Aye, much to write, much to write. Yes, I'm in Rome! I and my seminarian colleagues are here for two weeks. My goal is to write a recap of my days here, in part to preserve memories, but also to jumpstart my daily journal writing which has been dormant for a couple of years.

So where shall we begin? I'm afraid the process of getting here - dull as it was - occupied most of the day. Of course, I'm only here, now, thanks to the intercession of St. Anthony, whose prayers led me to my missing passport, half an hour after my colleagues had already taken the train to leave. I had made copies of it the day before and left everything inside of an ugly orange backpack in my room, hiding invisibly underneath a thick back raincoat.

Of course I wouldn't find it until having searched all six floors of our seminary, and finally exploring part of the city itself, from the theology campus library to the government buildings, all in search of that ugly orange bag. When I discovered it, in my room under the coat, I was so exciited that, in grabbing it and leaving, I left the plane ticket behind! oi~ Luckily, (?) before I reached the front, I felt the unusual breeze through the fingers of my left hand and thought, "now that really oughtn't be empty." It took the rector of the college, however, to ask where might my ticket be, before I was able to complete my collection of documents.

Not even out the door yet, and already an adventure!

I suppose it was fitting that our Lord and St. Anthony wouldn't let me get away without a fair dose of humiliation. But goodness, they had their share of fun, didn't they?

So the rector drove me to the airport where I reunited with everyone. The question of the moment was, "So, where'd you find the passport?" In case anyone finds themselves in a similar situation, my suggestion is to postpone the answer until everyone is in suspense at the humorous possibilities. "In the bathroom!" "On the bed!" "On the desk!" "In your hand!" I never mentioned the black trenchcoat until dinner tonight, and by then most of my companions were too bored to care. Clever me.

Our temporary residence is the North American College, a massive building just a block or two away from St. Peter's Basilica. From the roof at night, the lights illumine the "arms" of the building beautifully, and the 30-foot tall statues of the saints are quite visible. Many other Roman monuments also stand in view of the NAC roof, all brightly lit. I'll post a picture and label the items one-by-one later this week.

Rome is an interesting dichotomy of the light of faith and the darkness of, well, much the rest of the city. A great word for that: Chiaroscurro. From what little of what I've seen and heard so far, the streets aren't nearly as safe here as in, say, Paris (where I wandered, lost, for four hours at night without any fear whatsoever). The walls have much graffiti, and the Gypsies are out in full force. Keep nothing in your pockets if you value them! Crossing the street takes a bit of boldness. Stop-lights are about as common here as Polish Popes. :)

We saw the lights in the windows of the Holy Father's palace - the one that's always on, or at least until the guy goes to bed. One wonders whether he, like many a father, walks into his office complaining, "These darn kids, always leaving the lights on!" :p And then there's that spot inside the arms of St. Peters that makes all the columns align perfectly behind each other so that only the first row can be seen. Hey - neat!

It wasn't crowded tonight. There was another family with their dog. Dogs are pretty common here, but I've yet to see one on a leash. It's the little things that stand out here - particularly to an American. You wouldn't believe how Europeans wonder at our love for order and precision. Leashes, road lines, stop lights, a criminal justice system - such are luxuries one would do best not to count on in Rome. :p But perhaps I speak too soon.

Tomorrow, we have a kind pf pilgrimage taking us to a series of churches, and winding up in a famous Protestant cemetery (*gasp* could this be where my literary hero, John Keats, was buried?) I'll recap that tomorrow. Goodnight, God bless!

-- Skoobouy (skoobouy@hotmail.com), December 21, 2002

Answers

Looking forward to "Installment #2," Skoobouy,
JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), December 22, 2002.

Looking forward to Chapter 2, also, Skoobouy.

An idea for you to keep a journal of your vacation: When we are vacationing, I send post cards home with pictures of the places we have been, describing the events of the day. I would send one or two home every day and they were waiting for us when we got home...

Of course, one cannot write as much on a post card as letter paper...and, of course, you always hope the post card got home...but I never missed any - all my cards arrived home - and what is neat about that is that it has the postmark of the country or state you are visiting.

So, you can even write letters to yourself at your home address - journal will be complete...just an idea and it always worked for me.

Enjoy your time in Rome, may God journey with you and keep you safe.

ML

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.com), December 22, 2002.

It is now the middle of the third day. I would have written earlier, except that the battery of my handheld PC (where I write these) ran out, and the prongs of the plug for the charger (bought in Belgium) are too fat for Italian outlets. Pity.

But I borrowed a friend's last night, so I'm on a full charge and ready to roll. Yesterday was our grand tour of many famous churches and cathedrals in Rome. Our tour guide (a witty Benedictine priest from our seminary) took us chronologically, from the Roman forums, through 4th and 6th century basilicas. Honestly, I wish I had a better memory so I could repeat everything he said, but, I don't. I might be able to fill in the blanks when I get a guidebook or something.

But we saw a great many things yesterday, including the legendary burial grounds of Romulus (founder of Rome), the columns of many pre-Christian basilicas, some of which had games scrawled on the steps from their glory days. We saw ruins of a number of Greek temples, inlcuding that of Vesta, and nearby the residence of the Vestal Virgins. We saw some Iron Age caves/apartments (600-700 BC), a few Roman hippodromes/colleseums and such. As our tour guide explained, the early Christian martyrs were not bedraggled slaves or untouchables. If you were a slave or any non-citizen, you could worship goats for all the Romans cared. It was the citizens themselves, many of whom were quite wealthy, who became bloody entertainment for pagans when they professed Christianity, largely for not paying proper dues to the (deified) Emperors of Rome.

We saw the site of the assassination of Ceasar, the dining hall of Ausgustus, some of the earliest artistic depictions of the Crucifixion (etched into wooden doors in a brightly (natural!) lit basicilica.

And you know what? We saw almost no gypsies.

Our tour guide and the acompanying priests were all somewhat surprised. The best theory they had was that Rome may have taken strides to curb theft in preparation for tourist-generating millenial religious events. On the one hand, I'm relieved - my pockets are rarely empty and I would be a veritable treasure trove for experienced pickpockets. On the other, I wonder, where did they go? People don't just dissapear. Criminals, perhaps, but I can't help but some sympathy for members of the (very old) tradition, in case they were simply run out of town. Maybe they were all just converted and catechized on the value of honest work. :)

The food here is most excellent! And not too terribly expensive, either. Our first night here I had spaghetti with pesto sauce. The following morning breakfast was a couple of fried chicken sandwiches with olives. Lunch was a marinara pizza. Dinner was a special fettuchini with mushrooms and ham.

This morning we celebrated Mass with our own priests, in a small chapel underneath St. Peter's basilica - what a treat! Following that, we had breakfast and went to the Vatican Museum. We breezed through the displays so we could see the Sistine Chapel.

Oops - lunch. More later. God bless!

-- Skoobouy (skoobouy@hotmail.com), December 23, 2002.

Skoobouy,

I am enjoying my trip to Rome vicariously...You write so beautifully!

Christmas in Rome, how wonderful. May you enjoy a Blessed Christmas.

ML

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.com), December 23, 2002.

Thank you very much, MaryLu! Sometimes I wish my writing was more content and less form (since that's what's in demand so far as term papers in Europe are concerned) but I'm happy to please.

I enjoyed lunch. :) Now, back to work. We went to the Cistene Chapel, the Pope's personal chapel and the location of Papal elections. Its beauty is only comparable to the inside of St. Peter's Bs. Everything is painted in a monumental scale, so you never have to worry about squinting. The ceiling is more beautiful than any photograph can do justice to - however, the Last Judgement, being on the wall, is simply easier to see. The guards demand silence, and they remind the crowd of that every five minutes or so with a loud "SHHHHHH!" (But who can help oohing and ahhing?) Occasionally a recording would play, asking for silence in several languages. This is all completely understandable, since the crowd is so large that a thousand conversations would really detract from the experience. Still, I don't envy the guards: I can only shush so many times before my tongue hurts.

Then came my favorite part of the day: the restroom! Just an observation: most popular public areas have what I call the "elect restrooms" and the "reprobate restrooms." Forgive the Calvinist reference. :) The reprobate restrooms are the ones that are way out in the open for everyone to see, and consequently have incredible lines and crowds and the whole mess. The elect restrooms are never far from the reprobates, and are not difficult to find, but are nevertheless out of the way. Find them! Use them! I would wager that less than 1/6 of the crowd any any given location finds them, so they're cleaner, less crowded, and lineless.

The Vatican Museum restrooms have very fussy infrared motion detectors on their sinks, toilets, and hand dryers. You never appreciate knobs and switches until they'er missing!

We've bought our tickets for tomorrow night's Midnight Mass at St. Peters. Who knows where we'll be sitting. Many will sit outside, in which case a towel (for the dirty seats) and an umbrella are very necessary.

OK, I'm done for now. Time to go look for an electricity converter in the city. More later! God bless.

-- Skoobouy (skoobouy@hotmail.com), December 23, 2002.

Hee hee - Skoobouy, I love that restroom advice! That's always the first place I look for when traveling, so this is definitely a "keeper"!! ;-)

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), December 23, 2002.