Venezia!

Some one gave me roses for the feast day of St. Therese! :)

Ciao, mia familia e i mio amici!

Many apologies for the delay in a new blog post, but when I tell you all I've been up to you'll understand why it's taken me so long to get around to writing again! I have 12 days to catch up on, so I'll have to summarize again, but hopefully when I see y'all in person again I can flesh out all the details of all the stuff that happened along the way.

First of all, we went to Venice for our first free weekend! It was utterly amazing--such a beautiful city! Our hotel was right next to the church that housed the relics of St. Lucy:

This is her body, on the left, and these special candles at her tomb, on the right, are special two-wicked candles meant to represent her eyes.

Venice is so incredibly beautiful.

 The guys here are peaking out of the window of their hotel room, which opened up onto the piazza in front of St. Geremia, where St. Lucy was. Our first night there we went exploring . . . here's the guys trying to figure out where we were, holding, as Randy would call it, the "international flag of a tourist": an open map. :)

We went to the piazza of the Basilica San Marco--so pretty at night. Me on a bridge:

Awkward/funny moment of the fortnight: While I was in Venice one evening, a bunch of us went in search of gelato, and when it came for my turn to order, I tried to do it in Italian: "Tre gusti (three flavors), per favore, grazie." 

The Italian guy behind the counter perked up: "Ah! Parla d'italiano?" 

I laughed abashedly and answered, "No, non parlo d'italiano, mi dispiace." 

He smiled and shrugged, and I gave him my flavors: "Ciocolatto, fragola, e pistacchio." I pronounced pistacchio as the Italians do, "pis-TACK-io," and he perked up again. "Brava!! Pistacchio!! Molto bene! All the tourists, they say 'peestasshio.' PisTACKio, brava!" 

All the guys complained I got more gelato than they did. :P I asked them if they thought it was because I pronounced my Italian words right  . . . or because I was a girl. My friend Joe answered with a smirk: "Probably a combination of the two." 

Well, they do say that girls get more gelato if they wink for it," but I don't plan on trying that anytime soon. :P

Left: an amazing bubble street performer outside our hotel the next morning. 

That day we went to see the glass makers on the island of Murano, which was really worth the trip. 

 

 

 

 

We were so blessed to be able to go to Sunday Mass at the gorgeous Basilica San Marco on the anniversary of it's dedication!! So many priests, and beautiful liturgy, complete with an incredible choir.

 

Getting back was quite a hassle though: the Italian train system was so frustrating, we got in at 1 am instead of 9:30 pm as planned on Sunday night. We were so exhausted, and at that point we hadn't eaten in 12 hours (airport-style McDonald's never tasted better than at 1 am waiting in a taxi line . . . ) But going to Venice was still absolutely worth it. 

Two days ago, Wednesday, was probably the most packed day I had ever had!! 

We got to St. Peter's square by 7 am, and raced in to get front row seats as soon as the gates opened. Yes, we were THIS CLOSE to Il Papa! 

Straight from the Papal audience, we went to lunch, from lunch to the catacombs, from the catacombs to a special dinner with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York! 

That's all for now, folks. Today mom and dad arrive, so I'll be pretty booked for awhile! :) 

Arriverderci!

xo Lauren