The Official End of School and the Official Beginning of Summer

Wednesday we had the morning off for the Papal audience. I stayed home for a marathon skype and some errands, but in the afternoon followed Fr to Castel Gandolfo. The tiny little town sits on the edge of an old volcanic crater and contains very little except for the summer Papal palace. Pope Francis has decided to stay in Rome this summer despite the heat, greatly upsetting Castel Gandolfo since the town was counting on tourist business. I now understand why; it’s pretty empty. It was, however, on the edge of a crater filled with a beautiful blue lake and it’s quite a bit cooler than Rome. I had some great coconut gelato and sat on the terrace of a nice little café to while away the time until the train. It was a nice reprieve from the heat.

Thursday I picked up Dad and Karen from their hostel and brought them to St. Peter’s to join our class and some Missionaries of Charity for a Fr. Maher tour. They must have brought the last blast of cool air from Alaska with them, the radiating heat is gone for now and there’s a breeze (although I hear it might be hotter in Alaska than here at the moment!). It’s great to watch Karen’s face light up and to see everything new through her eyes. I guess I’m getting a bit jaded from all the art everywhere, but not so for her. Dad seemed to like it too. Fr. took us up to the roof of hte Jesuit Curate afterwards to look out on what he thinks is the best view in Rome. It was pretty impressive. We don't feel very sorry for him when he has to live here. In the afternoon I dragged them about to show them the Catfish market and a few Asian supermarkets where they could obtain food for Karen (who has a lot of allergies). We also had a gelato stop. I gained a new appreciation for Father.

Yesterday I got Karen and Dad and headed to the Colosseum to meet up with my class. They ran late and I almost gave myself an ulcer, but they finally did show up and we had a lovely walking tour and review of Roman history. I’m sad that that is probably the last class I will have with Fr. Maher, but I guess it’s time to move on after taking 5 classes from one professor. We ended at the Spanish steps, where I pointed Dad and Karen towards Termini and the National Museum. I will find out what they thought tomorrow. Fr. had quite the evening planned for us, since it was the feast of St. Luigi Gonzaga, the namesake of our school, a Jesuit. We got all dressed up and went to St. Ignatius Church, where Luigi is buried. One of Luigi’s grandnephews met us, an elderly gentleman who tends to wink at the girls. I didn’t get any winks, but I did shake his hand. Then we climbed a little spiral staircase to see the rooms where Luigi lived. The floor was the original, plain brick, but the rest of the room had been decorated with scenes from his life and red damask. It was neat to walk on the same floor as him.

Then we ran over to the Gesu to see a light show on the tomb of St. Ignatius that they do every Friday. It was pretty neat, with singing and lights on the baroque statues, and even a retractable painting that revealed an ornate statue of Ignatius. Jesuit theatrics live, I guess.

Back at St. Ignatius we attended the mass in honor of Luigi. At the end Gonzaga’s pages (little boys all decked out in medieval garb) brought out bags of prayer requests for Luigi and burned them not outside, but right in the middle of the church. Fr. looked up at the beautiful frescoes with dismay, but the symbolism of the prayers going up to heaven was still beautiful. The Fr. took us to the culinary event of the evening: a 4-course dinner at the first restaurant he ate at in Rome. The owner is the son of the owner Father first knew, but Father is still a known and welcome guest. We had an exquisite meal of seared veggies, frittata, carbonara, ravioli, veal, salad, and finally a white cream cake. I asked Fr. about Protestant and Catholic differences (he used to teach Lutheran catechism) and told him that I was thinking of becoming Catholic. Fr. answered my questions in the most serious and honest fashion I think I’ve ever seen him use. I really appreciated his explanations, they made a lot of sense. Fr. then led us on a saunter through the Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish steps. The Piazza was beautiful at night, the others weren’t too spectacular (remember what I said about becoming jaded?).

Today has been pretty quiet. I went out with Richard and Katherine to try to visit the Holy Stairs, but we discovered some kind of civic protest instead, and the church we wanted was accordingly closed (they were even closing down the metro station at the piazza). So we came home after a little stop in Mary Major’s. I’m kinda sad to be done with studying here, and it’s hard to realize that I will leave in a few days. On the other hand, I kinda want to go home with everyone else. Instead I have a combination of the two extremes: I get to spend time with my family in Rome and then more of Italy and then to France. People assume that because one is in exciting places having incredible adventures it must be all gay and a lark – don’t forget that traveling is hard on your feet and your emotions. I’m going to go help Katherine pack up our kitchen; farewell for now.