Crypt Walk

Last weekend I was out and about Rome, checking out all the churches that happened to be in my path.  As always, I came upon some beautiful churches, and saw wonderful sights.  What differentiated this outing from the rest, was somehow, a theme emerged.  I unintentionally arrived at several saint's (and one blessed) crypts. There are tombs, and crypts all over Rome, so this is not exactly shocking, but it was quite cool.  Especially because it was all unplanned.

 First, I went to Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, a beautiful church. A wedding had taken place earlier so fresh flowers were all over the chapel.

As I stopped for a minute to say a prayer a woman came out of the sacristy and asked if I would like to visit Saint Stanislaus' tomb.  In fact, I would like to, thanks.  She sent me up two flights of stairs, in the dark, into an area that felt like a mixture of a house and a museum (which was admittedly pretty creepy).  I found a light switch and began to look around.

Once the lights were on, I was able to see St Stanislaus' tomb, an alter on which he offered Mass, and a reliquary. Pretty sweet. I explored, and prayed upstairs for awhile, then headed back to the church, and onto more adventures.

Just down the street I found San Carlino alle Quattro Fontane.  Also, a quite lovely church.

This church was pretty small, but it was beautiful. I popped into a little side chapel and came upon a few beautiful paintings, some stained glass, and a ton of holy cards for Blessed Elizabeth Canori Mora.

I was able to learn a bit about Blessed Elizabeth, and her life (click that link) turns out, she is pretty hardcore. I like her.  I hope she will intercede for me.  It is always nice to make new friends in heaven.


Next, I arrived at Santi Apostoli.

This church is awesome. Huge chandeliers everywhere, and a lot of stained glass. I didn't take pictures because there was a Mass going on while I was in the church.  I wandered through the side chapels a bit, and found the crypt, so clearly I went down.  Underneath the church I found the tomb of the Apostles Philip and James the Less.

That was a pretty sweet little surprise.

From there I went to St Peter's Square because I needed to buy stamps (I like buying Vatican stamps rather than Italian). Since I was there I decided to pop into the basilica for a second.

When I got to the entrance of the basilica I noticed that the line to the crypt was non existent, so I headed that way.  Taking pictures is prohibited in the crypt, so I don't have proof that I was there. You will have to take my word for it.  As I walked around under St Peter's I stood in front of the tombs of the popes. Including, St Peter, and John Paul II.  The last time I was down there was the first day I was in Rome back in 2003. We had a class Mass at the tomb of St Peter.  So it was sweet to relive that day. Also being able to say a prayer at John Paul II's tomb was a great treat.

On my way back to catch the bus home I stopped inside Santa Maria sopa Minerva (mostly because I was trying to find a bathroom). 

I know that I have been inside this church before, but I'm not sure if I knew that St Catherine of Siena was buried at this church.  Anyhow, she is, and it was a lovely surprise to see her tomb. I like Catherine of Siena so much. She is so feisty. It was like seeing an old friend.

Then I went home. (This post is really long, and I am tired of writing it).

Also: I did the C-walk while I was crypt walking across Rome. (Its apparently not pc to spell out the OTHER kind of crypt)

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Celebrity

I have had the occasion to spend time with quite a few people in the television/film industry since I have been in Rome.  I dont want to be a name dropping j-hole, but the folks I have been hanging out with are pretty well known here. Several winners of the Donatello award (the Italian equivalent to the Oscar), writers/directors/actors etc. In America, TMZ would be all over this ish.
Here though, no one really cares.  There is a major Italian actress that walks every evening at the park across the street.  Just this week I met a guy who was in both Sex and the City, and a major recent Disney release in America. When he mentioned this, people reacted like he said he worked at some office job. "Oh, thats nice."
It is just so interesting the difference between celebrities here and in America. People with similar resumes in America would be stalked by the paparazzi, but these people are totally left alone. They are just people, who do a job.

Now, soccer players... that is a totally different story. They are deities here.

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Casa

This is where I live. 

(well this is a street sign)

This is where I live.  I didn't take inside pictures because that feels kinda creepy.

But you get the idea. I live in a house, this house specifically (on the first floor).

Riveting.

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Update

Today, on my way to the post office I saw my English tutor friend.  He informed me that he was on his way to the hospital because he had a cockroach stuck in his ear (!!!) . Would I like to look? (No I would not.) I did not inquire how his ailment occurred, though I wish I had.

That is all.

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Where it's at

The other day I saw a hilarious t-shirt. 
I didn't have my camera with me, so I drew you a picture.

 This shirt was made better by the fact that the man wearing it spoke no English, it is very likely he has no clue what the shirt references.

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St Joseph the Shirker

May 1st is the feast day of St Joseph the Worker. I have a great devotion to St Joseph, so I had lofty plans of spending the day in the center of Rome to celebrate his feast day.
May 1st is also (fittingly) Labor day for most of Europe. These two things converging made my day much different than what I had anticipated this morning.

First, as I headed to the bus stop I noticed there was some commotion happening at the church, so I decided to stop in and check out Mass. Mass ended up being extra long (but beautiful) because it was a Confirmation Mass for the teens of the parish. I was very happy to be there, as I have a real heart for teenagers.

Once Mass ended (about an hour and a half later) I headed to the bus stop, and noticed the same people sitting there, as when I passed before Mass.

Curious.

I asked around in very poor Italian if the bus was, in fact running despite the holiday. Everyone I spoke to assured me that the bus was coming, soon even.
So I sat. And sat. Some people left, others came. People asked if the bus was coming, in spite of the holiday. They were promptly placated. I sat some more.

After sitting a bit more, a middle aged man asked me a question, when I informed him that I don't know much Italian, he began speaking to me in nearly perfect English. After discussing that I am from Texas, and that he is from Rome I thought we had exhausted our conversation.

I was wrong.

I think he just wanted to practice his English skills because he began just telling me "facts", he owns many stacks of VHS tapes, he once restored an entire church by himself, he met some Amish people once.
Once he finished telling me all of his legitimately interesting stories, he asked me to grade him on his English. I thought spoke great English, and told him as much.

My loquacious friend took this moment to offer his services to me as an Italian tutor. He could have me speaking wonderful Italian quickly. We just need to meet twice a week, for two hours at a time, every week for three months. Oh, and he charges 45 Euro an hour. Would I be interested?
I answered (obviously) that I just cant afford that sort of financial or time commitment right now. He said that I am rich, because I am American (good news), but if I don't need lessons maybe I know someone who does and to pass his info along (anyone need an Italian tutor?).

(A group of teenagers (ragazzi)came to the bus stop, saying they saw online that the bus is coming soon. I believed them.)

To change the topic, my buddy told me that "It is a scientifically proven fact, that Italians are the lowest class of all Europeans. I can say that because I am Roman." Now I am sure you are dying to know what scientific experiment determines how classy a whole country is, I will tell you. Newspapers. He says that Italians read fewer newspapers than anyone else in all of Europe. Newspapers are very important indicators of how classy one is, I am told.

(The ragazzi used an ipod with speakers to provide a soundtrack to our wait. The playlist is a vast array of American music including: "Juicy" by Biggie, "One Less Lonely Girl" by Justin Beiber, "Changes" by Tupac, and "Party in the USA" by the incomparable Miley Cyrus.)

In an effort to participate in the conversation (novel, I know) I tell this highly qualified Italian tutor that Americans are reading newspapers less these days as well. In fact, many newspapers are doing poorly financially.

By his reaction to this, a passerby might surmise that I had stabbed him. He was furious. He yelled at me that I am wrong. "That makes no sense at all! Newspapers are very important! If there is an important political topic in the news for example, you can just cut it out and put it in a dossier. You could continue to do this for day, or weeks. If someone disagreed with you about this topic later, you could just present them this dossier to prove that you hold the correct position."

I told him, that people in America (and I am sure everywhere with internet access) do still read, and read the news. Just not in newspapers. A lot of people find news online. "The internet cannot be trusted!" The increasingly crazy Italian tutor shouts. "Wikipedia is full of lies and you know it!"
I tried to reassure him that there are reliable sources on the internet, in fact, most newspapers maintain websites that have the same stories that they print.

Upset, but comitted to the newspaper cause, and trying to persuade me that in fact everyone reads them, the Italian tutor pulls out his Ace. "What about the Cinema!" He explains to me, that the newspaper has advertisements for new releases, a list of what films each theater is showing, and even reviews of the movies. It is impossible for the internet to have all of this information. It changes too often. He announces to me, quite smug that he knows more than this American girl.

By this point I had grown quite tired of the conversation, so I didn't contest his latest point.

With this victory under his belt, my acquaintance decided he was tired of waiting on the bus, and would walk the three (!!) blocks to his final destination.

Once he left I looked to check the time, and noticed that I had been waiting on the (purported) bus for over an hour and a half. In this time I had not seen ANY buses, so I decided to just give up.

I walked up the street for awhile in an effort to find a bar, or a restaurant to eat at in honor of St Joseph's feast day. After walking for 20 minutes along a road filled with businesses, but not spying a single door open to customers, I decided to just call it a day and head home to write this blog post. Clealy Italans do not celebrate the feast of St Joseph the Worker by actually working. But does that really suprise anyone?

(Also I met another friend during my long bus wait, but that story can be told another time, this post is already very long.)

Sorry this post is so long, I didnt want to forget how weird today was, and I hope you think it is as funny as I do.

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(not so) Quiet Riot

I live a little bit north of the center of Rome, and I take a bus to get to all of the main attractions of the city. Its not a long bus ride and its actually pretty nice and relaxing, usually.
The bus that I ride passes directly in front of Stadio Olimpico, where AS Roma plays their home games.  I always like that part of the ride, especially on game days. Everyone is wearing Roma jerseys and are waving huge flags.  Its quite festive and fun.

A week ago  I  had a lovely day in the center of town (I might blog about that someday).  As I was boarding the bus, I knew that Roma had a home game that day, but I was unaware that their opponent was the hated, Lazio.
As the bus began to approach the stadium I noticed that there were hundreds of people in the street, running away from the event.  There were so many people in the street that the bus could no longer move.  After some time the people began to clear out a bit and we were able to get closer to the action.  Several hundred polizia in full riot gear, thousands of drunken Romans fighting because they hate the others team of choice.
Everyone on our bus was told to sit on the floor (not a small feat, but definitely disgusting) and the polizia began to use our bus as a barrier to launch tear gas, and flares over.  People were jumping on the sides of the bus, shaking it. Flares and tear gas going off all around sounded like shotguns.  I saw at least 5 cars on fire (I found out later that one car was set on fire with people inside - thankfully they were not hurt).
The whole situation was out of control.  It was quite exciting, but I was SO glad to be on the bus, I would have been scared silly if I didn't have the barrier of a bus to protect me.  After a long time we finally were able to continue on our route, and I arrived back home safely.

Here is a video of the mayhem.  At about 7 minutes there are two busses that come around the corner, I am on the first bus.

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