Continuing on describing our adventures from last week. On Thursday morning, the whole group made their way to the Colosseum where we divided into two groups. Half of the group started their tour with the Roman Forum while the other 13 students started their tour in the Colosseum and then after lunch, the two groups switched. I went with the first group. Listening to Professor Magister give her tour of the Forum, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I remember of that tour from when I was a student.
We only had about thirty minutes in between tours to go quickly grab a bit to eat, I went with a few students to a snack bar and got a capers sandwich and some delicious mango and strawberry gelato.
Then onto our self-guided tour of the Colosseum. One of the best preserved structures from Ancient Rome and a place of such cruelty. I kept reflecting on how many martyrs and saints died in that place, so it is truly a symbol of Christian faith, a perseverance to the faith that is.
Also since the regions are all closed to each other, they moved artifacts from a museum in Pompeii to the Colosseum. It was a neat exhibit. When I was in grade school, I was fascinated by the eruption in Pompeii, I honestly can't tell you why, I just was. I have not had the chance to visit Pompeii but it is on my list of places to go while in this job.
The students were still exploring the Colosseum but after an hour I needed to slip away to catch the metro to meet up with Margaret and a religious sister we were going to meet for coffee. I was first introduced to the order of Servants of our Lord and the Virgin Matara back in the summer of 2011 but I really got to know their community more when I met Sr. Sacrifice back in 2016 and 2017 at my favorite summer camp. We became pen pals and I would visit their covenant in DC regularly and eventually their covenants in Italy when I was a student here and she was a students only 2 hours away the same semester. I've also done mission work with their order in South America. When she heard I had taken this job, she asked if she could pass along my contact information to a sister friend of hers that was stationed in Rome and really missing American company. I've never met a Servidora sister I haven't liked so of course I agreed. Sr. Oyente met up with us a local Sicilian Cannoleria. An hour and a half flew by, as we got to know each other. The hope is to have her come to the Residence to do a Pizza Night with the girls and just hanging out. At all of their covenants around the world, always do a Friday night Holy Hour followed by Pizza and usually games. So the hope is to do an event like that after Easter.
And then the eventful Thursday evening began. I came home and didn't have much to do so I decided to FaceTime a friend from home. Earlier that week Margaret and I had bought two plants and then we heard from our director, we definitely overpaid and not to go back to that one place. Well I was relaying the story to Eileen and then I said "oh yeah, at least its really pretty, hold on I will just show you." So I climbed out of my bed and went to the balcony to show Eileen my beautiful coral azelea bush and it wasn't there. It had been on my balcony ledge flanked by my parsley plant and my basil plant, both of which are much lighter and were still there- not affected by the wind. I leaned over and 4 stories below in a pit of random junk the building is storing, was my sad plant. I was half laughing and half almost crying of the tragic fate of my brand new plant. I immediately called Margaret and told her the sad tale and we were determined to try to go rescue it. The only problem is that it wasn't on ground level, it was a level under. We tried accessing the parking lot to see if it connected, but that door was locked, so we went back and determined which door we needed to get through in order to access it and then the real embarrassing part came, we tried to explain to the front desk that my plant had fallen off my balcony and landed behind a locked door and we needed a key to access it. This would have been challenging enough to explain in one's own language. But the nice man behind the front desk speaks no English. So we were gesturing and using Google Translate and attracted quite the commotion, about 3 other men came over. Somehow eventually he got that we needed a key and we were able to get the plant and he yelled "Ah Ha!". Margaret and I got back to my apartment and burst out laughing. Shockingly my plant was still in one piece. It had lost a good amount of it's blooms and the pot had cracked, but I had every intention of saving it.
Margaret and I made a late night dinner of an everything-quiche. Basically any vegetables I had in the fridge went in it as well as feta cheese and sausage. We actually made two and I am still slowly eating the second one. Tim came over in time to be fed and we hung out until we were ready to crash.
On Friday, I went out first thing and bought a new pot for my plant and repotted it. It now resides inside my apartment on a nightstand I moved out from my bedroom so it can still be in the sunshine. We had a staff meeting midday and then I spent the afternoon doing the prep work for the group trip to Castel Gandolfo. I had to pre-purchase the tickets to the Papal Residence.
Next up, group outing to Station Mass! Friday was the feast day of St. Gregory the Great so there was a formal process and full chant at Mass. It started an hour after it was supposed to but it actually worked out for me and some other students. The bus I had planned on taking, showed up early and then I waited for 40 minutes for the next one (even though it was only supposed to be 10 minutes) until I decided it just wasn't coming and I walked to a different bus stop and bus line that only got me two-thirds of the way to Mass and then walked the last 20 minutes, but since Mass was late, I was still early. Otherwise, I would have probably arrived in time for Communion. But luckily Margaret and Tim had arrived earlier with a group of students.
Saturday morning, we set out early to make it to Roma Termini (one of Rome's major train hubs) to catch the regional train to Castel Gandolfo. We had to teach the students how they purchase their tickets, since the monthly transportation pass we all have only covers the city of Rome itself. But everyone made it on the train with a few minutes to spare. And we weren't the only Americans on the train that day. Rome had announced the night before that it would be turning into a red zone on Monday morning, so everyone was anxious to enjoy the last weekend of travel, including a big chunk of seminarians from the NAC. So we passed our time on the train getting to know the five seminarians seated in front of us.
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Kateri and I happened to
accidentally twin for our outing. |
Once we arrived at the train platform, we disembarked and walked up the switchback hill to the town. The students only had a few minutes to check out the church in the center of town or use the bathroom because we had booked a group tour of the Papal Residence and Gardens. I was so grateful for kind guards at the entrance because it was no easy task getting all twenty-six of us gathered up. In order to get all of us in, I had to book in three different bookings. But they were very nice and helped me get everyone their tickets. We were joined by two Temple University students for our tour since they were the other Americans. We first had an hour long tour of the Villa Gardens. I will let the photos speak for themselves, we had perfect weather!
Next, we were able to do a self-guided tour of the Papal Residence with our own audio guides. Boy, oh boy, there have been a lot of Popes and I could never have retained all the information that was said to us that day. But it was cool to learn more about ones I thought I knew about already. All the vehicles Pope Saint John Paul II used as Pope were on display in the courtyard.
The Place was acquired by the Vatican in 1596 and has been used by the Popes as a summer residence ever since, with the brief exception of 1870-1929, where there were territorial disputes and the Popes didn't leave Vatican City. It also serves a safe-home to Jewish refugees during World War II. Two popes died at the Residence, Pope Pius XII and Pope Paul VI. Pope Francis doesn't use the Summer Residence so he opened it as a Museum in 2016.
After our tours, I grabbed some lunch with the other RCs and once again enjoyed some delicious Carbonara, followed by a much needed Cappuccino pick-me-up. Fun Fact: did you know that the dessert Tiramisu actually translates to "pick-me-up"? If we had had more time, I would have loved to wander down to the lake, but it wasn't so close and we were catching a 4pm train back to Rome in order to make our staff meeting. We had to review the new Covid restrictions and decide on some new courses of action. But the sad topic was paired with yummy sandwiches, cookies, Moscow Mules and good company.
Plus we had one more day to enjoy freedom of roaming around so we took full advantage. On Sunday we took the students on a pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Paul. First we went to Tre Fontane. I had actually never been there before, so I was excited at the opportunity. Tre Fontane is the spot where St. Paul was imprisoned and then later at a different spot on the property, where he was beheaded and his head bounced three times. It is now the spot of a monastery as well. We had about an hour and a half before Mass to wander around and see the various Churches and the gift shop. I sat in the courtyard and was able to journal for about thirty minutes which was so peaceful and much needed. I also grabbed some delicious raspberry jam made by the monks and some Eucalyptus Liquor that was recommended by Dr. O'Donnell to bring back home to try with my mom.
I can't say the Mass we attended was my favorite but the altar was located directly above the cell where St. Paul was held, so that was a really neat experience to think about. Rome is full of famous sites where the saints formed our Church. After that, we got back on the metro and made our way to the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, where we were met by our assigned seminarians from the NAC.
They brought along a few other seminarians whose apostolate is specifically to give tours of that Basilica. They knew so much about the history of the Basilica and the life of St. Paul. Everyone really enjoyed the tour. And then one of the seminarians announced that his Cardinal was so excited that they were finally able to host tours that he was treating the whole group to one item from the Snack Bar, so a sandwich, coffee or gelato. It also gave us extra time to socialize with the seminarians before all of our activities with them will be virtual. But now we have faces to put to each name so virtual won't seem as bad.
The last stop for our adventure with the students was Abbey's Theater and Scholar's. Both are Irish pubs in Trastevere. We wanted to take everyone out for one drink before the lockdown begins and the restaurants and bars are closed except for take-away. But since both places were already crowded, we had to split into two groups. It was a nice way to end the weekend!
Back at Balduina, we ordered some Chinese takeout before having to have some small group meetings to explain the new restrictions to the students. Luckily, they are troopers and we had brainstormed a bunch of virtual activities to do with the students! I can't wait to share how lockdown is going and what we've done to creatively do things as a group, until being all together in one space.
Ciao!
The Brunette
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