My Last Blog in Italy (?) La Verna and Montecasale

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Ahh blog #24. I can’t believe I’ve done that many. But then again it doesn’t seem like a lot for 3 and a half months. This might actually be my last blog of this Italian study abroad semester, seeing as how I go home on Friday and I’m not doing any travelling before then. Last blog?!?!?!!?!?!? Did I just day that? Looks like it.

My last trip was on last Friday, April 20^th. With the Bonaventure group, we took a bus to Montecasale and La Verna. These are two pretty important places because they’re so closely related to St. Francis. We got on a little 9 person bus at 8:30am and about 2 hours later we arrived in Montecasale, basically a church on top of a giant hill in Tuscany.

The church was so tiny! However, we snuck into the back and got to see a room that St. Bonaventure used to sleep in, so that was pretty cool. It was basically a closet, even I had to duck my head to walk in, but still...Bonaventure!! After that, we walked around the rest of the area and saw where St. Francis used to sleep. It was like a nest, it was off the ground with stairs climbing up to it, but was made completely of stone and was basically carved out of the wall. Not a place where I would like to spend a night. In that same room, we saw the skulls of two of the 3 thieves that were welcomed by St. Francis, and even saw the door where that took place. Talk about old buildings, wow. From the church we could see the three crosses on a nearby hill where the 3 thieves are supposed to be buried (I think?)

From Montecasale we left and went to La Verna. At this point, the weather was taking a turn for the worse. It was raining, freezing cold and just not that great. We got to La Verna and had a great lunch. We made sure we stalled because we wanted the weather to let up and we were already ahead of schedule. After that, we headed out to explore La Verna where more St. Francis things happened. I haven’t taken the class at school that talks about all these events, so I wasn’t sure what everything was exactly, but I did my best. Here, walking through pouring rain, we explored these giant rocks were (apparently?) St. Francis did something to save himself from the devil..? I don’t know. I could be completely wrong. After, we sat in on the last half of the mass in the Basilica and from there watched all the friars make the procession outside to the Chapel of the Stigmata. They do this every day! It was interesting to see.

La Verna has a meaning to Bonaventure students especially. On campus we have a coffee shop with the same name. I never knew why it was called this, but now I can say I do, and that I’ve been to both! I bought a huge painted mug that says La Verna on it so I can have a coffee in it, just like at school 😊

That was the last part of our trip so we headed back to Perugia and got there around 5.

Speaking of school...the plan for next week is to go back to school on Saturday and stay until Wednesday at least so I can see everyone there and attend Spring Weekend. I’m basically over excited. On Friday morning we have to be on a bus at 1am that will take us to the Rome airport. From there, we have a flight to Newark. Carrie will fly to Buffalo on a different flight and Abby and I will go to Syracuse. During that layover I’ll be consuming as many bagels with cream cheese that I can possible get my hands on. And a giant iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts of course…

Going home will apparently give us “reverse culture shock,” we’ve heard. I’m guessing it’s not as bad and frustrating as culture shock in Italy was. That was the absolute worst part for me. I couldn’t understand anything, read any signs, had to get used to walking everywhere, using Euros and grocery shopped in the most strenuous way possible (that’s what I’ll miss the least!!). At home I can just imagine everything seeiming bigger, easier and faster. I’ll have a car and will be able to go to giant, beautiful Wegmans where I can drive groceries back home instead of carrying them half a mile! I’ll be able to understand what people are saying around me and to me. I don’t even want to start with how much different restaurants will be. We won’t have to split a bottle of water for the table and can instead get a giant glass of it, with ice and a lemon, for free.

I could sit here and type out how great this experience has been, and how lucky I am to have been able to do this, and that I can’t even imagine how many miles I’ve travelled or the amount of planes, trains or busses I’ve been on, but I want to save that for when I get home and I’ve been in the U.S. for a bit. I know I’ll appreciate it more and will have more valid things to say very quickly after I actually leave. I can’t believe by Friday I’ll have been in a foreign country, let alone foreign continent (is that a term?) for 3 months and 22 days. I can’t say it went by quickly, and that’s not a bad thing. I did everything I wanted to do, and know exactly where I’ll want to visit again (PARIS!!).

So, if this really is my last entry from Italy, I want to say thank you for reading this blog and for any others that I have written. I know I’ll start rereading these pretty quickly when I get home, just to relive everything I’ve done here in Europe, and I’m so happy I decided to start this blog so I can do exactly that.

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Photos

St. Bonaventure's Bed
cozy..........

St. Francis' Bed
Even more cozy.......