Perhaps my favorite aspect about living in Rome is the exposure to the Vatican, and the renewed sense of faith and prayer it gives me. Every day when I walk around Rome, I pass by nuns, priests, seminarians, friars, brothers, and many more, all simply living in community with each other. It truly is a beautiful thing, and acts as a constant reminder to anyone who is dwindling in their faith that there are still many faithful servants to the church. This semester I was blessed with an amazing campus ministry, led by our Father Al, that organized many events that got other students and I out into the Vatican to explore our faith a little deeper. As a practicing Catholic, it is very important for me to find a community where I can grow in faith and love, and I found that here more than I ever expected. Whether it be from church crawls, adoration and praise, Holy Week activities, to even a pilgrimage to the town of Assisi, the campus ministry here at the John Felice Rome Center has blessed me with extremely meaningful opportunities for me to develop my spiritual life in more ways than I ever imagined.

Inside the Basilica, being lit up by sun rays.

Cardinals everywhere!

The first of these opportunities that I want to mention is mass at the Station Churches of Rome.  Now, Rome has over 800 churches, meaning that obviously not all of them can function all the time because of lack of staff and parishioners, especially since some streets have three to four churches on them alone! Therefore, every Lent, each of these churches open their doors to a mass for one day each. On these days, Catholic pilgrims travel to that one church for mass. These churches are called “Station Churches”, and are mostly attended to by American Catholics living or studying in Rome. Unfortunately the masses were held at 7 am, meaning that I would have to leave my campus at 5:30 am to make it on time. Needless to say, I only went to a few of them! However, the few I went to were very special to me. I went with my friend and fellow crusader, Nik Churik, for two Thursdays in Lent. I never expected myself to be waking up at 5 am, walking around a major city during sunrise, all to attend just one simple mass. But in Rome, I did, and I would gladly do it again. The mass itself was very powerful because everyone truly made an effort to be there, and it was extremely refreshing hearing the singing and responses of such an exuberant and passionate congregation. Due to the campus ministry here, we became good friends with some seminarians from the North American Pontifical College (NAC). Both times we met up with these seminarians there for mass, and then followed them after for a classic Roman breakfast of a cappuccino and cornetto. After breakfast, Nik and I would walk back to the bus stop and go back to campus, energized and ready to start the day while everyone else was still struggling to get up. I will truly miss and cherish these mornings the most out of my time in Rome, because they are ones that I did not expect to have at all, yet have brought me so much happiness.

My favorite View of the Vatican from a bridge on the way to a Station Church at 6 AM.

Some of my campus ministry friends with Fr. Al in the center, the mastermind behind all these great campus ministry happenings

Besides the Station Churches, our campus ministry did lots of other activities with the seminarians from the NAC. We went with them on a church crawl to around seven major churches of Rome, including the church of St. Cecilia that has her remains underneath. We also went to the town of Assisi with the seminarians, who helped us experience a day of quiet reflection, prayer, and mass in the home town of St. Francis. More importantly, however, we shared with these seminarians good food throughout Rome! We would often times go out as a group to a restaurant and share great conversations ranging from funny jokes to more deep conversations about religion, which always ended with abundant wine and a glass of limoncello.

The beautiful town of Assisi.

Church of Saint Francis in Assisi.

Statue of Saint Francis and the two turtle doves.

My friend Lauren and I with Donato, one of the NAC seminarians in Assisi for dinner.

As for the Vatican itself, I made multiple visits inside St. Peter’s Basilica. It is by far the most amazing church I have ever seen, and remains to be the only building that single-handedly moved me to tears. I had the amazing opportunity to have mass in the crypts below the basilica, in the Polish Grotto. Shockingly, we were actually a few rooms away from the closest you can get to the remains of St. Peter himself. Throughout the semester we went to numerous beautiful churches, such as the Church of Saint Ignatius and the Gesu (the main Jesuit church), but Saint Peter’s remains to be my favorite.

The culmination of all this involvement with campus ministry was Holy Week, the week of the Easter Tridium: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. And what better place to spend it than in Rome! Holy Week has always meant a lot to me ever since I could remember. In grade school, I remember learning about the Easter Tridium and why it is so important, and I even remember small things like my mom stopping me from using electronics on Good Friday from 12 to 3. But this year, I really got a new understanding of what Holy Week is, and that’s because I spent it in Rome. While the buses might have been extremely packed for these few days, the atmosphere was so peaceful and the amount of dedicated Catholics here was so powerful that it created a spiritual environment unlike any other.

The week started with Palm Sunday, where I had mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Florence. The events of Holy Thursday began with a mass in our school. Holy Thursday mass has for a long time been my favorite mass, especially because of the symbolism of a feast in lieu of such pain, a celebration in the church before a stripping of the church. After mass, the campus ministry and I met up with other study abroad students from Duquesne University and did a church crawl through one of the main streets of Rome, Via del Corso. We visited several beautiful churches, each with the Eucharist in repose for the Passion. This Holy Thursday church crawl is an American custom, so there were many Americans in Rome who joined us. We all held candles with red holders, and while they were all lit, the candles created a sea of light in the dark Roman night. Normally the street we were walking on is fully congested with cars and bikers, but that night it was dominated by pilgrims holding candles and entering churches. We culminated the night by going to one of our favorite restaurants (by that point we were regulars) and had delicious rigatoni with pear and cheese filling.

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross, in Florence.

Holy Thursday candle-lit church crawl

Good Friday began with a prayer service in our chapel. Afterwards we headed down to the Coliseum for the Via Crucis, the Stations of the Cross, with Pope Francis. After waiting there for about four hours, the service started. It was an unforgettable backdrop: we were all standing in front of the Coliseum which was lit up with bright lights from the inside. Next to us was the Arch of Constantine that had a huge lit up cross on it. And in front of us was the edge of the Palatine Hill, where the Pope sat next to a massive gas lit flaming cross in front of the remains of the Basilica Nova, the basilica that Emperor Constantine built after he legalized Christianity. The stations were read in Italian, with each reflection ending with the Our Father in Latin. The weather was perfect and the whole night had the soundtrack of the beautiful Sistine Choir. I simply couldn’t get over where I was, who I was with, and what I was celebrating. With the combination of the Coliseum, where many died and were persecuted for their religion, and the Pope with the Sistine Choir, it was an extremely powerful night that truly exemplified for me the burdens and trials the church has had to overcome.

Me and the Coliseum on Good Friday!

The Coliseum at night for the Stations of the Cross

The Arch of Constantine for the Via Crucis.

The gas light cross with the pope underneath the Basilica Nova, on the Palatine Hill for the Via Crucis.

Easter Morning finally arrived with the glorious bells of St. Peter’s Basilica. In order to get good seats for mass, we got down there and were waiting from 6 am. Although it was a tiresome ordeal, celebrating Easter at the Vatican made it completely worth it. There was such an excitement being there, not to mention beauty. The whole façade of the Basilica was lined with gorgeous white flowers, and had red curtains hanging from the main windows. The sounds of the Vatican on this special day are worth remembering forever: the bells of the basilica, the sound of the band from both the Swiss Guards and the Italian Army, and of course the angelic voices of the Sistine Choir. We ended up getting fantastic seats, and could see the mass perfectly from where we were. The mass was without a doubt the most beautiful mass I have ever been to. Besides having it celebrated by the Pope, it was beautiful for its music and use of difference languages. My favorite was the gospel reading, which the deacon chanted in both Latin and ancient Greek. After mass, the Pope drove around on his pope mobile to address the crowds before giving a small speech from the main window in the Vatican. After his speech, we left to get some Italian pastry and head back to our campus for a nice picnic.

Easter Morning in front of the Vatican!

Pope Francis during Easter Mass

Up close and personal with a Swish Gaurd

Pope-Mobile ride after mass. Time to greet the masses!

Pope’s address after mass from the Basilica’s second floor.

The last event that I shared with the Vatican was the Canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII. Millions of pilgrims came from all over the world…and I mean millions, and they filled every corner and crevice that Rome had to offer.  Because of the popularity of the event, some friends and I decided to camp out the night before. Rome was so crowded, you couldn’t even leave the campsite for a bathroom break because there was no guarantee you could fit back into the site through the gates. By 7 pm the day before, police blocked off everything, and it became a game of jumping fences and dodging sleeping heads for me and Nik to meet up with our friends. THAT I will never forget! In fact, we even had to bribe someone to let us get past him with a box of pizza we were going to deliver to our friends! Once things settled down, there were groups of people with guitars, singing and clapping to church songs, most popular being “Lord, you have come to the seashore” and even American songs, with “Country Road” being the song of the night! While it was a powerful religious experience itself, it was also a physically exhausting one, since we had to camp out from 5 pm the day before and stand on our feet from 10 pm to the mass at 10 am. Around 7 am, with no food, water, or access to a bathroom, we decided to leave and watch the mass from our lobby. Even though we felt the need to leave, the whole event taught me that what truly matters is your personal spiritual experience there, not being there for the sake of being there. Through this semester I really developed a mature way of looking at my faith: that it is a process, a story of relationship, which only grows when you do things for the right reasons. I now have much more of an appreciation for religion and desire to learn more about it.  Being exposed to these events taught me the value of questioning things to truly grasp their meaning, and to make them your own. There will most likely never be an event like the Canonization again in my life time. The sheer amount of people and their dedication, motivation, and occasional shoving, to be present was leaps and bounds bigger than what any other event could draw. I have been to my fair share of concerts, marches, and festivals, but nothing was like this. No secular event, no president’s inauguration, no event for one single man has attracted the crowds like that of the now Saint Pope John Paul II. This is simply a testament to the fact that in this very secular world, the church still holds a good deal of influence that surpasses many others.

Our humble abode during Canonization camping. USA represent!

The crowd of millions ahead of us towards St. Peter’s Square around 5 AM.

The crowd of millions behind us in line towards St. Peter’s Square.

The view of the Basilica just after sunrise on the morning of the Canonization.

Being a student in Rome has opened me up to so many blessings from the Vatican of which I am extremely grateful, and I hope to always hear those morning bells from the Vatican in my head on many Sundays to come, wherever I am.

Before coming to Rome, I knew there was one place I just had to see: Sicily. The land of my forefathers, the land of cannoli and limoncello, and the land of Greeks, Romans, and Arabs alike. Sicily, in many ways, is the cultural and culinary diamond of Italy, and I instantly fell in love with it. However, I didn’t only visit once, but twice. I had the chance to go first with my friends to see the modern day city of Palermo, and then with my school on a guided weekend touring all the ancient sites. Both were the highlights of my experience in Italy so far, and left me striving for more. I’ll go in chronological order, and share the weekend of ancient Sicily with you first.

Ancient Sicily

            Sicily goes much farther back than just the Romans, and is an integral piece of Greek history as well. For three days, we toured sites of Ancient Greek Temples and agoras, as well as a Greco-Roman theatre. Our travels started in the north-western city of Palermo, south down to Agrigento, and finally east past Mount Edna to Taromina. We pretty much covered the whole island, meaning that each bus ride provided countless beautiful scenes of the landscape. A few brave students and I decided to take the ferry to Sicily instead of flying. We left Rome on Thursday afternoon, took the train to Naples, then the overnight ferry from Naples to Palermo. While in Naples, we had the infamous Napolitano pizza, at the restaurant where “Eat Pray Love” was filmed. It was by far the best pizza I ever had, with the dough being the biggest difference. You know a restaurant is good when a “Margarita Pizza” is literally all they have on their menu, and the line is still out the door. The ferry was pretty empty so we had the whole boat to ourselves, and went out on the deck to wave bye to the Italian mainland as we left the coast of Naples. The next morning we arrived in Sicily at 6 AM, had morning cornetti and cappuccini, and then met up with the other students from the plane to begin our tour. We first toured a Christian basilica that had huge and beautiful Moorish arches. The Arabs had an immense role in medieval architecture in Sicily, and their art style is seen heavily in churches through their mosaics and arches.

Pizza in Naples. The best ever!

Sicilian villages in the afternoon sky from the bus.

We finally moved on to the main feature of our trip: Ancient Greek Temples. These temples date to the 6^th century BC, and were built even before the infamous temples on top of the Acropolis in Athens. Now one might think this out of place since Sicily is Italian and what would the Greeks be doing in Italy. However, Italy has more preserved Greek temples than the entirety of Greece has! This is because of two reasons: 1.) Many Greeks immigrated to Italy and made cities, thus built temples to worship their specific deities. 2.) The Italians preserved these temples by making them into Christian churches. It is only recently that the archaeologists restored them to their original form. We saw tons and tons of Greek Temples. I don’t know what it is about them, but I love them so much. The monumentality of them, the antiquity behind it, the meticulous order and uniform style…these traits all combine to make marvelous wonders to behold. Now I have seen many Greek temples before in Greece, but these were different. Being in Sicily, these temples were surrounded by water and luscious greenery. Sicily is extremely fertile, as compared to the dry and arid land of Greece. Seeing the contrast of green and the pale orange of the temples really was a sight to see. We went to a site that had two intact temples, and the remains of around 6 others. These temples were in a green valley on a cliff overlooking the sea, so anywhere you looked through the columns you could see the sea. It was such a serene and peaceful feeling. We were allowed to go inside, which was a luxury I was never granted before. After taking loads of pictures, I just sat inside the temple, taking it all in. Just me, the rocks, and the gods. It was an experience I will never forget.

Inside a Temple!

Inside a Temple!

Human and column actual size comparison. I love Sicily!

The temple in the background matches the horizon of the water.

Temples in luscious green valleys

Me and some friends in front of more columns!

For the rest of the weekend we saw many more preserved temples. We ended up in Taromina, a beautiful little Sicilian town that is right next to the huge volcano, Mount Edna…which still leaks some lava here and there. We were there on Sunday, and the city center was filled with morning church bells and bustling with people buying their weekly sweets. Of course I ate my fill of cannoli. I went to a bakery where I watched them make and fill the shells themselves, along with drizzling them with pistachio and powdered sugar…honestly the best pastry I have ever had. We finished the weekend with a tour of an ancient Greco-Roman theatre on a cliff side. The whole weekend was filled with ancient wonders, a lot of fun, but most importantly a lot of peace. Being in the valleys and cliffs of Sicily really gave me a taste of bliss, and strengthened in me the passion I have for the ancient world and all it can teach us. I firmly believe that some of the best classical ruins lie in the valleys of Sicily, and I couldn’t be more proud of my association with this amazing island and its rich history.

Professor Sander Evers had the pleasure of being our excellent and hilarious tour guide for the weekend.

Still beautiful after all this time

Temples mixed with Nature in Sicily

Greco-Roman theatre at Taromina

Modern Sicily

Flash forward 2,600 years and you will reach modern Sicily! I had the opportunity to spend the whole weekend in modern day Palermo, which is the capital of Sicily. Besides eating more cannoli and drinking more limoncello, my main incentive was to see the origins of my family. I am 100% Italian; my mother’s side is from Naples, and my father’s side of the family is from Sicily, which they identify very strongly with.  My great grandparents were from Messina and Palermo, but since Messina is on the other end of the island, I only had the chance to visit Palermo. After spending the weekend in Palermo, it makes complete sense that my family is from here. The way they talked, shopped, and ate is so resembling of my own family. I found it so fascinating to be a tourist in my own family’s origin. There are so many aspects of my family that I have grown to love so much, and I saw the origin of all of them here in Sicily.

First, a major part of my family is our Italian Butcher Shop. It is located in South Philadelphia, in a strip of indoor and outdoor shops called the Italian Market. This was all modeled after the outdoor markets in Sicily. I spent every morning walking around these markets, looking with pure joy at all the fish, meat, and vegetable stands. It was easily my favorite part of each day. There were meat markets that had rolls and rolls of Sicilian sausage hung on display, as well as all assortments of meats. To think that this is the inspiration for my family’s business was unreal; a simple tradition really can go a long way. I also loved all the fresh fish on sale at the markets. And when I say fresh, I mean that they still had the swordfish in whole, cut in half, and on display. Now this might creep out others, but my experience working at home has made me appreciate all aspects of fresh food…and this was certainly as fresh as you can get. Next to the swordfish were fresh octopi, squid, and shellfish of all kinds. I was in seafood heaven. However, the best part about it was all of the Italian vendors screaming at each other, haggling buyers with new prices, or arguing with each other. The noise, smell, and chaos all reminded me of home, and I could not have been happier. Now when I work back in the Italian Market this summer, I think I’ll have a bit more appreciation for where it all comes from.

Fresh swordfish anyone?

Octopus and squid…fresh off the boat!

The inspiration for my family’s Butcher Shop!

Outdoor meat markets

The city itself is very unique because it is surrounded on all four sides by mountains or sea, which you can see at the horizon of each street. The city has a very convenient grid, with major streets such as “Via Roma” running through it. The city is also known for its many theatres. Our apartment was right next to the main Opera House, and it was gorgeous. Although it was roughly a grid, we still got lost. But each lost encounter resulted with an Italian comedy show. I say this because every time we asked Sicilians for directions, they would argue amongst themselves not only the best way for us to go, but who among them would tell us! These bouts of obnoxious and silly bantering are also familiar to me in my family…but I won’t point any fingers!

A street view of a church in Palermo

The Palermo Opera House!

However, what I liked most about this place was the food. Sicily hands down has my favorite food. Their cornetti (stuffed croissants) have the most delicious filling, oozing with nutella or pistachio. Their pasta is to die for because it contains the most fresh selection of seafood or vegetables. I tried specialty Sicilian foods such as “Sicilian Meatballs”, which is pork wrapped around stuffing on a kebab, and swordfish pasta. I probably had ten cannoli the whole weekend…at least 3 a day! The cream was just so different from anything else I have ever had: so sweet and so fresh. The nightlife of Palermo also surprised me! It seems like there are no rules here in Sicily, people just drink and party where ever they want to. We stumbled upon this one open area with tons of bars and clubs but surrounded by dilapidated buildings. There were hundreds of people congregated there, as well as vendors selling drinks and food in public. This is where I tried my first authentic aranchino, a very popular Sicilian food that is like a fried rice and meat ball. Back in the States, these are very gourmet appetizer foods at high end Italian restaurants, but here they are simply bar food. It’s funny how food changes from its original intention across seas.

The best Cannolli I ever had!

However, the most meaningful part of the trip was my visit to a very special church. I found out from my grand mom that her mother was baptized in Palermo, in a church that was hard to get to and imbedded into a mountain. Luckily, the owner of the bed and breakfast we stayed in was most helpful to me and helped me find the way to this church. So, I went! It was amazing. A couple friends and I took a bus from Palermo and up into the mountains we went! Finally we reached the church, and it was a beautiful site. There were only three buildings around it, the rest was all forest and a cliff drop that overlooked the whole city. The church is called “San Rosalie”, and is the patron saint of Palermo. The building is literally built into the mountain side, and the inside is breathtaking. Since it is in a mountain, the first part of the church is like a cove, exposed to the open air. Thus, it was luminescent with sunlight and filled with the sound of trickling rain drops on the edges of the rocked walls from a rain fall earlier in the day. The second half is covered by natural rock, and contains wooden pews and a gorgeous statue of Mary with a blue halo of stars around her head. Next to the altar was a baptismal font that was filled with natural water dripping from the rocks. This is the very same font that my great grandmother was baptized in! I was overwhelmed with humility and family love and pride. I took a moment to pray for my family, both present and deceased, for their intentions and for thanks. While I was in this church I realized how much my own family has come from, and how grateful I am for them. My great grandfather left Sicily with only 8 dollars in his pocket, went to war, started a business, and founded a family. At this church, I felt called to live a life of sacrifice, love, and courage like my ancestors did, and make them proud. This is where it all started. After I took some of the holy water from the font home with me in a bottle for my grand mom to keep, I left my new favorite church to go back to the city and fly home to Rome.

San Rosalie!

Inside the Church.

When I left Palermo, I felt like I was leaving a small version of home. With a land of such beauty, such good food, and such exuberant (and slightly obnoxious…) people, I thought to myself “Why did my family ever have to leave this place?” It was so peaceful, especially up at San Rosalie on Mount Pellegrino. However, I guess this is my chance to bring it home with me to my family and friends. I will always have some Sicily in me. Besides it being in my blood, I now have it in my mind and heart. Sicily offered me some of the best memories I have had this year, and it will continue to do so with many many people in the future. From the days of the 6^th century BC until now, this island has made such positives impacts on all peoples, and has kept its tradition and love for life strong even through its hard times. It is an island that is just as eternal as Rome, and its corners will always draw people back to its mystery and beauty.

This is why I am proud to be a Sicilian.

I absolutely love my life here in Italy. Sure, it definitely took some time adjusting to new living arrangements, new language, and new culture after my bri