On Friday the class took a trip to the Castelli Romani which are the small towns in close proximity to the campus. We walked up to Castel Gondolfo, the Pope's summer residence, and then to Nemi, closing with a “fast food” Italian dinner along Lake Albano.
Saturday was great as Jacob and I decided to go into Rome that morning. Firstly, Rome in the morning is great, secondly we had amazing pastries. We had heard about this tiny pastericcia just a hop skip and a jump down from the Vatican from a good many friends, so that was our first destination. It is just a little hole in the wall, but the pastries are so large, absolutely delicious (not as sweet as American doughnuts), and extraordinarily cheap! We breakfasted on those in St. Peter's square, and as we had no napkins, we both ended up very sticky and thirsty. This just gave us the opportunity to utilize the water fountains in the square where the water is delicious and cool—just what we needed. The day further consisted of buying stamps and postcards, un po' di studying, gelato, Piazza Navona, and some old Italian street musicians. The fellow with the accordion had to duct tape his accordion together and the bassist's strings were so old they clacked more than made a tune. It was delightful. I spent the second half of the day with my roommates, Madeleine and Jessie, jaunting around Rome, and then we returned for the traditional campus wide wine tasting event with Monseigneur Fucinaro. Everyone clad in spiffy attire and perhaps a little tipsy, and the evening was a great success.
Though everything thus far has just been so outstanding, today was definitely the highlight. My friend Jill and I walked to Castel Gondolfo (only 4 kilometers away) for Mass at eight this morning. Our hopes were to stay there for the Pope's Angelus at noon. We met up with quite a few other students a few hours later and waited for three hours to get into the small courtyard in the Pope's summer residence. Naturally, being the UD students that we are, we all sat there with our homework for tomorrow's classes as we roasted in the sun. Not until I pushed my way inside did I realize how intense this was going to be. The capacity of the courtyard is about 2000 people, but it feels so much smaller. The large window that our beloved Papa, Pope Benedict XVI, was going to come out of was only a little higher than the second story of our dorm and I was standing directly front and center. As the minutes dragged by, I began to get so excited. Cries of “Benedetto!” and “Viva il Papa!” were echoing through the courtyard. Finally, after a lifetime, he emerged from the door and the crowd erupted in cheers and screaming. We were all waving and cheering (and I was crying) and he just looked over us all with such incredible love just gushing out. He spoke to us and then we prayed the Angelus and some Glory Be's—I'll never pray those two prayers the same way ever again. What was also incredible is that when you're there, you feel such unity with the rest of the Catholic Church. A lovely old Italian woman turned around in front of me as we were leaving and saw my tear streaked face, and simply smiled and touched my arm and said, “hai veduto il papà." I just replied “Si, si!”
Dr. Hatlie said it best when he told us in his orientation speech that we would be utterly “saturated” in Rome. I think that this is the best way to describe it. The doses of grace, beautiful sights, learning, and of course wine and good food, just fill one to the brim till one can't be filled any more. Deo Gratias!
