Some final pictures.

I havnt updated in a while. I'm now in Roma-Fumicino Airport waiting to check in, after I do that I will wait for my plane so I hope to upload a few pictures this afternoon.





Mitch





This is how close I was to the Pope, No zoom on this one.








Main Fountains at the Tivoli Gardens.








Me at the Tivoli Gardens.






View of St. Peters from the German Parish Cemetary inside the walls of the vatican.

Monument declaring what the German Cemetary is.



Emma, Matt and Sean yuking it up. We went to an opera concert one night and all us guys parted our hair and made jokes about our yachts like typical yuppies. Fun was had by all. Here Matt is telling a fantastic joke.



I will post more later. Mitch

The Pope

Saw the Pope on wednesday. Stood about 10 feet from him as he drove by! So cool. Then when all the pilgrimage groups were announced to Pope Benedict at the end of the audience they announced GU and whe cheered and he waved at us!!! Pictures later.

Sunday and Monday recap

So I went to a beautiful Latin High Mass at Ss. Trinitas dei Pellegrini, or Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims Parish. The Church was incredible. They had 6 foot tall candle sticks on the altar, with 8 foot candles. So that was impressive on its own. It was very nice though. Wandered around Rome in the afternoon just looking at stuff, it made for a good eveing.

Today we went to the Gesu Church, which is the Jesuits mother Church. It did not impress me very much. I though it looked over done, but half assed at the same time. I dunno it just did not impress me. I liked San Ignazio much better. San Ignazio or St. Ignatius is a much prettier church. It is the Church for the Roman College, the first Jesuit University. It is where St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. Robert Bellermine are burried. It is very beautiful. Interestingly enough the dome over the center of the church is not a dome at all, it is a flat celing painted to look like a dome when you are in the back of the Church. Its actually a pretty cool effect. The reason they didnt build and actual dome was because of a lawsuit. One of the surrounding building owners sued because if the dome had gone up he would hardley ever had sun hit his building. It was one of the first cases of its kind in the world.

I would post pictures of these two Churches but the internet in my building is very low bandwidth and so it works on and off, right now I am getting a very weak signal.

Tonight we are going to the rooms of St. Ignatius for Mass in his bedroom which is now a chapel. Afterwards we are going to a fancy dinner which will be fun. Tomorrow night Italy plays France in the Euro Cup which will be alot of fun to go out and watch.

I posted more on my other blog for those who are interested.

Hey

So I wrote a big long post. Then my internet connection went down so I lost the post. Will write more later and post pictures. Until then, Im doing good. Write you after Mass tomorrow.

mitch

Thunder and Lightning...

right above the Borgo (neighborhood I'm in). Its cool.

Tuscany

Pics from Cortona will be up soon.

Mitch

No bene

Well I'm sick... but I went to Mass on St. Peters tomb in the Papal Catacombs today. Very lucky to get to go down there. Also I went to the Papal audience today. Sorry i have not posted much this week. I went on an overnight trip to Assisi on wednesday and thursday and have been very busy the rest of the time. Went to Cortona in Tuscany on saturday. All amazing! I'll throw some pictures up of all this.


The Major Basilica St. Mary Major. (Cardinal Law is the Archpriest here)

Inside of St. Peters. Hard to take pictures in there with my camera so the pic is very dark. sorry

Swiss Gaurds






Our Lady Queen of the Angles. Built around the little Chapel that St. Francis had the vision of Jesus in.

A view from one of the gates of Assisi. Fairly sure Bilbo Baggins is down there somewhere.




San Rufino - The Church that St. Francis and St. Clair were baptized in.



The Basilica of St. Francis. Saw his tomb in the basement Chapel.



View from the Basilica of St. Clair

3 major Basilicas

On Monday we went to St. Peter's for Mass in the Lithuanian Chapel in the Papal grotto. Joseph Cardinal Berdinan is buried in that Chapel. Not far away was the tombs of St. Peter, Pius XII, and John Paul II. All really cool. I was especially excited to see Pius XII's tomb and St. Peter's tomb. The Basilica itself is incredible. Since I helped Fr. Maher do Mass by altar serving I got to go into St. Peter's sacristy. While in there the Cardinal of Turin Italy walked by me and I was in shock cause a prince of the Church just strolled on by me. The Basillica is so beautiful, words cannot describe it, but it certainly is faith affirming to see the symbols of our faith so perfectly made for God's glory shows how to truely love the Lord, and how much he loves us that we would even be able to construct such a beautiful church. Saw so many Popes when I was there, just plain incredible.
Later we saw the steps Jesus walked up to meet Pilate, they were brought from Jerusalem to Rome many centuries ago. Which was cool too see those, I plan on going back to pray on them.
Then we went to the Cathedral Basilica Church of St. John Lateran, which is the Pope's Cathedral. It was an amazing Church as well. Incredible architecture, incredible mosaics, incredible statuary. Just plain amazing.
We then went to St. Mary Major the 3rd of 4 major basilicas. It was also incredibly beautiful. Under neath the altar you can go down stair to a chapel where the manger that Jesus slept in as a baby in Bethlahem is kept in a silver case with glass windows so you can see it. Again amazing, as I sat just 15 feet away all I could think was my Lord lay in that manger, he slept there and I can see it with my own eyes. It was just awestriking. It was an incredible day, and it was impossible to take it all in.
I plan on going back to all the Basilicas and the Stairs on several occasions.

The Pictures wont load right now but I promise they will be up at some point.

Sunday

Went to Mass at the English College this morning. Incredible Mass. Just amazing. They really know how to do Masses at these seminaries in Rome. Makes me have high hopes for the future if this is the type of Mass our young priests want to do.

After Mass went to the noon Angeles with Papa Benny! Very cool to see the Pope. But I forgot my camera, so I guess I will have to go back next week...

Pax

Mitch

Orvieto

Updated my Pantheon, Forum and Coliseum post below.





On Saturday I went to Orvieto. They have incredible Churches, views and wine in that town. Coolest place on earth. If I were rich I would buy a place there. The town is a medieval town built ontop of a hill.




300 foot drop off over that ledge I'm sitting on, but it was an incredible view.


This Cathedral was built around the turn of the Millenia from 900ad to 1200. The mosiacs on the front were a 1600s addition.


More cool views. Pictures really cannot capture the beautiful views there.


Again just breathtaking

May 29

Salve,

So yesterday we went to a cool museum in the morning with lots of statues, frescos and mosiacs. It was pretty incredible.

Then in the afternoon we went to the North American College for Daily Mass. The NAC is a major seminary in Rome for the US and Canada (but there all from the US). The seminarians at the NAC are studying theology and will all be ordained in a few years. They had 188 students and will have just over 200 students next fall. Multo Bene!

A blurry pic of the inside of the Chapel at the NAC

View of St. Peters from the Roof of the seminary.

St Peters at Night!

Mitch

Pantheon, Forum, & Colosseum

Here are some pics from some of the coolest places in Rome:

Outside the Pantheon. It was once a pagen temple to the 7 planetary Gods Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupitur, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Now it is the Minor Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyers. In the middle of the dome of the Pantheon is a big hole, it was built that way to have an opening to represent the unknown god that the Romans believed was above all the other Gods. Christians came in and said "we know who that is and took the place over making it into a church in the early centuries of the Church.

Another shot of the Pantheon.

The Altar in the Pantheon.

The domed ceiling of the pantheon with the occulos hole.

View of the Imperial Forum


What I'm pointing too is the center of the Roman Empire. It was a marking in the Imperial Forum that all roads were measured from. It was the old center of the world. (New one being St. Peters).

Some Poppies growing in the ruins of the Imperial Forum.

The Coliseum

Inside the Coliseum

Hope you enjoyed.

Mitch

Bar

Well technically bars are really cafes so I've been to several of those, they have coffee, sandwiches, soda, snacks and a little booze. But tonight we ventured to a american style bar, very nice. It was an enjoyable evening not very much to drink, one or two at most. We met a cool guy Maximio, but he tried to follow one of the girls in our group home, she was a tich friendly with him. lol. she made it clear that she was a "classa prima" catholic girl, and was not like that, it was pretty funny. He talked on and on about how he wanted to move to america, and we said that we would love to live in Rome. The girls got tipsy and the guys were fine, so we had a good laugh at them. We were a little too loud talking on the walk home and an old italian guy said "for shame" in italian to some of the group. they felt bad after that.

TOMORROW = Pantheon, Imperial Forum, and Colosseum! Will be a good day.

mitch

Capitaline Museum

The Capitoline Museum rests on one of the 7 hills of Italy, the hill it is on bears the same name as the museum. It was extreemly impressive.

Here are a few samplings of what I saw today:


Hercules


Emporer Marcus Arrilius, this statue was not melted down by the early christians as most bronze statues were, because it was mistakenly thought to be a statue of Emporer Constantine.

The Imperial Forum




Part of the Colossus Statue in Rome



Me and the Guys with Rome in the backround

Busts of famous people in the Capitoline

St. Ignazio

Went to the Church of St. Ignatius today. Saw the body of St. Robert Bellarmine, he was behind a sheet of glass inside and altar with a gold facemask on and whatnot. Next to the St. Bellarmine altar was the altar of St. Aloysius Gonzaga! He was not visible, not sure why that was, maybe he was too decayed or maybe when the put him in the altar they didn't want to open up his casket cause he died of the plague... who knows. But it was very cool.

Mitch

Apartments

Salve amici et amicae,
Here are some pics of my apartment:



Dining/living room


view our our living room window





Our Hall Way



1st floor courtyard from our inside window

Balcony and door to our apartment.

In Rome yay!

Salve!

So far, I have stayed at a hostel/koa, got lost late at night in shifty neighborhood in west Rome, saw St. Peter Basilica on two occasions, walked around the Jesuit Headquarters, got a Gillato, watched a Marian procession for the May Crowning of Mary outside of St. Peters. Oh and I moved into the most incredible apartments.

Details to follow soon.

Much love
Mitch

Update London

I updated my london post, see below.

Fummicino Airport

Not nice... at least the parts I was in, very beat up place, but o well it works right. Mmm and the bathrooms are really smelly. That is a huge negative.

Its 4 am in Rome, 7 pm PST and I can't sleep mostly due to the fact that it feels like 9 or 10 at the latest, but more like 8.

Now that the "day" has begun in the airport things are starting to move, and people are stiring.

A calling card machine ate 10 euros.

Basically I cant wait to get out of the airport and into the city.

In Rome, trying to figure things out, will be heading into town in the morning, spending the night in the airport. Mitch

London

I'm in London, but not for long.

Oh... and British accents get old fast. At least to me.

Mmm... and the terminal 5 (the British air terminal) looked like one of malls or whatnot from a futuristic "utopia" movie. Like the island, or whatnot. It was kinda creepy, there was a huge 50 foot tall screen playing typical british advertizement stuff (not tv type ads, but the abstract ones). All and all it was very cool, but kinda creepy. And on the plus side they all spoke english.

I almost forgot. I had to get padded down in Heathrow. I started to pull out my change and stuff before the metal detector to put in a tray but the guy told me not too. Guess what? I set off the detector. So I got padded down had to empty my pockets and show it to the gaurd. Well I had my rosary in a little pouch, he asked what was in the pouch and I said a Rosary. He said "whats that?" I died a little inside and said "prayer beads."

Mitch

A little trouble with the blog

My last post wont show up... but I am in Vancouver BC and my British Airways plane is outside, it leaves in 1.5 hours. A China Airways 747 is pulling up right now... hopefully my other post will be up soon, I included a few picture.

Vancouver B.C.

So I'm in Vancouver. I arrived at 4pm PSD and will leave 9pm PST! Woohoo for 5 hour layovers! Hope all are doing well.



Mitch



Pictures of the Mountains from my comfy seat by the airconditioning vent.

Portland

Well I'm in Portland... its cloudy, but I have a very fruity looking strawberry lemonade so life is going good. :-P















I flew on one of these planes from Spokane to Portland.


And I will take one again in a few hours to Vancouver BC.

Mmm.... and I updated my itinerary. I had forgot to put one days activity on there.

Mitch

Veni, Vidi, Deus Vicit

Its my blog on liturgical things. I may post a few things from Rome there, but mostly I will post there after I get back. The link is below the picture in the sidebar.

In Christ and Mary,

Mitch

A little glimpse at the coming week

D minus 3 (Friday, May 23)
Arrive in Rome late at night

D - 2 (Saturday, May 24)
In Limbo

D - 1 (Sunday, May 25)
Ditto Saturday but with Holy Mass

Day 1 (Monday, May 26)
Meet up with rest of Group
Walking tour of Rome and information concerning security and safety

Day 2 (Tuesday, May 27)
The birth of Roman Civilization

Day 3 (Wednesday, May 28)
The sculpture of Imperial Rome

Day 4 (Thursday, May 29)
Imperial Rome: its buildings and important sites within the capital of the empire.

Day 5 (Friday, May 30)
Ostia Antica: The port of Rome
(Ruins of an ancient Roman port)

Day 6 (Saturday, May 31)
Tour day outside of Rome: Cortona (Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed here)

Leaving on Thursday

I will be leaving on May 22. I will keep you posted and hopefully get some pictures up once I am in Rome.