Day 23 - Exam 3, Lateran Baptistery, Basilica of SS. Quattro Coronati, Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island

Day 23, our last day of adventure, finally came at long last. I was regretting this day from the beginning. My last day in the Eternal City

The day started with some last minute classroom pedagogy to round out our study of the History of the Catholic Church in Rome. After our discussion, Fr. Bergin gave each of us a copy of Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the evangelization of the Catholic Church in the modern world. We then headed over to the Lateran Baptistery.

This site is one that fits more appropriately at the beginning of our trip in terms of chronology, but Prof. Coolman decided to save it for Fr. Bergin to show us. Fr. Bergin's focus scholastically is on the Sacraments, so an entire site used for one specific Sacrament is right down his alley. The baptistery is right behind St. John Lateran and is one of the oldest places in Rome that has been continually practicing Christian worship.

The Lateran Baptistery is traditionally held to be the site of the Baptism of Constantine, the Roman emperor who opened the way for Christianity in the Roman Empire. The walls are all decorated with frescoes showing the main events of Constantine's life, including the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and Constantine's baptism.

The center of the octagonal space is an area that at one point was filled with water like a pool. The candidates would walk down three steps on one side of the pool, be dipped in three times in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and then exit up three steps on the other side to be reclothed in white robes. The newly baptized Christian would then walk out of the baptistery and into St. John Lateran, where a bishop would immediately Confirm the person and give them First Eucharist. Only recently (last 100 years) has the custom of Baptism, First Communion, then Confirmation been in place.

Off to one side is a chapel that contains a wooden ceiling, the only other ceiling in Rome designed by Michelangelo (the other being the Sistine Chapel). The design is Michelangelo's, but he most likely had an apprentice actually carve the ceiling.

Our next stop was to the Basilica of SS. Quattro Coronati, or the "Four Holy Crowned Ones", dedicated to four unknown early Christian martyrs. The basilica was at one time the "cardinal palace", used by many popes as a fortress. The church nowadays is kept up by Augustinians and is used as a cloister for a group nuns. These nuns do not ever leave this place and have no contact with the outside world apart from an iron grate and a little area for supplies to be brought in. Fr. Bergin has had some contact with them in the past and was able to give us access to some of the parts that are not very open to the general public.

Mass was just ended when we went inside. The nuns can kind of be seen up beyond the gate before the altar. You can see and speak to the nuns from this side of the gate, but the gate is locked and you cannot enter near them

The talking window for speaking to the nuns and the supply window for getting food and supplies in to the nuns

Chapel inside, which had some interesting frescoes depicting
a false-history of the relationship of Pope Silvester and Constantine

 Our last destination in Rome was something that I actually set up with Fr. Bergin. On one of my days of church hopping (the day I went to Mass and Trastevere by myself), I tried twice to get into the basilica on Tiber Island. Both times I went, the basilica was closed. When I told Fr. Bergin this earlier in the week, he told me that he was friends with one of the women that runs the church from the Community of Sant'Egidio. He made some calls and she opened the church up for a private tour!

This basilica is the Basilica of St. Bartholomeo all'Isola (St. Bartholomew on the Island). Before coming, I was well aware of the fact that this church holds the remains of St. Bartholomew the Apostle. What I was not aware of was the fact that this church was re-dedicated to include the New Martyrs of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Each side chapel was dedicated to a different region of the world and the martyrs that came from them. Each altar was covered in relics and objects of the various people killed for their faith around the world.

New Martyrs in Asia, Oceania, and the Middle Orient

New Martyrs of the Americas

New Martyrs of Communism

New Martyrs in Europe

New Martyrs of the Nazis

Something else that Fr. Bergin told me was that this church also held the relic of someone that I was very familiar with. We had talked previously in the trip about emotional movies when we had a group dinner, and I had mentioned that the only movie that I had ever gotten particularly emotional about was the French film "Of Gods and Men" (Des Hommes et Des Dieux). This was a major award winning film and one that I consider one of the best I've seen. It tells the story of a group of Trappist Cistercian monks living in Algeria who are martyred by a local terrorist group. Fr. Bergin told me that this particular church, dedicated to new martyrs of the 20th century, had a relic of one of the members of this group of monks.

New Martyrs in Africa and Madagascar

The relic that they had was a letter written by Dom Christian, the leader of the group of monks, which he had written during his time at the monastery in Algeria. I was very blessed to be able to see this and I tried to get a good picture. I was very thankful for being brought here.

Our tour ended at the altar. Here, the Community of Sant'Egidio had painted a large altarpiece for the New Martyrs. Dom Christian is included in this painting.

Dom Christian, in the yellow window

Behind the altar is the original fresco of the man who the church is actually dedicated to. The fresco is rather gruesome, but then again so was the martyrdom of this man. St. Bartholomew was flayed alive and crucified, and the first part of this is shown in the fresco. Just think of that kind of pain the next time you ever feel anything bad.

After the woman finished her tour, we were heading out when I stopped the group and asked about the altar. I mentioned that this was a church dedicated to the memory of St. Bartholomew, and she pointed out the altar. We had been standing around the sarcophagus of the Apostle Bartholomew, a man who walked with and knew the Living God made Flesh. We said a final prayer to close out our time abroad before this altar.

We returned thereafter to the villa and finished packing. We passed many of the monuments of Rome for the last time on the way back. 

Tomorrow, we go our separate ways.

Thus ends the 23rd day.

Day 22 - Return to Rome, Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, Basilica of SS. Cosmas and Damian, the Antonianum

Day 22 started the earliest of any of the days. This was because I decided, on a whim, to do my own thing. The rest of the Sorrento group was planning a trip to Positano. I have no doubt that I would have enjoyed going to Positano, but I decided that I would rather address some of my last minute desires in Rome rather than go to a new place. 

I wanted to hit the 11am Tridentine Mass at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, so I woke up at 5:45 to get on an early train to Naples. 

It turns out our 4-star hotel didn't want us to be able to leave the wonders of the inside. I found this out the hard way when I attempted to open the front door at 6am only to find it locked from the outside. I, and everyone else inside, was locked in. There is definitely some law against this. I tried my darnedest to force the door, but no dice. I also tried ringing the bell at the front desk, but that was also a failure. I ended up escaping my self-funded prison by going through the manager's area of the hotel to a little courtyard that the mailman uses to give the mail for the surrounding businesses. There, I was able to force open a different gate and escape to the outside world. I didn't have time to alert anyone, so I moved on.

I got to the station and proceeded to try and buy my ticket, but the lady at the window refused to accept my cash. She said that she didn't want to make change. This was very frustrating. I was standing there with money in hand and she was outright refusing to give me my ticket. Instead of trying to argue with this woman, I stormed out and walked up and down the block trying to find somewhere that was open at 6am to break my bill into coins. Finally, I found a corner store opening and I pleaded with the guy to make change. I ended up buying Tic Tacs just so that I could get some euro coins. I finally returned to the ticket window and bought my ticket. I ended up missing the early train, but made the next one. Luckily, the train back to Naples was quick and I bought my ticket to Rome with relative ease. I rode a fast-train back, which was the quickest, smoothest train I'd ever been on. In 1 hour I was back in Rome, and this train continued on to Milan, stopping only 4 times.

I hopped on a Metro train at Termini and walked into the villa by 9:30am (the rest of the group walked in at 8pm). I changed into some fresh clothes and sat down for a bit of a rest. After grabbing my things, I headed out to Mass. Today was the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, which was awesome to be in Rome for. Mass was beautiful (no street procession or benediction today, though). What I will definitely miss is the ability for me to sit for Mass in a church that was built long before the founding of the United States alongside an entire flock of nuns and other members of the faithful from around the world. They don't lie when they say that "All roads lead to Rome".

After Mass, I decided to hit up two churches that I hadn't made it to before. The first was the Basilica of SS. Cosmas and Damian. 

This basilica is special as it is one of the churches that is a part of the Forum Romanum.

Inner courtyard

Part of this church was at one time the Temple of Romulus in the Forum of Vespasian, a section of the Forum Romanum. This temple was at one point Christianized and thus it survived countless demolitions and rebuildings. The picture below shows the parts of the old temple and the door out into the forum.

The photo below shows the altar and the apse with a mosaic. This mosaic, compared to other Roman mosaics, looks kind of odd. It doesn't really look all that great from the angle that you see it. The issue is that the current level of the church is several feet higher than the original level of the church, seen in the previous picture. For whatever reason, the church floor was raised to its current level, making the mosaic look strange; the mosaic is supposed to be viewed from an additional 15 feet below.

After this church, I visited the Church of St. Anthony of Padua, the church attached to the Antonianum. The Antonianum, known formally as the "Pontifical University Antonianum", is a Franciscan university on the Via Merulana near St. John Lateran dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua (my Confirmation saint). I had passed this place many times on my travels in Rome but had never entered it. To my disappointment, the church was not at all pleasant on the inside so I took no pictures at all. Oh well. One church out of many.

I considered going on to do more, but my list had grown pretty thin for places that I had left that I absolutely had to see. I decided instead to head back to the villa and take a much needed nap. I woke up and did some preliminary packing just so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed when the actual day came.

I went downstairs at 8 and met with the girls and Fr. Bergin for our final group dinner at a fish restaurant. Once again, this was a meal that consisted of things that I would never order for myself in a million years but I enjoyed immensely. We had some great conversation before retiring for the night.

Tomorrow, we have our last class and our last exam. We will also make a trip to the Lateran Baptistery and the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island.

Thus ends the 22nd day.

Day 21 - Journey to Capri

Day 21 started early once again. We wanted to get an early start in Sorrento in order to maximize our time in Capri. The ferry back from the island only ran until 5:30, so we had limited time.

The train from Vico Equense to Sorrento was far more civilized than our train from Naples, which was well appreciated. The ride was only about 5 minutes long and when we walked out we were in downtown Sorrento.

The signage was good and before we knew it we had water in sight. A little sign sent us down a rather sheer cliffside path to get to water level.

Road from upper Sorrento to coastline Sorrento

The marina with the ferry was right there to meet us. The fare was cheap and we were able to make one of the first boats out. The views from the ferry were fantastic.

Originally, we had no plans for Capri apart from maybe hiking up the mountain and spending some time on the beach. On the way, we joked about the possibility of chartering a boat or renting one ourselves but we never believed that either would be possible. To our amazement, when we walked onto the ferry we were all handed pamphlets for "Capri Boat". For a very fair price, you could rent 5- or 9-person boats for the day with included gas, enabling you to anchor off the coast, swim, and dine anywhere you wanted with ease. We decided on the ferry that we would check it out after we got off.

The views of the island were stunning. The sky was blue and the water was clear. A perfect summer day.

We pulled in on the ferry at the main dock and made a B-line for the boat rentals. We spoke with the proprietor of the stand and discovered that, yes, in fact, we could rent a boat for as long as we wanted and could pay afterwards. We had 6 people so we had to rent the larger boat, but we did the math and realized that, per person, a full day on the water was only 35 euros each. This was an opportunity that we could not refuse. I handed over my driver's license and wrote down some emergency contact info and before we knew it a man drove over in our little boat.

The boat was a little 10 or 12 foot center console boat, a glorified dinghy really. In the end, we didn't need anything more. The engine had plenty of horsepower to zip along the coastline or push out into the Mediterranean. A cooler and ice was also provided in the price, so some of the girls went to one of the local stores and picked up some drinks to have on the water. I was more than happy to resurrect my boating skills and finally put my boater's license to good use after many years in retirement.

We had a BLAST. We were given a map of the island and were told where we could and couldn't go. For the most part, this little boat was allowed access to anywhere on the island so long as we didn't drive into any of the swimming grottos or get in the way of the bigger ships coming in or out. We drove up near the coast, out into the sea, and close to the grottos. We were told that anywhere that the water looked light blue would mean a sandy bottom shallow enough to anchor on and close enough to shore to swim near.

A common tourist destination at Capri is the "Blue Grotto", aptly named because the little water cave is illuminated by the sun bouncing off the bottom sand of the grotto and coming up into the hollow area. We were told by not only both priests in our trip not to go, but also by the guy at the Capri Boat stand. Apparently, it costs about 15 euros to get on a boat on land to get out there and another 10 euro to actually go inside. With our boat, we had access to every other grotto around the island, some of which you couldn't even pay a guide to get to. The Green Grotto was essentially a cave that you could anchor outside of and swim all the way through and come out the other side. Goggles and snorkels were provided with the boat, and looking down into the waters of the grotto gave you an awesome look at the sea life below. Before long, we knew we had made an awesome decision for a free day.

The downside was also an upside, I suppose. The sky was clear and the sun was shining, making it quite hot. We were baking. The issue was, however, that, because we were zipping along the coast on a boat, the breeze took the edge off the heat and we didn't notice. After an hour, we realized that we were roasting. After that hour, we finally applied sunscreen. Most of the girls got out unscathed, but because I was standing up driving the boat, I had the full brute force of the direct sunlight. Needless to say, my back turned several shades darker - a red that was almost purple. I would come to regret this later in the trip.

One of the plus-sides to the boat rental was our ability to tie up to buoys in the coves. After the morning time spent on the boat, we had already circled the island one entire time. We were told, then, that if you tied up to one and flagged down a guy on shore, he'd come and pick you up and bring you to one of the restaurants. We ended up doing this for lunch. The food prices were somewhat outrageous, but we didn't expect anything less. We also decided to simply open up the floodgates for our last weekend in Italy. If there was ever a time to splurge on money, it was this weekend.

We returned to the water after our lunch. At one point, we pulled into a small cove and anchored to have a bit to drink. The girls had some beers, but I stuck to Coke - I didn't need to have issues with the Italian coast guard before leaving Italy. The girls received a number of compliments from boatloads of Italian men. I of course was ignored for the most part (something I suppose to be thankful for) but then again we didn't really come across boatloads of Italian women...

Our final destination before returning the boat was the White Grotto. This grotto was more of a dip into the side of the rocks than a grotto, but the fun part of this one had nothing to do with the waters below.
Looking up was impressive, but we were told about a small staircase just next to the grotto and to keep our eyes open for it. As I described it, the staircase was very similar to the staircase that Gollum shows Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings - a hidden stair that you can't really see unless you're looking for it. In the picture below, the staircase is right above the bow of our boat, with the main grotto on the left.

The issue with this staircase, however, is the fact that the platform near the water is really only accessible at high tide. We were there sometime in between tides. The platform was reachable, but only just. I ended up being the only one able to wrestle my way onto this thing, but I totally cut myself up on the rocks and was somewhat bloody for the rest of the day. I was then able to pull everyone else up and we all made our way into the grotto.

The first thing we came across was a little window looking down into the grotto. This was neat. The path continued into the darkness to the right. This part was less neat. The path was completely dark, a darkness like I'd never witnessed before. That, coupled with my lack of glasses, made the experience interesting. I was afraid I'd fall into the grotto and never being found again. We formed a single-file line and chanted some Hail Marys, but all was fine. When we emerged, we found ourselves at the top of the grotto looking down in. Turning around, however, we could look up into the grotto, which continued way up into the mountain. It was very impressive to behold. We were mad that we didn't have a waterproof camera to document any of this. I ended up running back down the stairs, jumping in the water, and swimming back to the boat to move close to the grotto and snap at least some quick pictures of the girls.

Looking up into the grotto to the girls

The girls on the inside

The winding stair up to the grotto

After returning the boat and getting my license back, we decided to climb to the center of the actual town of Capri. The place near the shore was not actually "Capri" but just a little section of the larger town. The actual town was part of the way up one of the mountains. This was a 20 minute ordeal of shear inclines, which was well received after 5 hours of baking in the sun on a boat with little water. The views were amazing, though.

The crew at Capri

We hurried ourselves down the mountain and hopped back onto the last ferry to Sorrento. Everyone passed out on the ferry after the long day. We had dinner in Sorrento before returning to Vico Equense and our lovely hotel.

Tomorrow, who knows?

Thus ends the 21st day.

Day 20 - Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, Dome of St. Peters, Journey to Sorrento

Day 20 started early in the morning with the group traveling from the villa to the Vatican. Fr. Bergin did not join us on the trip over due to his meeting with a certain spiritual leader for Mass early in the morning.

Fr. Bergin and Pope Francis following the concelebration of Mass. Apparently, Francis told Fr. Bergin, after hearing that he works at BC with the Jesuits, that he needs to "watch out for those Jesuits"

We met up with Fr. Bergin at the front entrance of the Vatican Museums. The line for the museums was insanely long, but we were able to skip most of it thanks to reserved tickets. 

This place was PACKED. Everyone in Rome wanted in. The place was filled with art from all different time periods split up in different collections. Many different "tracks" were mapped out based on different collections and the time that it would take to see them all. You could spend a week in that museum and not see everything. We took somewhat of an intermediate track. The pictures below are just some choice pictures that I found interesting.

Painting by Melozzo da Forlì showing Giuliano della Rovere, standing as a cardinal, speaking with Pope Sixtus IV

A (blurry) portrait of Pope Alexander VI 

Cortile della Pigna

Fontana della Pigna, a fountain of a pinecone that used to be near the Pantheon - now it just kind of sits there

Laocoön and His Sons, a very famous ancient sculpture found in the 1500s
 which is thought to have been in the palace of the Roman Emperor Titus (so around 2000 years old)

The hall of maps, which shows most of the provinces of Italy in impressive detail - the Google Maps of the 1500s

Room dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, showing Pius IX in the background invoking papal infallibility on the subject, making it Catholic dogma and something to be accepted by all Catholics

Raphael's The School of Athens

Raphael's Disputation of the Holy Sacrament

At one point, I realized that we would be making our way into the Borgia Apartments. I was given no warning of this. I got very excited. I was, however, dumbfounded when I walked inside.

The rooms were stripped bare of their paintings and their tapestries. The art was replaced with contemporary "art". I am by no means a fan of contemporary art. I realize some people enjoy it very much but I found it disturbing that the museum would remove perfectly beautiful and important art from hundreds of years ago and replace it with modern art. I would have been less upset if they had replaced the art with other ancient pieces; there is no possible way that the Vatican "ran out" of art to fill the rooms with. I had to settle with the ceiling frescoes and the fireplace, which are things that they could never remove if they wanted to. Upon looking up the facts, the man responsible for making the apartments into a studio for contemporary art is Pope Paul VI. I was already not very fond of this man for other reasons, so this offense added to my distaste. Oh well.

The pope's fireplace, with a painting of the Colosseum painted probably 10 years ago by a 3rd grader worth $2 million

Moving from the Borgia Apartments, we came upon the Sistine Chapel.

Pictures were not allowed inside (which is still an unnecessary rule in my opinion). Police were actually inside and stopping people with cameras. I saw one or two people have their cameras taken and pictures deleted. I find it strange, seeing as the paintings are no secrets - you can find hundreds of pictures of every fresco in there on Google in seconds. There isn't a good reason why you aren't allowed to take pictures. That being said, there is nothing in the Sistine Chapel that you haven't already seen before. What is interesting to note, however, is the fact that the room itself is far less impressive than it's worked up to be. Michelangelo's frescoes on the ceiling are high up and some are hard to make out. The room isn't all that big and I imagine Conclave gets a bit cramped. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome to be there (with all 1000 of us crammed inside) but the idea of the chapel is definitely overplayed. If the place were empty and I was given access to a scissor lift, however, I would have had an absolute ball.

When we left the museums, we exited near the entrance to the Dome of St. Peters. A bunch of us decided that this was a must before we left the Vatican for the last time. The price was 5 euros to climb the whole way up or 7 to take an elevator part of the way. We opted for the elevator simply for time's sake. After taking the lift, however, you still have about 350 steps to take to get to the top.

A short staircase takes you inside the very bottom of the dome, looking into the Basilica.

Looking down over the baldachin over the High Altar and the Chair of St. Peter

What is really amazing when you get to this point is looking on the walls at the "paintings". An important note is that there are only 2 (I think) actual paintings in the entirety of the basilica of St. Peters. Every other piece of wall art that looks like a painting is actually a mosaic!! This includes the "Tu es Petrus..." that adorns the inside of the dome. I took a picture of one of the angels to give you an idea. They are so well done that, when you look up at them from below, they are as smooth as paint on canvas.

After yet another tiny staircase, we came to somewhat of an oddity. The room started to turn on us. I felt like I was walking through something out of Ripley's Believe it or Not. This was definitely not something for anyone that is overweight or claustrophobic. The higher we went, the more the room slanted.

The reward, however, was incredible and definitely worth it.

The Pantheon, the Vittoriano, and about a dozen other Roman sites visible from the apex of Vatican City

The crew at the top of the dome

Coming back down from the dome, you could see quite a bit of what is hidden to the people down in the square. For example, the backs of the statues along the topside. Who would have thought, when they were sculpted, that tourists would want to come up and see them? Why, then, would you finish the back of them? For the most part, these statues are pretty crudely sculpted on the back. It's also kind of funny to see that each statue has a little bronze plaque at the bottom that says who they are. It doesn't do you a lot of good if you're in the plaza, but I suppose if we ever forget who they are someone could come up and check.

The back of Christ in the center of the basilica 

The whole roof is essentially a big plaza. What's more, there's also a souvenir shop and a little restaurant up there as well! Who would know? You can't see any of this from the plaza. I took the next picture to give you an idea.

Left - Souvenir shop and Vatican mailbox (yellow); Middle - Refreshment stand and drinking fountain;
Right - Cross with Jesus

The elevator back to the ground level dropped us off right inside of the basilica. We had seen people coming out of this door when we toured the church earlier in the trip but we had no idea where they were coming from.

It was noticeably emotional when we started leaving the basilica. I kept looking back in and seeing the High Altar and the sculptures and was getting rather sad. Even as we walked outside and continued to look back, I was very sad that I had to leave this wonderful place. What really got to me was the fact that, in all reality, I had no idea when I would see that place again. If I go to Cape Cod for vacation and leave, I'm sad to leave but I know that it's only a few hours down the street. If I spend the semester at BC and come home, I'm sad to leave but know that I can come back whenever I want. When I left St. Peters, I was truly emotional because the next time I have the money to take the trans-Atlantic flight and spend some time in Rome will not be anytime soon. I am very grateful for the time that I had to spend in places like this and am most definitely blessed. I look forward to returning here to marvel once again at the great majesty and wonder that God has provided for His pilgrim church on Earth.

After we said our goodbyes to Vatican City for the last time, we made a fast sprint back to the villa to grab our things for the free weekend. We turned right around and made for Termini, where we purchased tickets for Naples.

After a 2 hour train ride, we hopped off the train in the Naples station. Some people may like Naples, but I was definitely happy to know that I wasn't going to spend more than half an hour in that place. I genuinely felt unsafe. We bought our tickets for the local train to Sorrento and hopped on as quickly as we could.

After an hour, we walked off the train in the town of Vico Equense, a comune in the province of Naples. I was under the impression that we were staying in Sorrento but it just so happens that Vico Equense was 4 stops on the local train from Sorrento (about a 1,30 euro train fare). Our "four star" hotel left much to be desired if you were expecting a four star American hotel, but in terms of European living it wasn't bad for the price. The hotel also had one heck of a view out the front door.

One of our 2 quaint triples. The room was very, very, very, very, very pink

The view outside

We wandered around for a bit and tried our hardest to get down to the shoreline, but found that it was nearly impossible. This town was essentially built right on the edge of the cliff and this section of the waterfront was owned by mostly private marinas and hotels. Access to the water was not easy to find. We decided just to grab a quick dinner and head to bed.

Tomorrow, we will take an early train to Sorrento and grab a ferry to the island of Capri!

Thus ends the 20th day.