Ciao Roma, Hello USA

On our last day in Rome, Wednesday the 19th, we went to a papal audience. It was our first papal audience as a family! Little George loved all of the people clapping and singing for the Pope. He joined along as best he could! Going to the papal audience was the perfect way to say goodbye to Rome.

After the papal audience, we visited St. Peter's for the last time. We tried to take in as much of it's beauty as we could before we left. The thing that we miss most about Rome is it's churches, in particular St. Peter's. I always felt at home there.

Giorgio misses these water fonts!

On our way home, we stopped and had our last gelato. Just thinking about it makes me hungry now.

We packed for the rest of the evening and went to our favorite pizza place in Trastevere with Rob for dinner. Oh Roman pizza, how we miss you!

On Thursday, we headed home! Our travels back did not go as smoothly as on our way over to Italy. We has a 2 1/2 hour flight delay while on the plane so much of Giorgio's patience was used up while sitting at the gate. TV and Benedryl were the heroes of the day. We also hit lots of turbulence that ended up making me sick. But after 22 hours of travel, we made it back to my parents' home! 

We all had a great visit and Christmas with my family! We were lucky enough to see the Meolas and Maricontis while on the east coast as well! Little George loved having his toys around, having lots of open space and being able to run around as much as he wanted.

Now we are back at Notre Dame and all moved in. It is wonderful to be back in our own home and all settled.

Our Roman Holiday pt. 2

Now that we are back in the States, I have some time to finish posting about our last days in Rome. We are already starting to miss Roma!

The Sunday before we left Rome, we spent the day around the Spanish Steps. We visited Sant'Andrea del Fratte, where two of Bernini's sculptures are. They are angels that were intended to be on the Ponte del'Angelo but the Pope thought that the sculptures were too good to be outside.

After visiting that church, we walked over to the Spanish Steps. Little George climbed up all the stairs with a little help from Mom. He was so excited about climbing all of those stairs and by the time we reached the top he was wiped out just in time for mass at Trinita del Monte.

Ironically, the last mass we went to in Rome was said in French since Trinita del Monti is the French parish in Rome.

We saw some more of Bernini's sculptures in Santa Maria del Popolo. This church is gorgeous! Caravaggio's Crucifixion of St. Peter, the Conversion on the Way to Damascus, and the Assumption of the Virgin of Mary are also in this church.

Then we headed into the Villa Borghese on our way to Villa Guilia. Giorgio loved seeing the dogs in the park and the ducks on the pond.

Villa Guilia has incredible gardens and we all enjoyed exploring them. The highlight for little George was splashing around in the fountain!

On Monday, we visited some churches near the Jewish Ghetto. First, we went to Santa Maria in Consolatione, which is at the foot of the Tarpeian Rock.

Then we went onto San Nicola in Carcere and Santa Maria in Campitelli.

We had our last lunch of Campo di Fiori pizza and ate in Piazza Farnese, where we have eaten lunch so many time during the semester. Boy do we miss that pizza!!

In the evening, we meet up with Brandon Macadaeg in front of the Vatican and went out to a very yummy, authentically Roman meal at Dino e Tony's. They did not have menus but simply just served you what ever the chef was cooking. Everything was delicious and they gave us so much food. We waddled out of there!

On Tuesday, we visited some of the sights on the Aventine hill:

Santi Bonifaco e Alesso, Piazza dei Cavelieri di Malta,...

If you look through the key hole in this door you can see the dome of St. Peter's. What great symbolism! It was a little foggy the morning we went so we did not have a really clear view but below is what we saw!

Sant' Anselmo, where they had a great gift shop of beer and chocolate made by local monks,...

and Santa Sabina.

This is the orange tree that St. Thomas Aquinas planted and used to sit under while he was at Santa Sabina.

From the garden behind Santa Sabina, there is a gorgeous view of Roma and St. Peter's!

From the Aventine, we went to St. Paul Outside the Walls. Finally, we made it to all four of the major basilicas!

We jammed as many sights into the last few days as possible. Phew, it was exhausting but boy did we see a lot!

Our Roman Holiday pt. 1

Now that George's project is finished and his classes are done we are visiting and revisiting lots of Rome's sights. Last Monday, we visited churches around the Forum area, went into the Colosseum and went on a merry-go-round in Piazza Navona!

We visited Santa Maria in Aracoeli, 

Where St. Helen, Constantine's mother, is buried and where legend says Augustus' Ara Coeli is.  Emperor Augustus heard a prophesy at the Temple of Juno Moneta that states "This is the altar of the first born of God". So he built an altar on this site referred to as the Ara Coeli, "altar of heaven". 

Santo Bambino, a statue of baby Jesus that is carved out of olive wood from the Garden of Gethsemene.

Santi Cosma e Damiano, 

and San Francesco Romana.

The church was built on the spot where Simon Magnus (Acts 8:9-24 and from the apocryphal Acts of Peter), in an attempt to show off his magical powers, flew into the air, but because of the prayers of Sts. Peter and Paul, crashed to the earth leaving the above imprint in the floor. 

This confession was designed by Bernin. Little George loved walking up and down these stairs. I do not know how many time he went up and down them while Dad took tons of photos of the church.

While little George napped and Dad sat outside the Colosseum (he had already visited the Colosseum a few times before), I went into the Colosseum. It was awesome walking around, listening to my free Rick Steves audio guide tell stories of the Colosseum and to be in such a historical place.

From the Pantheon, we walked towards Piazza Navona in order to walk around the Christmas market and go on the merry-go-round! Little George loved it at first but about haft way through the ride he started to get a little distressed.

On Friday, we went all over the city seeing many more sites than we had originally planned. We began at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, went up the Sancta Scala and visited the Lateran for the last time this trip.

Santa Croce houses many relics of the Passion: 3 parts of the Cross, a portion of the title from the cross, the Apostle Thomas' finger, two thorns from the crown of thorns, and a nail.

This is the Chapel os St. Helen, which was built on soil that St. Helen brought back with her from Calvary.

Showing Giorgio the presepe at the Lateran

Then we walked over to Santa Maria Maggiore to visit the relics of Christ's manger during Advent and to visit Bernini's tomb.

On the way to Maria Maggiore, we stopped in a small church and it ended up having the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

George at Bernini's tombstone

We stopped at our favorite gelato/ cannoli shop on our way to visit Sant'Agata dei Goti and then headed up to Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale.

We had a wait a few minutes in front of Sant'Andrea al Quirinal  for the church to open,.

Giorgio liked this presepe I think because it was at the perfect level!

After swinging by the Trevi Fountain one last time, George got it into his head that we should experience Rome at night by walking up Via del Corso at night and walk up to Piazza del Popolo.

Looking towards the Spanish Steps

Piazza del Popolo

We finished the night off by having dinner at a Fr. DeRosa recommended restaurant near Sant Apostoli. They had the most amazing antipasta buffet there!

We ended up walking almost 6 miles in one day!

With all of that walking we did on Friday, we decided to have a lazy day on Saturday!