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