July 1

The trip home.

This morning Katie, Jacob, Kylee, and I woke up really early and took the 7:20 am shuttle to the airport. Once we got there, Kylee and I got separated from Katie and Jacob pretty quickly because they were in a different terminal than we were. Kylee and I both didnt have a flight for at least four hours, so it was too early to check in. We took the escalator upstairs, and got some breakfast. We both had the typical croissant and Kylee also had some coffee.

After sitting there for about an hour, we both went downstairs, separated, and then checked in.

The five, long and lonely hours I had to wait in the airport finally passed, and it was time to board my plane! I got on my plane and everything was going well, but we did not take off for 40 minutes after we were scheduled to. So after we took off, the flight was not that bad, but I could not get myself to fall asleep, so I basically just watched movies and played solitaire the entire time.

We finally landed in Montreal, but they did not have a gate for us because we got in late because of our delayed take off. We ended up sitting on our plane for another hour before we were able to get a gate. The entire time we were sitting on the plane waiting for a gate, I was starting to freak out because it kept getting closer and closer to my take off time for my next flight to Chicago. I was supposed to have a 1 hour and 45 minute layover, but I did not get off the plane till 10 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave. I get off and try to hurry to customs, I have five minutes left at this point, but there was no one there. Many people were trying to rush to another flight because our previous one had been so delayed, but apparently there was no representative there from Air Canada, so they couldn't let us go through.

Thankfully, I had turned my phone on and gotten a text from the airline that said my flight was delayed an hour! If that flight had not been delayed, I do not know when I would have gotten home. After the short flight from Montreal to Chicago, I was picked up and finally home!

June 30

Final day in Roma.

Today, I really did not do that much. Most everyone left already except for Katie, Jacob, Kylee, and myself. Basically, most of what I did today was pack and attempt to weigh my bag (but it was too big for the scale) because I did not want my luggage to be above the weight limit! That would have been such a disaster.

Other things I did today.

1. I ran some errands with Katie. She did not need anything, but she kindly went with me! I had some extra euros in cash to spend, so I bought a pair of sandals and pasta. I also bought a charm for my charm bracelet. Ever since I was little I have been getting charms from wherever I vacation, so I could not change that now!

2. Pack, pack, and pack.

3. Katie and I went to this restaurant in Trestevere we had found in the very beginning of trips. Whenever we wanted to go out to dinner and just talk about everything, we would go on "dates" and go there together. The food was so good there, and it was so cheap! I wish I could remember the name of it!

After dinner, we got back, and pretty much finished packing and got ready for bed! We spent the rest of the night just on our computers and making sure we had everything together!

It was a great extra day to have in Rome to get situated before I went home.

June 29

Last day with everyone in Roma :(

Today, most of the day was just spent relaxing, starting to pack, and just walking around the city. It was also the last day we went to the Billa, which was actually very sad.

For our final dinner together, we went to a restaurant called something like "Beautiful Napoli", which was just very ironic seeing what our experience was there. None the less, it was an amazing dinner and it was just great to have time to spend together.

Us all at dinner!

After dinner, we went to St. Peters square, and sat together and just wrapped things up. Seb, Sister, and a couple other people just said their thoughts on the trip and how thankful they were to be there. Everything that everyone said was just really touching and actually made some people cry! (myself included)

Roomies!!

Sister, Lauren, and me!

Just sitting in a circle talking.

After our talk, we just sat in St. Peters square for another hour, just enjoying being there and with each other. Surprisingly, fireworks just happened to go off. It was literally the perfect ending to the perfect trip.

June 26-28

FLORENCE!!

After waking up and walking to the bus stop so we could take the bus to the train station, we found out that the bus workers were on strike. Great. Everyone, well mostly the teachers, were really stressed about it because they did not know what was going to happen next. It seemed like we could not get through one day of travel without something going wrong. We ended up having to split into two groups and take the bus from Siena to Florence. Although the bus ride was not very comfortable, I thought taking the bus all the way there was pretty amazing because we were able to see more of Tuscany than we would have if we were on the train. Once we got there, we pulled out the iPad map and walked to the hotel.

Here is Michelle and I waiting in the lobby of the hotel.

Again, since we did so much in Florence, I will just talk about a highlight.

One of the highlights in Florence was going to Dante and Beatrice's church.

On a side street right off of via del Corso, we found Dante and Beatrice’s church. Walking into this church, was definitely a different experience than the other churches we had visited. Prior to this church, we had visited ones like St. Peters Basilica, Santa Maria del Fiore, Santa Maria del Poppolo, and other Catholic churches that looked very extravagant as you walked in. So, even after my first step in to the church, I noticed that it was very small, bare, and not as well lit as some of the others. As you step into the church, one of the first things you notice are the pews on either side of the aisle you are now walking in. Each side only has about four pews which actually only seat two or three people each, so this gives you an idea of how small it was. Once you walk all the way to the front of the pews, you see the tombs on either side of the church. On the left of it is the “pietra tombale di Beatrice Portinari”, or the tomb for Beatrice Portinari, and it is said that she has been buried here since June 8, 1291. There is not much to the tomb, just something on the wall which tells what it is, a concrete rectangle distinguishing where it is, and two small concrete columns on either side. Flowers had been set in the middle, and there were two baskets on the left side of the tomb. After a closer examination, we realized that in the baskets were love letters to Beatrice, probably describing love and the everlasting power of it.

While standing in the very front of the church, you realize that there really is not much there. There is a huge window on the very top of the wall letting light in, a crucifix, and a painting of the Madonna and the Four Saints by Neri di Bicci. Once you stand there for a minute, you realize you have seen most of it, and then turn around. As you start to walk back towards the door you came in, you realize that there are a couple pictures of Dante and Beatrice around the church, which were actually really nice to see because you could see how they were both depicted. What was just described was basically the entirety of the church, but the stories of Dante and Beatrice made the experience so much more meaningful.

The church.
The tomb of Beatrice.

Sitting in the church!

Another part I loved was just sitting on the bridge waiting for sunset. There were so many people there, and everyone was just having a good time and waiting for the same thing. This seems to be a common theme on our trip to Assisi, Siena, and Florence, but everyone was just having a good time just sitting there with each other and just having a good time.
Everyone sitting by the river waiting for sunset.

June 24-26

SIENA!

Assisi was nice, but it was the type of place that you go to enjoy the landscape and not stay there for more than a day or to. So being in Siena was almost the best of both worlds! It was still very small, but there was more to do and see there.

We woke up the morning of the 24th and traveled to Siena. We had been hearing a lot about it because Seb would tell us how much he loved it there. Once we got there, we literally walked through the entire city of Siena that was inside the walls to our hotel. We stayed there for a little while to get settled in, and then went out to get oriented to the city. For the next couple days, we did so much walking through the city and shopping, I am just going to talk of my favorite excursion.

My favorite one of our excursions was going to the Siena Duomo. This Duomo was just so different than any other Cathedral we had previously been in.

"The Duomo's unique black-and-white striped campanile dates from 1313, but reflects the Romanesque style. The tall, square belltower has increasing numbers of round-headed arcades with each level and culminates in a pyramid-shaped roof."

"The impressive vault of the library, also painted by Pinturicchio (c.1502), is ornately decorated with grotesques, scenes from classical mythology, and a variety of putti, satyrs, nymphs and tritons. The three large squares in the center depict the Rape of Proserpine, the Piccolomini coat of arms, and Diana and Endymion."

"The nave arcades, with rest on pillars with engaged columns of black and white marble, are very tall with round arches. There is no triforium. The walls of the clerestory have black-and-white stripes to match the pillars. Some of the nave capitals, which feature phytomorphic sculptures, are though to have been sculpted by Giovanni Pisano while he worked on the pulpit in the 1260s."

I really loved Siena! I would definitely go back. I think we could have spent a day or two more there, but that is about it. However, for our purposes, I think we spend the right amount of time there, and I am really happy we were able to go there!

June 23

We woke up to be ready at 6:30 am to leave for the Termini. It was finally time to travel north, and our first stop was Assisi. After a crazy morning of seeing threats written on the walls in black tape outside of my room, we left for the Termini. Although we missed a train and had to run for another one, we FINALLY made it to Assisi!! This is the part of the trip that everyone had been looking forward to since the very beginning!

Once we arrived at our hotel, no one could get over how amazing the view was. We stood there for so long just taking in the sight of the beautiful landscape and taking pictures.

Once we all got settled in, we made our way to the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi. St. Francis is buried there, and we got to go downstairs and see this tomb and pay respects. I actually was not sure who he was when we got there, so I asked Lauren and Katie to explain to me who he was. I thought it was really interesting, so I looked him up more after the matter.

http://www.assisionline.com/assisi__162.html - this is a website I used to get more information

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYA55l3QQlM - here you can get a virtual tour of the basilica!

After looking around the Basilica for a while, some of us went back to the hotel to change and just relax for about half an hour. While we were sitting there, we decided to go out and get some dinner. So Lauren, Jacob, Katie, Kylee and Antonia went out to explore Assisi. We saw some great shops while we were walking around, and we found a nice little place to get some food. The most amazing part was our location. No one really cared what we were doing or what we were eating, but the face that we were finally just sitting in Assisi was amazing. After we ate, we were walking back and found this AMAZING pastry shop. We spent at least fifteen minutes in there just looking around and trying to decide what to get.

Once we got back to the hotel, we just sat outside and talked while enjoying the view. We must have sat out there for at least four hours that day.

As we were sitting there, people slowly kept coming back from their day in Assisi and joined us out there. Once it was about 9:00 at night, we were all there and just relaxing and having a good time, even though we were all exhausted. It was a really fun time to have the whole group together. At 9:30 (ish) we walked to a higher point and saw the stars.

Such an amazing ending to an amazing day.

June 22

Today, the whole group had to wake up early because we were going to be part of the papal audience and hear a mass given by Pope Benedict! We all walked over to St. Peter's basilica together so we would get there around 8:30 am. Mass did not start till 10:30, so we all knew we were going to have to wait there for a while if we wanted to get good seats. So, once we got there we sat down, and after about ten minutes we all realized how hot it was going to be just sitting in the sun. The heat was insane, an umbrella may or may not have been pulled out in order to try to get shade from the sun. At 10:30, Pope Benedict rode out on his famous "Pope Mobile" and made his rounds through the audience. The Pope waved to us, no big deal. (Just kidding, it's a huge deal!)

The most interesting part of attending the mass was being able to hear Pope Benedict speak so many different languages. He spoke italian, english, french, spanish, portugese, german, polish, and there might have even be more! Since the Pope is german and lives in Italy, I assumed he would know german and italian (and also english I guess) but I never really thought about how he would have to know so many languages to be the Pope! It was amazing to hear, and that was definitely my favorite part of the mass!

June 20

Today, since many of the museums in Rome were closed, Kristen and I decided to wake up early, well around nine, and go to see Caravaggio paintings.

The first church we went to was San Luigi dei Francesi where we saw three different Caravaggio paintings.

1. The Calling of St. Matthew:

The painting depicts the story from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 9:9): Jesus saw a man named Matthew at his seat in the custom house, and said to him, "Follow me", and Matthew rose and followed him. In this painting, the gloom and the canvassed window appears to situate the table indoors. Christ brings the true light to the dark space of the sitting tax-collectors. This painting records the collision of two worlds — the ineluctable power of the immortal faith, and the mundane, foppish, world of Levi. Jesus spears him with a beam of light, with an apparent effortless hand gesture he exerts an inescapable sublime gravity, with no need for wrenching worldly muscularity. Jesus' bare feet are classical simplicity in contrast with the dandified accountants; being barefoot may also symbolize holiness, as if one is on holy ground. Similarly to his treatment of Paul in the Conversion on the Way to Damascus, Caravaggio chronicles the moment when a daily routine is interrupted by the miraculous. Around the man to become Matthew are either the unperceptive or unperturbed bystanders.

2. The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew

The painting shows the martyrdom of Saint Matthew the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Matthew. According to tradition, the saint was killed on the orders of the king of Ethiopia while celebrating Mass at the altar. The king lusted after his own niece, and had been rebuked by Matthew, for the girl was a nun, and therefore the bride of Christ. Cardinal Contarelli, who had died several decades earlier, had laid down very explicitly what was to be shown: the saint being murdered by a soldier sent by the wicked king, some suitable architecture, and crowds of onlookers showing appropriate emotion. (See the article on the Contarelli Chapel).

3. Saint Matthew and the Angel

After san Luigi, we decided to go to church of Sant'Agostino because there was another Caravaggio painting and we were already really close.

Here we saw the Madonna di Loreto

It depicts the apparition of the barefoot virgin and naked child to two peasants on a pilgrimage; or as some say it is the quickening of the iconic statue of the Virgin.