Rome: Random Thoughts

This is sort of a random post but I wanted to share more pictures and details about our trip to Rome! We stayed at Villa Fatima which is run by the Oblate Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer. They were wonderful hostesses and provided breakfast in the morning and had a chapel downstairs where the missionaries said Night prayer every evening.

Our Room at Villa Fatima

From Villa Fatima it was about a 20 minute walk to the Vatican. That was always an adventure walking because of the narrow sidewalks and the crazy traffic. I feel like our Guardian Angles were working overtime the whole time we were in Rome!

Stairs leading down towards St. Peter's

I didn't take many food pictures this trip, but I did snatch this one. We ate our fill of pizza and enjoyed it every time! Our first day we got to Rome we had a few hours before meeting the group so Tyler and I found the restaurant that was next door to our hotel last year where we went to eat pizza the first night. It was crazy to be sitting there thinking about last year and our time with Tyler's parents in Rome! We enjoyed visiting some of the sites from our last trip and felt like we knew our way around thanks to last year.

One new spot we went to was the Spanish Steps. We got directions to the Metro and had quite the adventure finding which one to take but ended up right at the Spanish Steps.

Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti (Spanish Steps)

Even though we had our fill of gelato, we didn't go quite as crazy as last year where we ate it all the time. This year we enjoyed many cappuccinos!

With our teammate Stacey enjoying gelato

When we ate dinner as a group we went to Bonus Pastor (which I think means Good Shepherd in Latin) which was a five minute walk from our place at Villa Fatima. We ate family style and enjoyed great pasta (spaghetti the first night, lasagna the next, and a pasta with white sauce another night) and lots of great laughs.

Casa Bonus Pastor

Our last day in Rome we went as a group to St. Paul Outside the Walls.

With our teammate Stacey outside the basilica

Then we went to the Catacombs of San Callisto. Last year Tyler and I went here by ourselves and when I found out we were returning this trip I got really excited because in these catacombs is where the original image of the Good Shepherd was found (and I am getting trained in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd which uses this image!) The image is no longer in the catacombs but was moved to the Vatican museum, but I got a postcard of the original image and also a Good Shepherd statue.

 

It was awesome to go on the tour again, however I think our tour guide was ready to be done for the day because she went very fast and it was a large group so we were thankful we did the tour last year or else we would have not known what was going on. It was still very special to be there again.

Example of image of Good Shepherd found in catacombs

Our tour guide explaining images before going down into catacombs 

 

 

 

I met Lisa (wife of team director at Colorado State) and Brenda (works at the FOCUS office in Denver) who are also trained in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

Statue of Good Shepherd outside entrance to catacombs

After our tour we walked to a chapel on the grounds of the catacombs for Mass.

To end our time in Rome we had a "celebratory dinner" at an amazing traditional Italian restaurant!

Our table at dinner

We knew it was a fancy restaurant when they brought us a little card with the menu for the evening! They first brought out Prosciutto di Assisi, Salami Calabresi (from southern Italy), and Salami della Cinta Sinese (from Siena). Then we had a delicious pasta from Puglia and ravioli stuffed with pumpkin. For the main course we had a rack of veal and potatoes from Fucino and they ended our dinner with different types of Roman cakes and champagne for toasts! Needless to say we had plenty of food that evening (I didn't even mention the wine and bread!)

Curtis Martin giving a toast

Curtis Martin and his wife, Michaelann, joined us for dinner and it was a wonderful time to celebrate with everyone before the trip ended.