We stayed at the Cistercian General House, where we knew some monks who are in Rome for their studies. After our many months away from friends, family, and even English-speakers, a little monastic hospitality was a huge relief! The house is a former villa on the peaceful Aventine hill, which we were shocked to find warm, sunny, and full of flowers. It literally smelled like roses and orange blossoms everywhere. We northerners didn't know what to do. Above, you can see us in the orange garden of Santa Sabina which overlooks the Tibur from the top of the Aventine, and below, the courtyard of the house:
Our time in Rome was almost luxuriously full of beautiful sights and wonderful events. First, we went to see the Pope:
He's the really tiny one in the middle in white. Actually we were nearly crushed by the crowd, and exhausted by standing in the sun at this Wednesday audience. But on the way in he drove right by us! I decided to savor the moment rather than photographing, however. And it was exciting to hear his message for the feast of St Joseph the Worker--does our academic work count as labor?--in person.
Shortly thereafter, we were able to go to early morning mass in St. Peter's Basilica thanks to Fr. Thomas and Br. John.
For the first hour that the basilica is open each morning, any priest can show up and say mass at one of the many small chapels. It was moving to attend mass in the church itself, but when we did this a second time, later in our trip, we had an even bigger treat. We managed to duck into the chapel directly below the main altar and see the actual bones of St. Peter himself. The history of the tomb is super interesting (no one knew it was there until less than a century ago... and it turned out to be precisely below the main altar) and you can read more about it here.
We probably weren't really supposed to be allowed to see the tomb, and I'm not quite sure how Fr. Thomas charmed the guard (it was in Italian). We had failed earlier to get a spot in one of the tours of the excavations because they fill up so far in advance, so we were doubly glad of the chance! As it happened, the day that we visited the tomb of St. Peter was also T's birthday, and the day we had arrived in Rome was my birthday. We ate a lot of celebratory spaghetti and pizza.
On one occasion T ordered a pizza called "il Vesuvio," and this is what appeared:
Delish.
Anyway, shortly after our first morning mass in St. Peter's, we were able, through the generosity of Fr. Raphael, another Cistercian, to see the new Swiss Guards being sworn in...!
And that's not to mention the time we went to the Palazzo Barberini with a student and painter of Baroque frescoes and made sketches of the paintings to practice seeing. Or about our trip to "Fat Momma's" (it's the name of the restaurant, but don't call the owner that). As you can see, we were welcomed to the city very generously. We also of course visited a ton of churches and walked a lot, and I even managed to see some manuscripts in the Vatican Library. More of that later, but for now, here's the view from Santa Sabina's orange garden at twilight, when we often took a short walk to it:
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