and the front section where I was sitting had been blocked off because it was completely full. I made it to the front of 3 different sections before I could see they were blocked off and it was impossible to move because there were so many people crowded in the isles. I finally found an unblocked walkway, where I had to explain to the Swiss Guards that I had a seat, and had to be asked to get let through. I made it back to my seat, but was a bit flustered from all the chaos.

The crowds were getting loud singing and doing different cheers waiting for the Pope. Finally, we saw the car coming, and it was really exciting. The Pope came through a tunnel in the "popemobile", and rode around waving at the whole audience. Our whole group was crowded to the front and one guy, Frank, made eye contact with the Pope, and didn't know what to say, so he said the first thing that came to his mind which was "Hey Pope, how's it going!?!"

Once the ceremony began, there was a reading, and it was done in 5 different languages: Italian, French, German, English and Polish. Then, they read off the groups who were there from all the different countries and when they read of Benedictine College, we yelled like crazy. The ceremony lasted for about 2.5 hours, and we waited some extra time afterwards to watch him drive out again. It was pretty incredible.

After the audience, we had a few hours of free time in Rome, where we did some a power trip of sightseeing. We were able to see the Trevy Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and the Piazza Nivonna (I don't think I spelt many of those things right.....). It was a lot of crowds, but neat to see so much stuff. We were pretty exhausted by the end of our day, and we headed back to the hotel to have dinner and rest up.

The next day, Thursday April 23rd, we had free time in the morning, and then had the Scavvy tour at 1:45 that afternoon. I headed into the city around 10 with my friend Paula, and we actually ended up joining a bigger group that had planned to leave at the same time, and we made our way to some major attractions. We went to the church that has the Moses carved by Michelangelo, which was origionally supposed to go on the tomb of Pope Julius II. At this church, there was also the chains used during the imprisonment of St. Peter. We had lunch on the church steps, and then made it over to another church, St. Mary Maggiore which was huge and really pretty. We had about 10 minutes to walk around. There was a little underground room where I went, and in a gold case, there was the wood that has been said was the crib of Jesus. It was pretty incredible to see, and pretty crowded with tourists.

We made our way back to the Vatican for our Scavvy tour. We were a little pushed for time and had to end up running across the whole place to the tour entrance. We made it just one time, and our tour started. We went underneath St. Peter's Basillica where mosselums of families were found and excavated during the 1940's. It was interesting to hear all the excavation stories and the highlight of the tour was seeing the tomb and bones of St. Peter. We then went to the crypt, where we saw Pope John Paul II tomb. It was incredible to be there and see so many people touched by just the sight of his grave. A bunch of us were able to give a guard some rosary's that he put to the tomb of JPII, making them thrid class relics (at least, that's what someone told me).

After the crypt, we made our way back up to ground and entered St. Peters Basillica, which is huge and could take hours and hours to see all of it. I was able to see the Pieta, another famous sculpture from Michelangelo, which was gorgeous. It was another long day of activity, but so great!

Friday, April 23rd, we headed on a bus trip to Montecassino and Subiaco, two places where St. Benedict founded monastaries and made a great impact in the monastic life. We obviously had the trip because Benedictine College was founded after St. Benedict, and we were getting back to the 'roots' of our college.

The trip to Montecassino was supposed to have been only 2 hours, but ended up taking 5. There was a major accident on the normal route which had he road backed up for a few km, so we took a different way to avoid the congested road. Unfortunately, on our other route, a lady on a vespa behind us misjudged her time to pass our bus. She started to pass us, when she saw a semi truck coming at her. In order to avoid getting hit head on by the semi-truck, she skid her bike off the side of the road, where she banged up her head and leg. Basically, we got involved in an accident and the bus driver had to pull over, give a report, and wait for the ambulance to take the woman away. I was asleep and didn't know all this had happened until I heard someone yell "crash" and as we were pulling into a gas station, I looked and saw the woman lying on the side of the road with a bloody head wound. Needless to say, I wasn't interested in looking at it after I saw blood........

After about 30 minutes and a bathroom break at a tiny little gas station, we were on the road again, for way too long. Our tour was supposed to have started at 10:30, and we didn't make it to the monestary until 12:45, so we had completely missed our tour and the monastary wasn't even open because it was closed for the long lunch break. Luckily, we were able to get out, have lunch, and stretch our legs. We didn't get to see much, which was a bummer, but what we did see was pretty. At 1:15, we were back on the bus and on our way to Subiaco which is the area where St. Benedict lived as a hermit four 3 years, and founded his first monestary.

Fortunately, we were on time to our tour and we had an American monk give us a tour. We were able to see the cave where St. Benedict lived for 3 years as a hermit (at the age of15), and the monestary that he was able to found. It was really gorgeous because it was situated in the mountains with a river flowing between. After our tour, we got back on the bus, and drove back to Rome. Altogether, we were on the bus for about 9 to 10 hours, to go on one tour for 1.5 hours. We missed 2 out of our 3 tours. I guess we didn't have anyone to blame because it was kind of out of our hands, but at least we got to see some of what we were wanting to see.

Today, Saturday April 25th, I woke up early again to go on a group tour to with an Italian art student, to see some of Carvaggio's famous works. Carvaggio is a famous/controversial Baroque style artist. We saw one of his most famous works: "The Calling of St. Matthew." After the tour, we went to Borghese Park, a HUGE park in Rome. We kinda split off, and I had lunch with a friend Paula. We were sitting, enjoying lunch under a shady tree when, we unfortunately got completely scammed.

A 'street vendor/gypsy man' came up to us trying to give us roses. I knew it was a scam because what they do, is try to give you the flowers, and once you have the flowers in your hand, they ask for money. They won't take the flowers back or leave you alone untili you give them money. I kept telling the man no, I don't want it, but somehow the rose ended up in my hand. Then, he gave one to Paula. Next thing we knew, he was tying bracelets on our wrists. The worst thing about it, was we knew we were being scammed the whole time, but didn't have time to react - they are pretty obnoxious and conniving. After he tied the bracelets, he asked for money, and I pretty much had nothing. All I had was a 10 cent Euro piece and Polish change. So, I gave him the "Sorry Charlie, I have no money" line, and gave him the 10 cent piece. Paula gave him 60 cents, and no more. That made him mad, so he stole our roses back, and stormed off like a 5 year old. It was pretty pathetic. We've decided he probably put some gypsie curse/hex on us too. But, I don't feel bad for him because that's what he gets for trying to scam people.

When we finished our lunch, we decided to meander about Rome for a bit and we came across some pretty big tourist spots. We also stumbled across some ancient ruins which were pretty cool. Now, I'm just enjoying the evening and getting excited about tomorrow because we will be going to visit the Vatican museums which are going to be free, which also means they are going to be CROWDED. I'm not really excited about the crowds, but I'm excited about seeing the Sistine Chapel.

I'll probably have some more updates from Rome nest week, because we have about 3 more days of sightseeing. Well, that's all I have for you now! Buena Note.



P.S. My facebook is having issues. For some reason, my password isn't working, and I have to wait for them to fix it. So, if you guys want to get ahold of me, do it via my travel blog, or e-mail because I don't know when my facebook will be running again........bleh!


"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true." - Leon J. Suenes

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