ROME: Papal Audience

Our visit to Rome wouldn't have been complete without seeing our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI! And wow did we get to see him. We had amazing seats and got to see him several times as he rode around in the Popemobile. Thanks to Tyler's dad who was up close and personal, we have amazing pictures.

Here's a picture of what St. Peter's Square looked like from the picture on the big screen. Our seats were on the left hand side (if you see the shadow that looks like a triangle, we were seated close to the point of the triangle, if that makes sense.)

Here we are waiting to see the Pope.



When he came out there was music playing and everyone started clapping. He drove around for at least five minutes before going to the front. Here are pictures that Tyler's dad took.

When we went up to the front he read something in Italian and then Cardinals came and read a shortened version in the different languages. They also announced various groups that were there to see the Holy Father and the groups stood up and cheered or sang a little song. Pope Benedict XVI ended it by leading us all in the Our Father and then gave us a papal blessing (that extended to all our family members, how cool is that?!)  It was such a blessing to be there and was definitely an unforgettable experience!

ROME: St. Peter's Basilica

Here are some tidbits from our tour of St. Peter’s Basilica.

One of Victor’s friends who has been ordained a Priest for a year gave us a tour (he is on the left, Victor is on the right.) It was about 2 hours long, and we were there with about 2,000 of our closest friends...haha.

Here's the famous door that is the original from the first Basilica built by Constantine.

Here's our first glimpse into the Basilica.

The dome at the very top.

Just to give you an idea about the size of the Basilica, look at this.

We learned that the architects and artists created the statues and art in the Basilica to look smaller than they really are. Our guide called this the "deception of the senses."

All of the pictures in the Basilica are mosaics. I still can't comprehend this. Think about how many millions of tiny tiles there are! They did this because they knew they wouldn't be able to restrict people from taking photographs and mosaics will last forever compared to paintings.

There are too many side chapels to count, and throughout the Basilica there are mosaics that tell a story, and often a saint buried below the mosaic.

Here's the main altar where the Pope celebrates Mass. If you remember a few posts ago about the Scavi tour, St. Peter's Tomb is directly under this altar.



Around the main altar there are four huge pillars. This was one of my favorite parts about the Basilica. Each pillar has a statue of a saint and then above the statue in a little loft there is a relic from that saint.

St. Andrew was the brother of St. Peter and was the first disciple called by Jesus. It is said that he went to Greece to preach the gospel and was martyred there and crucified on a cross that was the shape of an "x." The head of St. Andrew used to be in the reliquary above the statue, but was given to the Greek Orthodox Church as a sign of friendship by Paul VI.

St. Helena was the mother of Constantine and is credited with using her wealth and power to save and bring to Rome hundreds of the relics from the Holy Land. One of these relics is said to be a piece of the true cross on which Jesus was crucified. Above her statue is a piece of the true cross.

St. Longinus was the solider who pierced the side of Jesus after he was crucified. He later became a Christian. Above his statue is a piece of the spear that pierced the side of Jesus.

And my favorite...St. Veronica. One of my favorite prayers is the Stations of the Cross, and I always love to mediate on St. Veronica wiping the face of Jesus as he goes to be crucified. Above her statue is a piece of her veil that touched Jesus' face and every Good Friday there is a special time when the veil is taken out and people can receive a blessing.

At the very back of St. Peter's is the Chair of St. Peter where four Saints of the Church are holding onto a piece of the chair, which inside of the statue of the chair are relics from the chair that St. Peter sat in.

This is where the Ordination took place a few days later.

The last two things we saw on our tour was the tomb of Blessed Pope John Paul II and the Pieta.

Frances Rosser

We got a dog! We've been wanting one for a long time, and have been doing lots of research about the types of dogs and what is available around here...but two Sundays ago when we visited the Dubuque Humane Society, we fell in love with this one! So we came back for her that day and took her home with us.
She is two years old and is a mix between a border collie and a Labrador retriever.

She is used to being in a house with children, so is house trained and is very chill and quiet (although she's a bundle of energy outside!) It's taken all of us a few days to get used to each other (okay, maybe me most of all!) but we're all into the swing of things now and are very happy to have her with us.

This past Saturday we took her to the field on campus and ran around. She loves to run and jump but doesn't know fetch yet, so we're working on that.



We take turns taking her for walks and feeding her, but Tyler gets the privilege of giving her a bath every Saturday. He actually enjoys it, and Frannie doesn't seem to mind it either. She smells a lot better afterwards!

She is a snuggler and likes to cuddle. She's not allowed on our bed (and we're trying to train her to have her spot on the futon) but whenever Tyler sits down on the couch she jumps up on his lap. It's quite adorable.


She is named after St. Francis (patron saint of animals) and we call her Frannie for short.

Food, Fellowship, and Failure

This past Saturday we had the whole day planned. Mass, brunch, take Frannie for a walk, give her a bath, have wings while watching football, go to the Dessert Pops (musical show at Loras) and THEN, what we were waiting for the WHOLE DAY...watch the Alabama vs. LSU game (which we would DVR) while having people over.

Side note: Here are the wings we had. Tyler made them from scratch and tried two different sauces. They were amazing!

Well..let's just say the day went like planned up until we got back from the Dessert Pops. When we got back I made popcorn, Tyler got chairs set up, and people started coming over. It was about 10pm (the night of daylight savings, which worked out well because we could stay up late and sleep in) and Tyler turned on the TV to get the game going.

Let me back up. We love our apartment, but the downside is we have to have Medicacom for our cable provider, and we have literally called them eight times with problems, and they have come at least three times to replace the box. The latest problem we have been having is when we DVR a show, it freezes when we try to watch it later. Well, we forgot about this problem when we taped the game.

So, Tyler turned the game on and of course...it froze. Thus began the night of restarting the game, shutting off the box, fast forwarding, etc. For three hours Tyler (very patiently, I must say) tried to get it to work. Luckily, our company entertained themselves with Frannie. We had moments when the game worked, so all in all we got to watch the first three quarters (when it got to midnight and it froze again at the start of the fourth, Tyler had had enough.)

The worst thing about it was Alabama lost. Tyler was calling this game the National Championship (because everyone knows that LSU was ranked number 1 and Alabama was ranked number 2) and he had been looking forward to watching it uninterrupted for a long time.

Anyway, life is good because the BSC rankings came out the other day and Alabama only fell to number 3 (behind Oklahoma State, and as everyone knows, Oklahoma State plays Texas Tech this weekend, so if Texas Tech wins, Alabama could jump up to number 2 again.)

Ah...the life of a sports wife!

Here's our teammate Kourtney making cookies. She is quite the baker and she tried a new recipe, chocolate fudge pomegranate cookies. They were delicious!

Everyone loved Frannie. She was a good girl, letting people sit in her spot on the futon (so she snuggled in between them.) She's quite the cuddler!
The guy on the couch in the blue shirt (Tim) and his girlfriend Courtney love Frannie. They sometimes visit the Dubuque Humane Society so they knew Frannie from there, and Tim was so excited we got her that he brought her treats and a penguin toy. Frannie isn't wild about her toys yet, but we're working on that!
Teresa and Frannie enjoyed watching the game together.
See, lots of smile even though it was quite the night.

Soup Night

Tyler made dinner last week and it was one of my favorites ever. He found this recipe in Taste of Home (thank you Grandma for the subscription!) for lentil-tomato soup.

I really wanted bread with it, but we didn't have any yeast so I found a focaccia bread recipe that was so simple, and didn't need any yeast or time to rise.

I decided I needed to blog about it after I saw Tyler making the soup. Look at this picture:

He put every spice/ingredient in it's own little bowl. I thought that was adorable (and makes for an artistic photo!) I love that Tyler loves to cook and I am always excited for when he tries new things.
Here's the soup. I'll include the recipe below.
Here's the bread. We ate half before the soup and the rest during dinner. It was so good we're going to try it again for pizza crust.


Lentil-Tomato Soup

4 1/2 cups water
4 medium carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2/3 cup dried lentils, rinsed
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 dried thyme
1/4 tsp. dill weed
1/4 tsp. dried tarragon
1/4 tsp. pepper

In a large saucepan, combine the water, carrots, onion and lentils; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until vegetables and lentils are tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients; return to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes to allow flavors to blend. (Taste of Home, November 2011 p.34)

No-rise Focaccia Bread

1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed dried basil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. Stir together water, flour, baking powder, and salt in large mixing bowl. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead until it forms a ball.
3. Plop dough into greased baking pan. Using oiled fingers, spread dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Dough will be sticky and elastic. It does not have to be perfectly even, but make sure there are no holes. Rub the top and sides of dough with olive oil.
4. Season with cayenne, garlic salt, and basil.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and return to oven. Bake until just golden, or about 5 minutes.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/exquisite-yeastless-focaccia/detail.aspx

ROME: Tuesday

Happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi! (October 4) How cool we were just there and celebrated his feast day while we were in Rome.

Our morning started early, but it was worth it! We had Mass in the crypt of St. Peter's at the chapel of St. Stephen of Hungary. St. Peter's wasn't open to the public that early, but as we walked through there were at least 20 or more groups saying Mass at the different side chapels. That was beautiful, to know that Jesus was physically present in multiple places! At our Mass, Tyler got to read the first reading and the psalm. In the crypt of St. Peter's. How awesome is that!

Here is a picture in the crypt (with several pope's tombs by the walls.)

Then we had time to go up to the top of the dome of St. Peter's and had an amazing view (after a very long flight of stairs and sometimes the wall slanted down so you had to duck...I found out I am a little claustrophobic!) I think Tyler counted about 304 stairs...It was quite the adventure.


Half way up you could go inside St. Peter's and look down into the Basilica, which was really cool. Here we are outside of that entrance, about to go up the rest of the steps to the very top.



Here are pictures of us at the top.


The two arcs around the colonnade that encircle the ellipse are symbolic of the arms of the Church reaching out to welcome the people.


Then we went on a tour of St. Peter's Basilica. This deserves it's own blog, so that will come soon!


After the tour we had lunch with Tyler's parents. Pizza again, with delicious gelato for dessert. I tried something other than chocolate (chocolate is my favorite and I had to push myself to branch out.) I had hazelnut gelato with chocolate in the center and covered with nuts on the outside. It was fancy gelato!


Barb had her usual shot of espresso!

Tyler couldn't stop going for the cappucino.

Jeff had another fancy gelato, I forget which kind, but it looked delicious!


Tyler and I were able to squeeze a nap in after lunch, then we got on a tour bus to go to the coliseum and roman forum.

The bus dropped us off and we waited here until our tour guide was ready.


It was impressive to see the old buildings and the tour guide was very interesting.


The bottom was originally made of wood (to make trap doors for the animals to go in and out of) so they recreated it with stone to show us what it used to look like.

However, the tour guide said no Christians were killed in the coliseum, which was disappointing because our understanding of Catholic tradition is that thousands of early Christian were martyred there. But we’ll have to do more research, and the fact is he wasn't saying Christians were being killed, just not in the coliseum.

Next was the roman forum.

They are still excavating underneath the remains, which is fascinating.

They know there are more levels underneath what is currently there. We only spent about 30 minutes there and it would have been interesting to learn more of the history, but I didn’t really like being in the place that was so close to were Nero used to be (the very bad emperor) but it was cool to be in a place that was thousands of years old.

Dinner was unlike anything I have every had before.

The biggest dinner ever. We started off with bread, grilled vegetables and different meats. Then three pastas! Rigatoni, spaghetti, and a spicy fettuccini.

They were delicious, but somehow I knew that wasn’t all we were going to have. Then came out the meat course. Three different types of meats, wrapped in prosciutto, with potatoes and a salad. And of course there was desert, a choice of tiramisu or fruit It was delicious, but I could have stopped after the first pasta. Anyway, it was a very fun experience.

After two and a half hours, lots of wine, and full stomachs, we walked back to the hotel and stopped for gelato on the way.

When in Rome…eat gelato. That’s my motto. Had a delicious gelato, two types of flavors that were in Italian and I don’t know what they were, but the whole thing was dipped in chocolate. Geleterrias in Italy are like Starbucks in New York City. They are literally on every street corner (plus a few more).