More Adventures and Trip to Assisi

Since my last post I have been pretty busy- I've hardly had unoccupied time!  Not last Tuesday but the one before (Jan 26.) afternoon/evening I went into Rome with a few friends simply to go to evening Mass at St. Mary Major's Basilica.  We spent an hour on public transportation there, were in the church for an hour, and then spent an hour and a half getting back in rush hour.  Although a very beautiful Church, it hasn't been as nicely restored as some of the others so it doesn't seem quite as amazing as some of the others.  There is an awesome crypt area beneath the main altar though with a giant larger than life statue of one of the popes kneeling and praying.  When we got out of Mass it was 6:30, and dinner on campus ended at 8:00.  We figured we'd probably have time to get back to campus for dinner, so we hopped on the metro and then the bus.  Traffic, however, was horrendous, and for some reason we never quite figured out, the driver turned off of the route the bus was supposed to take.  We all slightly freaked out, because we didn't know where the bus was going now and none of us spoke Italian.  Plus, we didn't want to miss dinner!  Finally, around 7:50, the bus turned back onto the right road and kept driving towards campus.  We weren't sure if we would make it back for dinner, but we were hoping.  Finally we saw our bus stop coming up so we got ready to hop off.  However, our bus had to stop at a light right before our bus stop.  At this point it was around 7:57, so we knew if we had to wait at the light we'd miss dinner.  Luckily, the bus driver figured out what we wanted and let us off before the bus stop.  We immediately broke out into a mad sprint down the road towards campus and then down the rather long campus driveway.  We all burst into the cafeteria at about 7:59, just in time to get dinner before they closed the line.  It was definitely a very exciting and rewarding moment when we discovered that we had made it back it time!

On that Wednesday I also went into Rome, but for a more leisurely afternoon.  A few friends and I basically wandered around the city, poking into various shops, eating gelato, and eating pizza.

Then that Friday at eight am sharp, we all piled on buses and left for Orvieto and Assisi.  Orvieto was a really cute little town built on a steep mountain, and we needed to take a funicular to get to the second level of the town. They had a really beautiful Church, or Duomo there, that used to be a papal Church.  It was built with alternating rows of white and blue-gray stone, so it looked striped on the sides of the Church and inside.  We were only there for about an hour and a half, but I wish we had gotten to stay longer so that I could have explored more!  Then we got back on the buses and finished heading up to Assisi.

Assisi is also built onto the side of a steep hill so its hard to go anywhere without having to do some serious hill or stair climbing.  I had some seriously sore muscles by the end of the trip.  The town itself was amazing though- it was really gorgeous and peaceful and charming.  The air was fresh, it was mostly quiet, except for chirping birds and church bells, and the view was gorgeous and sometimes kinda misty, which almost made the valley below look surreal.  Mostly all thats in the town are lots of little shops selling souvenirs, pottery, and religious items, some little restaurants, houses, and a town of churches.  I got to see a number of the churches including the Basilica, the Church of San Damiano (where St. Francis encountered the miraculous cross) and a Church containing the relics of St. Clare.  When I was in the Church of San Damiano, I saw what I thought was the real cross that spoke to St. Francis, but after I left Assisi I found out that it was actually just a replica and the real cross had been moved to a different church.

I probably did more walking than anything else in Assisi.  The first night we were there, a group of us decided to go out exploring after dinner.  First we walked up to the giant castle/fortress on the top of the hill and then we wandered down through the city for over an hour, following Catherine, who I decided is not fully human since she can walk up and down stairs endlessly without getting tired.  At one point she led us up a steep, rocky, kinda sketch path into the dark woods where we ended up on a narrow path bordered by plywood.  Luckily we had a couple guys with us because it kinda freaked me out.  Then we ended up on what seemed like the path on the top of a city wall, and then ended up wandering through a monastery.  On Saturday, after a theology class session, I went on an optional hike up to St. Francis' hermitage in the mountains.  It was a rather long, steep hike, and we were very tired by the time we arrived, but glad to have made it.  It was a very beautiful place with an amazing view.  We got to attend a Mass there (in English!) before hiking back down.  And on Sunday, I followed Catherine around town again (don't ask me why, I'm not completely sure), searching out random churches and looking in gift stores.

My roommates and I's hotel room was really cool.  It was basically the attic room of the hotel (but fully furnished and very nice).  To get to our room, however, you had to go out onto a giant rooftop patio before going up a few more stairs to get to our room.  We had amazing views of the town from the patio!

On the way back to Rome, we stopped at a beautiful basilica that actually housed inside the sanctuary the chapel that St. Francis and the Franciscans used.  Its hard to explain, so here's a picture: http://www.paginedipoggio.com/public/assisi4.jpg This is like right in the middle of the Church, in front of the altar even.  I can't quite figure out how Mass worked.  The Church also contained the site of the death of St. Francis.  It was a really amazing Church.

On this past Tuesday, I went into Rome for a 'People and Places' lecture, which is a 1-credit class that I'm not actually taking.  However, we got to see a beautiful Church containing relics of the True Cross, the nails from Christ's crucifixion, and some of the thorns from His Crown, among other things.  We also got to see a beautiful little old frescoed chapel in a convent.

Wednesday, we had our first Art and Architecture fieldtrip to the Capitoline Museums.  It was really cool to wander through and see all the old Roman sculpture and paintings, but by the end I was beginning to wonder why they kept digging up more busts when we have so many already!  I've never so many busts that all look the same altogether before in my life :-P.  When we walked past the Roman Forum though, we were just in time to see a gorgeous rainbow over it that faded by the time we left.  After I got pictures of everything we were supposed to study for class, I went with some people to a gorgeous Church next door.  After spending a few minutes looking around, we stepped out the front door.  The Church, Santa Maria en la Aerceoli (or something spelled similar) is perched near the highest point on the Capitoline hill on top of 124 stairs.  It has an amazing view of the city of Rome.  As we were gazing out at the view, we started to see birds doing some really strange things.  They were in massive flocks, and without really moving anywhere, they flew around constantly making the oddest shapes with their flock and doing really odd maneuvers like nothing I've ever seen before.  We stood there staring at them in awe for quite some time before leaving.  The next day, however, while reading my Art and Architecture homework, I read that on the Capitoline Hill, in the location where that Church is today, was a place called the Arx.  On the Arx, the ancient Roman soothsayers would read the bird signs.  It was really cool to learn that, and it made my friends and I wonder what it is about that spot that makes the birds fly in such strange patterns there.

On Friday morning, my friends Colleen and Christi and I left for Brussels for our first free travel weekend.  However, I have no time now, so hopefully I can write about that sometime this week!