Lourdes and Italy

Wow! I'm sorry it has been such a long time since I have written anything.. but the past few weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind of business! Where to start... classes are going well – we have midterms this week... so hopefully everything goes well with that. We were on Spring break this week, so I had the opportunity to travel around Italy with one of my friends from the program. Also, last weekend I took a trip to Lourdes, France located in the south in the Pyrenees Mountains – close to the border with Spain. It was a very beautiful and moving trip – walking in the steps of St. Bernadette (where she was baptized, where she was born, etc), seeing the grotto, seeing the basilica, etc. It was great, not to mention that the weather was fabulous! So I got back home on Sunday night around midnight.....unpacked my bags only to repack for Italy, and I had to leave again by 4:50 in the morning in order to get to the train station by 5:30 to meet my friend and catch our train to Paris for our flight. Needless to say, I was a bit exhausted! We started off in Venice, where we spent two nights. I LOVED it there – the only thing is that the weather wasn't ideal – a little foggy and cold, but still the city is so cool! When you arrive at the airport, you have to take a boat shuttle into the city, its just a very unique place. So we did some exploring there, saw the Piazza San Marco, Saint Marc's Basilica (which was so huge and amazingly decorated), and a few other things like where the palace of the Doge of Venice from back when Venice was its own separate entity. After that, it was on to Florence. I really liked it there, again the weather was cloudy but it was actually somewhat warm so that was nice. There is so much art and history there since it is the birthplace of the Renaissance. So, we saw Michaelangelo's David, the Duomo, and a few other things. All of our days were jam packed because we were trying to fit in as much as possible in the little time that we had. Not to mention all of the walking that we did... my legs are still feeling it. To climb up to the top of the Duomo in Florence, you need to walk up 470 flights of stairs!! The view, however, was very worth it. After two nights in Florence we finished up our trip in the Eternal City, Rome. Again, a great experience. The first day we saw the Colosseum which was remarkable and we also toured Palatine hill to see all of the Roman Ruins. It is crazy to think about how old everything is there!! The first night I was so lucky to get to see my friend Joe from home who was spending his spring break in Rome with a group from his school. We had a really nice time, and as always – it was very nice to see a familiar face, and difficult to say goodbye! On Saturday we went to the Vatican. WOW! That's all I can say. It was so cool, the museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peters Basilica, everything was just so ornate and gorgeous. The Sistine Chapel somewhat blew me away – and its so cool to think that in that very room, the cardinals gather to elect a new pope. St. Peter's Basilica is breathtaking, I have never seen anything like it.. its absolutely huge and contains beautiful art such as Michaelangelo's “Pieta.” Below the basilica, you can tour the Vatican Grotto which contains the tombs of many popes, including that of Pope John Paul II. It was very powerful! You can also view the tomb of St. Peter – however, you can not get as close to it as the others, unfortunately. We were exhausted by Saturday night so we just had a nice dinner out, walked around the city one last time to see the sights like the Trevi fountain at night. Very cool. Well, I think thats about it – I am writing this from the train station in Paris and our train is leaving in a little bit. I am looking forward to going back and seeing my host family, but I am NOT looking forward to midterms! :-( Oh well, life goes on! This Friday, the program is taking us on a day trip to Paris so that should be fun! Know that I am really missing all of you, and please keep up the emails, etc – I love hearing from everyone and knowing what is going on with you back at home!!! I hope to be able to update a little bit more, so I will definitely try and make a better effort! Talk to you soon!