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.