Day 4- Papa Francesco!

Day 4 began with our plans to attend Mass at St. Anne's Parish. This is the Church where Fr. Nathan said his first Mass, and the parish church for everyone that lives in Vatican City. We allowed plenty of time to get there, but unfortunately, the metro ran a lot less trips on Sunday, so after waiting 7 minutes, one showed up, with everyone squished in more than we'd ever seen before. SARDINE TIME! We ended up being about 7 minutes late, which we hate.

This church is pretty small, and there were no seats when we got there. No biggie, we can stand. However, several people stood up and insisted the girls and I sit. So we did. Very difficult, as Beka started asking for milk. I put one girl on each side of me, and maneuvered the Tula to nurse her while wearing her. She nursed and fell asleep, score! Makes the best Mass, especially in a place where we have the only children, and are surrounded by tons of old ladies. The girls decided though they didn't want to sit and they wanted to stand with daddy. I told them no, that nice people had given their seats up for us, and we were going to accept their gratitude. In typical 4yo fashion, Abby started to cry nice and loud, everyone staring at us now. ::Sigh:: Pick my battles, let her go stand with daddy. So now 6yo decides well, it worked for her, so she started crying, and got to stand with him as well.

Afterwards, we headed out of the church and waited for Fr. Nathan to meet us. Then we headed for the Plaza of St. Peter's to get ready to see Pope Francis. We found one small shady spot in the shade of a fountain, and sat there, and had a picnic snack. During this time, they had huge screens showing what was going on in St. Peter's. It was very evident that Mass was going on with Pope Francis and some other man from another nationality. Fr. Nathan, knowing a bit of Italian, said "My Italian's not great, but I THINK he just said something about a Doctor of the Church and Armenian genocide." We later discovered that yes, Gregory of Narek was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis. This happened in February, but I guess this was the Mass that made it official. Very cool info to learn, and to know we were there for it without exactly realizing it. The man at the Mass must have been the Armenian leader of the Armenian Rite.

A little while later, with the plaza packed, Papa Francesco came out of the little window and gave his address in Italian. Fr. Nathan translated it to Jon, but I wasn't able to listen. They said something about how he said respect our elders in a nutshell. Then he did the  Regina Coeli. Typically he'd do the Angelus, but since it was Easter, he did the Regina Coeli and gave his Papal Blessing. So cool!

Then we left the crazy and packed plaza and went to look for somewhere to eat. During this time, we ran in to John, a guy my husband knew when we was at seminary. They talked for a minute or two, then we moved on. We happened to go down a small road that no one was on, and found a nice little pizza place, so went inside for coolness (it was so hot on the plaza!) and lunch. Pizza, sodas, cappuccinos, and veggies. Very good, but in the end, a bit expensive. But since this was the only full meal we ate out, we were ok with this.

Afterwards, we headed toward the Castle San Angelo. We walked around the outside of the castle, then went inside. Unfortunately, as we were going in, my blood sugar was dropping quickly, so we got to handle me drinking tons of liquids while trying to climb the stairs. We took our time, to hopefully avoid dropping my sugar more, and enjoyed the views.

We had promised the kids we would get gelato this day, so we headed back to St. Peter's and went to the Old Bridge Ice Cream place. Can't recommend it enough. Jon splurged and got everyone a waffle cone. They were huge, and after we were all covered in sticky ice cream, we headed back to the apartment to wash up, rest, and get a good night's sleep.

B definitely liked Father's Banana flavored ice cream the best.

Rome Day 3- Catacombs

It's almost 4pm here, and I have to admit, I'm trying not to fall asleep. My 6yo was crying saying she wanted a nap, and all i could think was "You're telling me! I want one too!!" Alas, everyone is upstairs playing in the girls room instead, and I'm enjoying a leftover cup of coffee, trying to stay awake, and writing this post instead of finishing unpacking suitcases.

I emailed my husband yesterday, asking him if we had done anything else on day 2. And he's amazing, amazing I tell you! He sent me a list of every thing we did every single day. I dont know how he remembers things like he does!

So yesterday, I forgot to say that after the bookstore, we took a long walk along the Tiber River, ending up at Piazza Populo, where there are two churches next to each other that are identical. We decided to go in to the one on the right, and boy were we glad we did. As we walked in, we saw that Adoration was going on, with the Blessed Sacrament on the Altar. We had a nice time resting in the cool church and praying before Jesus.

On Saturday, day 3, we had decided we were going to sleep in. We were exhausted from not getting sleep the night everyone was sick, to then staying up late packing/getting up early to get to the airport Wed. and Thurs, and then getting up early to get to St. Peter's on Friday. We needed a resting morning if we were going to survive the rest of our vacation. Unfortunately, they started setting up the market in the street at like 6am, and the kids woke up to it! We got them to go back to sleep until about 8am. We had breakfast, then our whole family went and explored the market. We had a lot of fun, shopping together for whatever looked yummy to us.

In the afternoon, we set out for San Callisto Catacombs. We had meant to make reservations to say Mass here, but forgotten to. So, when we arrived, Fr. Nathan went and asked if we could say Mass. The man said do the tour, then afterwards, we could say Mass. We went on the tour, learning how they just kept digging deeper and deeper, so the people on the top were from the 2nd century and the people on the bottom were from the 5th century. It was very interesting. We had visited these catacombs 3 years ago, but it was neat taking our kids back. At the end of the tour, they took us to to an altar IN the catacombs, to say Mass where all these martyrs for the faith had been buried so many centuries ago. This was by far one of the most amazing experiences we had.

Unfortunately, I edited all of these pictures to be right side up, and they're still showing up sideways. :( I can't figure out how to change them.

 Setting up for Mass.

Jon doing the reading.

Father giving a homily.

Hannah receiving her 2nd Communion.

Zach receiving his 2nd Communion.

Our family after Mass.

Afterwards, we went to the Holy Stairs. St. Helena brought them to Rome, and they are the stairs from Pontious Pilate's house. It is believed that these were the stairs that Jesus climbed when he was being condemned to death. You are not allowed to walk up them, and must go up them on your knees, so we all did (Except the baby was on my back, asleep), praying all the way up. Very humbling to say the least. Then we went in to San Giovanni. This Basilica is special because it was the Church that Fr Nathan was ordained in 3 years ago. It was neat to take our children there and explain this to them.

Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment, where Jon made the best meal we had. He roasted a chicken and fresh veggies (eggplant and zuchini) and made risotto for the first time ever. It was delicious!

Rome- Day 2 First Holy Communion

Day two was the big day. This was the biggest reason we had come to Rome. Zach and Hannah were going to be receiving their First Holy Communion. Father N was able to reserve an altar for their first Communion. However, at this particular church, they only allowed Mass on their altars early in the morning. So, we got up at 6am to get ready to go, and take the subway in to St. Peter's Basillica!

We arrived at 7:45 and I took Hannah in to the bathroom to get her white dress on. I hadn't wanted to dare let her wear it on the subway! We were all ready, and followed Fr. N into the great church. He went and got dressed in the Sacristy, then we were escorted behind the ropes, and down in to the grotto of the Basilica.

Here, there are several small chapels, and we were going to be having Mass in the Chapel of the Bruised Madonna. In the 15th century, a soldier, mad over losing while gambling, threw a stone at the picture of Mary and she began bleeding. The tiles the blood fell on are still hanging in the chapel, and we  were able to touch them. There is also a very visible bruise on Mary's face still to this day. All around us, there were other Masses going on in other languages. And it was beautiful hearing all these chapels singing "Alleluia" since it was the Octave of Easter.

Fr. N said Mass, and Zach and Hannah were both able to receive their First Holy Communion. We were all so happy, excited and proud of them. Here are a few pictures.

Afterwards, we went outside and grabbed some pictures and snacks. We were the spotlight. When I put these two next to the church to take a picture, all these strangers started taking their picture. I felt like the whole time I was on guard to get between people and their camera, but I failed a lot. At one point, I got done taking their picture to turn around to see at least 10 people with their ipods/tablets standing behind me taking their picture!! Other cultures are so odd to me about some things. 

Then we changed in the bathrooms of the Basilica. I had a really cool nursing experience happen. I was sitting in the air-conditioned hallway while the boys were changing, nursing Beka. Across from me, a lot of teens were sitting on the floor and the guard came up and told them they couldn't sit there and they needed to head outside. Then he walked towards me, bringing me a chair! I was very grateful and impressed. 

Afterwards, we went back inside and did the Dome of St. Peter's. The younger two girls and I went to the middle of the Dome, saw it up top, then hung out on the roof of St. Peter's. Meanwhile, Jon, Fr. N, and the older two decided to climb all the way to the top. I made the executive decision I didn't want to climb the tight, claustrophobic area, and that we did not need to take Abby up that high after her immense fear at the top of Notre Dame. So we ate nutella and peaked in the giftshop and took a few selfies lol. 

When we got back down from the Dome, we took a few more pictures. Then we headed to the USO Rome because they advertised free pizza on Fridays from 12-2. We got there at 12:30 and they had just ordered the pizza, which soon arrived- 1 box. It was ok. Maybe they were not use to large families coming? As we were leaving, a family of 5 came in, before 2, and they had already cleaned up from lunch. I appreciated that we got a bit of free pizza, but i put this to warn people, dont count on a full lunch if you plan to go there and have a large family. It was nice to use clean bathrooms though. They don't have a changing table though, and seemed really surprised when I asked them if there was somewhere they'd prefer me to change her lol. I just used their couch.We then went to a store for a few souvenirs and headed home, to eat leftover tortellini.  

Rome - Getting there and Day 1

Our family just got back from an amazing week long trip in Rome. I plan to share many of the details over the next few posts. In this post, I'll share some of our prices, where we stayed, and our first day. We left Thursday April 9 and returned home Wednesday April 15.

First, we flew Ryan Air. I've heard people rave about Ryan Air for being cheap, and I've heard many people complain about them. I was able to get round trip tickets for €524 so I felt that was a decent deal, especially compared to all of the other websites I looked at.

Next, we stayed here. I cannot recommend it enough, esp for large families. We paid €636 for 7 days, plus €3.50 per person/per day city tax for anyone over 18 (there is also a €150 deposit which we got back). If you contact the owner, and tell him I sent you, he will give a discount. It can sleep up to 7 people, and was perfect for our family.

Right outside the door, there was a fresh market every day except Sunday. Right across the street was a great little Italian bar (bakery). Every morning, I'd go get fresh croissants and eggs from the market. It was fabulous. I'd also pick up a chicken or pasta and veggies and fruit, and we cooked dinner every night in the apartment. We took fruits and veggies with us during the day and had snacks for lunch most days. The kitchen, while small, was very fully equipped. It had everything we needed to cook, which helped tremendously. Anything we were unable to get at the market, there was a grocery store just 2 blocks away.

Other important details-I asked the owner if there was a baby cot available by chance, and he made sure to provide one for my youngest. There is a lift available, which was helpful with the heavy suitcases. There was also a washing machine. This was amazing because I was able to pack 3-4 sets of clothes for everyone, and wash them during the week and reuse, instead of packing clothes for 7 days. And the other great thing, we were about a 5 minute walk from the metro station, Ponte Lungo.

With that said, if you book the apartment and are flying in to Ciampiano, one bus company, Cortal, does a shuttle bus from the airport to Anginina metro station, the last metro stop on the A line. Take this! We didn't realize this, and took a shuttle bus to Termini station. We were a bit frustrated when we watched the bus drive right past our apartment (We had google map street viewed it, so knew that's where we were going to be staying), and then drive a total of an hour, to then get on the subway and come back another 15-20 minutes.

Our trip started when Monday, the baby threw up twice. I thought it was just too much Easter candy. Then come Tues night, I got sick and started throwing up. As we were heading to bed, all three of the other kids started doing the same. I was freaking out, and praying like crazy, knowing we had to fly out Thursday morning. The night was horrible, with constant throwing up. Thankfully, by Wed afternoon, everyone was better. Praise the Lord!!

We got up early Thursday morning and drove to the airport. Nothing bad, or exciting to report about getting on the plane. It went very smoothly and the two bags we had planned to check were just under the 20kg limit. Score! Ryan air was decent enough. Nothing fabulous, but for the price, it was fine for an hour and a half flight.

When we landed, there were several airport shuttle buses available. I had done my research and found the cheapest one to Termini, so we bought tickets. Unfortunately, it had about a 45 minute wait, so hubby and I grabbed a capachino and got the kids a snack. We eventually got on the bus, and went ot Termini- the main station in Rome and horrible crowded because it's the ONE place the two metro lines connect, and also where the trains come in to. Not my favorite place in Rome haha.

We eventually got to the apartment, met the man, and then let Fr. N (Hubby's brother who lives in Rome at this time) know we were there. We walked down to the grocery store and bought some things, and Father arrived soon after we got back. We made some tortellini for dinner, then went on a walk to San Giovanni (the Basilica). This is where Fr. Nathan was ordained 3 years ago, so we wanted to show the kids. On the walk there, we walked in to a random church and said a few prayers. We also found a playground on the walk, so let the kids play for a bit. By the time we got to the church though, it was closed. The walk had been a lot longer than we realized, so we took the metro home two stops.

Our main reason for coming to Rome was to see Fr. N, and because he was going to do #1 and #2's First Holy Communion. We planned the Holy Communion to be on our first full day, but then later realized the kids wanted him to do their First Confession as well. So, in an untypical fashion, when we got back to the apartment, they did their First Confessions on the balcony of our apartment on April 9, 2015.

We then put the kids to bed, and stayed up late catching up with Father. I'll write more tomorrow :)