Not Done Yet

Some day in the last couple of days we flew from Rome to Ottawa, then we spent two nights in Ottawa with friends and yesterday came out to the throbbing metropolis of Barry's Bay.  Scout was graduating today, and Polly was receiving a diploma of Christian Studies available to those who have taken the required courses provided for such a one year program.

Absorbing and processing our amazing time in Italy will have to be put on hold for the moment, as we want to wrap ourselves up in this moment.  But it is part of our trip so I'm including it here.  I'll get back to "things we learned while away," to wrap up Italy in a few days.  When I am home, sleeping in my own comfy bed.  Then, and only then, will I REFLECT.

My Babies.

Last night we went to a reception for visiting parents, staff and graduating students.  During the lovely social time, the cat leaped out of the bag that my baby Scout was chosen Valedictorian for her class.  She wanted to keep it a surprise, but apparently not everyone knew that and, actually, we just had our surprise a few hours early.

I knew she would do an awesome job.  But, um, excuse me, she did an AMAZING job!  Approximately hundreds of people complimented us afterwards, and even a few said they wanted to meet me BECAUSE I was the mother of such a person.  Well.

If she allows me, I am going to include some of the text from her talk in a blog post because she is so stinking smart.  And funny.  And beautiful.  And.  She had the  audience in tears and in stitches, her fellow students, staff and clergy, including Cardinal Collins of Toronto (who by the way, is an incredible speaker an no small act to follow).  With humour and pathos, she touched her audience deeply.  Did I mention I was so proud?

Then, my friends, My Babies did this.  Scout receives her diploma with Magna Cum Laude, and Sweet Polly with a Summa Cum Laude...so much cream.  Beautiful, holy girls, faithful, loving, kind, courageous AND smart.  No way, it is not possible.

More than my poor heart can hold, my friends.

More than my poor heart can hold.

And so, tomorrow we head off to Ottawa again and stay some undetermined place near the airport.  We take our daughters home and, for some short time, our family will be all together.

And then some.  For, my friends, we have a the honour and pleasure of taking home with us a newcomer to the family.  Polly, it seems, acquired more than just good formation and good marks at school, but also a gentleman friend.

And, now that we have met said friend in person, we can attest that her men choosing skills are well honed (like her mother).  She has chosen a handsome, attentive, devoted wildcard who fairly bubbles over with mischief and joy.  

On the Way to Canada, I had a Five Hour Nap

Sorry for the photo dump, but...

First nine photos are of the castle ruins at Roccasecca,

the last two are of the Tiber docks.

"Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art."

Roccasecca

Can the trip of my dreams BE any better?

This is crazy.  But today we left Sorrento with our driver, Jack.  We wanted to go to Rome via the birthplace of Thomas Aquinas.  There wasn't a lot of information on the young life of Saint Thomas.  But we showed up in Roccasecca, underwhelming to the naked eye.

Um.  Says Jack.  Is there something special you wanted to see here?

We don't know.  We say.  Let's just drive around a have a look.  One road and then another led us on a bit of a wild goose chase, but after twenty minutes or so of poking our nose into unmarked roadways that led us to the castle ruins that we could see on the rocky promontory above us.  I think this is where we are meant to go.

Here, where Saint Thomas spent his first five years and where he was captured by his brothers and stuffed into a tower for not towing the Benedictine line, is an unspoiled, uncommercialized ruins of my special patron Saint Thomas Aquinas.

We parked at the bottom of the fortified wall, and walked in, and on and around the ruins for a 360 degree view of what young Thomas saw.  The steps he sat on, the grassy little courtyard, the spring flowers that were his.

I was filled to the brim with the delight of it all.  Virtually no one goes here.  There appears to be a half hearted attempt to honour the saint, with an unattractive modern statue raised near the bottom of the hill, and some interesting signage telling the history of Roccasecca.

We had brought a picnic lunch, in the hopes there would be a nice place in the countryside inland between Naples and Rome.  So we had a picnic, hiked around the castle ruins, the tower and the chapel (rebuilt after destruction during war time).

Who knew our last day in Italy would be so outstanding.

We arrived in our place near the Fiumicino Airport, outside of Rome, expecting the humdrum ambience typical for "airport hotels."  Nuh uh.

It turns out the Fiumicino is a seaside town (I knew this, I just anticipated boring)

Well, never underestimate things when God is your tour guide.  This is the spot where the the Tiber River dumps into the Mediterranean.  There is a huge long canal cut along the edges of the river, where fishing boats come in the late afternoon.  Big ones and small ones, they all lay out the days catch on the dock and the restaurateurs stroll along, choosing their menu for the evening.

The restaurants on the street on the opposite side of the  dock don't open until about eight in the evening, to offer Italy's finest to their customers.

Tomorrow's flight is at about noon, we as excited about going home as we are sad about leaving.  

1) and 2) The coast
3) the storm
4) These little narrow alleys leading to the beach in these towns were for the purpose of deterring pirate raids. Only one pirate at a time could fit through.
5) The cathedral
6) St. Lawrence
7) Toes in the Mediterranean
8) Two buses on the Amalfi highway
9) The view everywhere in Sorrento

Amalfi and Andrew

One of the great draws of the Sorrento and Naples area is the not-to-miss Amalfi coastal highway.  I use the term highway loosely, check out the photos to catch my drift.  So Jack the driver picked us up this morning and took us for a tour of the peninsula, along the aforementioned Amalfi road.

There are several small towns along the way, each of course, with their distinct personality.  We only stopped at two.  Well, truth be known, we stopped at Positano twice.  The first time we stopped long enough for an americano at a coffee bar and a potty stop.  It was raining, hailing, lightning and thundering, so needless to say, not the day for a stop at a coastal town.

However, after an half hour or so, as we headed toward the town of Amalfi the sun came out and it was lovely and warm.  So on our way back, we stopped in at Positano again, to see what it actually looked like.

In Amalfi, wonder of wonders, we got some more religion, with some serious Apostle Coolness at the Amalfi Cathedral, where St. Andrew, yes, the fisherman, is buried.  Amalfi at one time rivalled Venice for its trade and commerce, but now is a small fishing village and holiday town.  The Cathedral is in the Byzantine style, and its impressiveness it definitely an indicator of the glory days of Amalfi.

In the crypt, sidling up to the altar where St. Andrew's remains rest, is a couple of beautiful statues by
Bernini, one of St. Lorenzo (Lawrence) complete with grill in hand.  Fun for the professor to see, as one of his patrons.

As it was a lovely warm afternoon, the kids took off there socks and shoes, rolled up their pants and  played in the water.  Sparky slept.  I laid in the sun.  The coastal route back was the same, but coming from the opposite direction, looked completely different.

Just wandered around Sorrento this evening, enjoying the Italian air.  Everyone is winding down, tomorrow morning we head from here to Rome, via Roccasecca, to the birthplace of The Man, St. Thomas Aquinas.  Love that guy.

I will lay all of you petitions and mine at the feet of him who is awesome.  

Quote of the Day...

Rosebud, while flitting through the ruins of Pompeii, running hither and thither in the fullness of delight,
"Check it OUT, guys! More Roman COOLNESS!"

It was hard to choose which of the 900 Ruins and Lemon of Happiness photos to choose, but here goes. first photo is of Mt. Vesuvius from the highway. Apparently volcanic ash is good for lemons. Bunch of ruins. Parents drinking Limoncello.

Last Leg...

It is remarkable to think that we have been travelling for three weeks.  It feels like three days, it feels like three months.  Every mythical place in mythical Italy has now come alive and is a real place in a real country.

It is a weird feeling to see somewhere on a map, to pinpoint it, to talk about it, read about it, even watch videos of it and yet is so surreal.  And then you get there and it all delight and wonder of it all is part of your collective memory and thoughts.

We left Rome today for what will be the last little leg of our journey, south to Naples, one hour by high speed train (300 km per hour), very cool.  We did not stay in Naples at all, but went directly to spend the afternoon at the ruins of Pompeii.  We have a driver booked here, who then took us to our apartment in Sorrento.  He'll meet us again here tomorrow, and take us around the Amalfi coast area, and the coastal towns here.

Pompeii was awesome, you are driving along in the middle of a city, you turn into a side street, and there you are, buying a ticket into the ruins and you walk through the gate and you are smack in the middle of the ruins of a bustling town from over 2000 years ago.  We could have stayed all day.

Houses and shops and theatres and gardens, sidewalks and public areas...truly an incredible place.  Acres of ruins, so clearly laid out that the imagination is bursting with what it was like, to live near friends, to meet at the fountain, to stroll through the market place.

One of the shopkeepers gave the boys a lemon the size of a small soccer ball, which they carried all over Pompeii, throwing it back and forth, fighting over it.  I suspect boys of the original Pompeii carried on with their lemons in much the same manner.

We arrived in Sorrento in time for the evening passieggata, families and couples were out in full regalia this evening, strolling and chatting.  So beautiful.  We chatted with a family in a small shop that carries locally made goods, baking and candy, olive oil and limoncello.  They had a six year old daughter who would not look at or talk to Rosebud, the same as Rosebud would not look at or talk to her.

Lemon and orange trees line the sidewalks, and many are heavy with fruit.  It looks so silly.  As if orange trees are real.  As if you pick them off a tree.  

Rome from the Dome

Chilling in Rome

That title, my friends, is oxymoronic.  Chill.  Rome.  Nuh uh.

Anyway.  As chill as possible, the Rosebud and I spent the morning puttering about, sorting laundry, hanging out, drinking espresso.  Except not Rosebud.

A quiet day, so that was nice.  The boys, however, went up to the dome of Saint Peter's, and had an excellent time once they got past the lineup.

Things move slowly at the Vatican.  And not just doctrinally.  But, we found out today, when you look like you are going to pass out at the Vatican, they can really hustle.  So that's a great comfort.

However, the quality of communications drops rapidly with drops in blood pressure.  Too bad.  Because four Italian Vatican employees saying, "Lady, lady, what??" and those are the only English words they know is not all that helpful.

When it became clear to me that they were asking me for a description of my husband, I did have the wherewithal to say, "con quattro figli" (with four children), and they ran off looking, clearly an easy to spot with that bit of information.

I'm feeling much better now, thank you.  

Quote of the Day, at the Sistine Chapel

"It's pretty good."

...anonymous

Friday Photos

1) A fresco from the original Saint Peter's Church
2) An important guys wife
3) The hall of maps
4) The Virgin Mary, Jesus and John the Baptist
5) Evening in Saint Peter's
6) The tomb of Blessed Pope John Paul II

Musei Vaticani

This afternoon we had a guided tour of the Vatican Museums.  Sonia, our tour guide for the afternoon, gave us the history of the Vatican, how it came to be, what it was prior to being the Vatican City, and an overview of the history of Rome and Italy.  The purpose of the background was to create for us the significance of the museum galleries we visited, and of some of the works of art and artists.

The highlight for most of us was the Sistine Chapel, as I suppose it is for most. The tomb of Saint Peter was where we ended our visit today.  I caught a couple of lovely photos of the evening sun coming through the windows of Saint Peter's Basilica.  It is difficult to write about it without the opportunity to digest what we were fed today.  And as a result of two days of touring, this post will be brief.  Oh, sweet sleep for all.

Yesterday

1)  Campo di Fiore
2)  Lessons with Alexander
3)  Saint Catherine of Siena's room where she lived and died
4)  The Church of the Holy Apostles, where the tomb of Saint Philip and James the Younger are in the crypt
5)  and 6)  The Empress and her Gladiators
7)  Take your best guess
8)  An original Roman street
9)  Piazza Navona, where a church is built on the site of St. Agnes execution