Rome, Italy: Day 2, Part 2 - St. Mary Major

 Okay, I'm back again for just a little while before we can go get dinner tonight in San Giovanno. 

I left off in Day 2 at the Basilica of St. Mary Major: The first basilica/cathedral to be built inside of Rome itself. St. John Laterne and St. Paul outside the Walls were outside of Rome, if you remember, because of the high pagan count in the city. The story goes that Mary appeared to the bishop or cardinal (can't remember) and said that where it snowed that they should build a basilica to her. It was August. In Rome. Highly unlikely. But it did snow, so built it they did. (Wow, I just sounded like Yoda there for a second)

 

 

 

 

They had a lot of confessionals in there. Mom said, "Either they sin a lot or they are really holy." I noted that there were languages labeled on the top, so maybe the different priests used specific ones for the languages they know how to speak.

 

The main alter where only the Pope can say Mass:

Below the main alter is where the relic of the Holy Crib is kept: the crib (manger) where Jesus lay as an infant.

A side chapel:

I think I'll leave it there for tonight. The internet here in San Giovanni is SO SLOW. I do plan on continuing to blog so that I can remember everything from this trip...even if I have to finish when I get back home to decent wifi and better bathrooms.

But we're pretty much 2/3rds of the way through the 2nd day!! Isn't getting sick and slow wifi so frustrating? 

Anyways, I'm going to head to the shower. Currently, we're on our second night in San Giovanni, finishing up the Padre Pio part of our trip and heading out to Lanciano, Loreto, and Assisi tomorrow. But, you'll all probably see pictures of that on Facebook tomorrow...and maybe read the post that I'll get to...someday.

Bueno Notte (Good Night)

Rome, Italy: Day 2 - Vatican and St. John Laterene

 Bueno Serra from Rome again.

Today we had a long day. Tomorrow is going to be even longer. I'm exhausted and I don't feel well. It is probably because I ate too much pizza. I hope I don't throw up.

Anywho...

Today we got up early to get to Vatican City to go to the Papal audience. You can either stand at the barriers to see the pope or you can go get a seat in front of the alter/stage they had set up where Pope Francis sat. We opted for the seat. We had readings and a blessing from the pope. So many different nationalities were there. I was so happy to hear French and English again. Others included Spanish, Portuguese, German, and two others that I didn't know.

 

Ticket to get into the Vatican for the papal audience:

One of the Egyptian monuments (they have a name, but I don't know what it's called) is located in St. Peter's square. There are 7 of them, if I'm remembering correctly. They were confiscated from Egypt during the crusades...I think. I could be wrong.

Pope Francis:

Afterwards, we went shopping and then had peach gelato and cherry ice cream. Gelato really isn't creamy and has a stronger taste. Pretty good.

Then we met up with a local guide named Flavia. Just hearing the name, I thought it was a man (it sounded like they said "Flavian"), but nope: a woman. 

She explained a whole bunch of things around Rome as we travelled to the Holy Stairs, St. John of Laterene (the Pope's official cathedral), St. Mary Major, and St. Paul outside the walls. 

 

Here's the bell tower on the church of The Mouth of Truth. If you've seen Roman Holiday, it was in that movie where they stuck their hand in the stone face's mouth. The story goes, if you are a liar, your hand will be bit off.

The Roman emperors'' palace ruins:

Before going to St. John's we went to see the holy stairs. They are the stairs that Jesus had to walk up after being flogged to go to Pilate. St. Helena brought them to Rome, along with other relics at the top of the stairs. You have to go up the stairs on your knees. If you don't want to go up them, you can go up the marble stairs on the right side and down the left side. 

I may have to finish this blog post some other time. I don't feel good and it's 10 pm...

Okay, maybe I can write a little more before beginning our 3rd day in Rome this morning:

 

St. John at Laterene is the official cathedral for the pope. All cardinals and the pope are bishops and have their specific cathedral where they are in charge. In the picture, you can also see the red attached building where the pope used to reside before the Vatican and everything in it was erected. This cathedral, including St. Paul Outside the Walls is actually outside of what Flavian called the "main city" of Rome. This was due to the fact that they were both built when the official religion(s) of Rome were pagan and the Catholics were trying not to fight so much with them.

Some more pictures of St. John's are below. The big green door is the oldest door in Rome. It was in a different building for a while. Can't remember which, but pretty sure it was a political building. 

 

The very right side door is only opened every 25 or 50 years...I can't remember which, but I think it was every 25 years from Christmas to Christmas. At that time, the door is opened by the pope and if you walk through it, you gain a plenary indulgence.

Above the door is a plaque that has all the times it has been opened previously. You can see St. JPII's name there. Wonder what they're going to do in 2025 when the door is opened again, because doesn't look like much room to me.

Inside the cathedral:

 

The oldest fresco in Rome:

Off to the side, there is a piece of wood from the table of the last supper. You have to zoom in to see it. Sorry. When I get home, I probably can get you a better picture. Time's a wastin...

At the back where the pope sits. The mosaic above is actually a copy of the original. Some time, an artist wanted and was given permission to redo the entire cathedral in Baroque style. This bothers me, but whatever.

 

I found it interesting that the entire day was filled with cathedrals where the candles were fake. Just an observation.

One of the chapels is closed to the public. It is for one of the Italian family's who donated the majority of the funds for the cathedral. It is literally gated off, but I got close enough to take a picture through the gate.

Outside, there is a statue of Constantine. Really, throughout the entire cathedral, there are paintings of him up above. See me when I get back for more pictures.

Apparently my pics got out of order. Here's a close up of the Last Supper table piece.

I should probably stop there. Have to get ready for today. I may just start posting pictures of the day on Facebook and come back and blog later. So very busy.

Italy, Rome: Day 1

 Pardon my French, but motion sickness, lack of sleep, and jet lag suck.

I got up on Sept. 19th at 5:00 because  I couldn't sleep.

We left Indy at 12 ish and landed approximately 12 minutes later in Chicago. LOL...okay, it wasn't 12 minutes (time change).

We arrived in Rome at about 20 minutes til 9 am (3 am Indiana Time). I'm exhausted.

First, we went to the hotel and met our main tour guide, Francesco. 

Check in is not til 3pm. Utterly stinks. We all left our suitcases with the staff. Then we gallivanted a couple blocks to a church called "The Immaculate Conception", listened to Mass in Italian while starving for lunch and almost falling asleep due to not knowing anything the priest was saying. Though, I have to admit, the sign of the cross in Italian sounds a LOT like Spanish.

After Mass, Mom and I left the other tourists that went with us and stopped at a cafe. Thankfully, there was a worker there who was incredibly friendly and could speak English. I had to keep stopping myself from speaking French. It's like my brain automatically switches to French no matter what language is being spoken to me if I'm in a foreign country. I have to keep reminding myself, "This was my  idea."

 

After a really good shrimp sandwich and one of the best freshly squeezed orange juice (they squeezed an orange right there!), we headed back to the hotel to wait and wait and wait.

 

We didn't get our room until after 3pm. And had to discover that this hotel is weird. Depending on what elevator you go on, you go to different rooms. We have to go to the back of the building to go up to our room. Weird.

I also forgot that you have to put your room key in the slot by the door inside to turn the lights on.

Tourist meeting at 6:15 followed by dinner at 7:30 at Frankie's Restaurante. We had rice with a mushroom sauce (I could stomach the mushrooms, but it was a bit salty), chicken, salad, some of the best potatoes I've ever eaten, and chocolate/coffee flavored flan (or at least what I consider flan). The chicken was good. The potatoes were excelent. I'm full and that's all that matters.

 

So, here we are after rushing back to our room because I'm literally going to go to sleep in a few minutes.

 

Tomorrow, we get to be in Rome, and not a hotel on the outskirts. Look forward to a really big post about a really busy day.

 

 

Ciao, Italie!

If you haven't been told already, Mom and I are going over the pond to Italy tomorrow. 

I'm going to a country where I know practically nothing in terms of language. Dun, dun, dun...

 Couple of common questions I've been getting for this trip:

Yes: I am going to blog, if that wasn't obvious. It's how I keep track of places I have gone. While you may be reading this blog as we travel to know what we are doing (and maybe to make sure we are still safe), I read it months (or even years) after I get home when I talk about the trip in the future. Like "I know we went here, but did we do that the first week or the second? Was this here or over there?"

No, I'm not renaming my blog. I know it's "Flight to France" and I'm not going to France this time. I knew I was going to use this blog for all travels, and not just France, when I first named it. France will stay in the name as a tribute to being the first country I traveled to and the fact that I went alone that first time. 

By the way: I know most of the readers of this blog don't know French, but I had fun with the title of this post. "Ciao" is Italian for "Hello" or "Goodbye" and "Italie" is the French spelling of "Italy". I have to have fun.

As usual, I did not pack in advance. A friend of mine is already in Italy on her own tour and was going to pack the week of Labor Day...two weeks ago! It's like "Geez. You want to live out of a suitcase for how long?????" Actually, I didn't pack anything until today. My life has been really hectic and stressful this past week. Time to leave the country for a while (I guess).

And, of course, you're going to ask "Where in Italy are you going?" Answer: I don't really know. I mean, I know, but I don't. 

Okay, look: 

Back in 2017, I decided to study abroad in Caen, France (Normandy). When I got home, my mom said, "You need to take me to France now." I replied, "Fine, but you're taking me to Italy."

We decided that we were going to go on a huge vacation in Europe after I graduated college. This would include two weeks in France, a week in Italy, and a few days in Bruges, Belgium. 

I graduated college December 2019. We booked a tour for France and Italy; all paid for before I even graduated.

Enter Covid (or as my brother calls it, "THE Covid One-Niner-Alpha-Bravo).

Through the mess of having our travel agent rebook and reschedule things for us (we got the majority of our money back or the tours let us rebook/pick a different tour), we decided that we were going to go to just France as soon as we could, spending more time in places we wanted to go: Paris, our French tour, Amiens, Caen (with my host family), and Lisieux. Italy would wait for the next year.

Well, we went to France last September (2021).

It is now 2022. Time for my part of my graduation present. Three years late. Eh, whatever. 

I can't wait.

But I'm also a bit scared. I had the advantage of knowing enough French to comfortably survive.

I know:  

• Ciao
  
•  Buongiorno
•  Buona notte
• Roma
• Buona sera
  
• Grazie
• Per favore
  
• Il conto (Check please) 
• Prego (you're welcome)
• Spaghetti
• Ravioli
• Linguine
• Cannoli 
  
• Gelato
  
• Si
• NO

I guess I won't starve. 😄

Couple reminders:

Europe is 6 hours ahead of the US. Please don't call at midnight.

I'm not using cell data. Hotels have wifi. It's free. I'm cheap.

If you don't have an iPhone, you can message me or Mom on Facebook messenger or download What'sApp and text/call us with that.

Type to you in Rome.