Lavora

After a solid week and a half in Roma, I finally began work at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace this past Monday. Last Friday, I went into the office just to meet everyone and get a sense of what I’m doing for the summer but my first official day was Monday, 23 June.

My first impressions are very favorable. Everyone in the office seems friendly and enthusiastic. Of course, everyone also speaks Italian. Taking a few weeks off from the language certainly hasn’t helped my fluency at all, but I can still pick up almost everything (even if it does take an excessive amount of time to respond to anyone). Lucky for me, most of the people I’m working with are great at English as well. Between to two languages, there haven’t been any major misunderstandings yet, just a few minor ones (they were easily remedied).

I’m working for Dr. Flaminia Giovanelli, the Under-Secretary of the Council and the highest ranking woman in the Vatican and Catholic Church – a fact I was unaware of until just a few days ago. It’s very inspiring to see a woman breaking barriers in the boys’ club that is the Church. We always hear about the glass ceiling in the business world or assumptions people make about women in the medical field, but no one ever talks about the Church being guilty for the same prejudices. Seeing what an amazing job Flaminia does keeping everything in order makes me think I could work for the Church someday (a career path I have to admit I was slightly avoiding).

So far, Flaminia has been so helpful! I really hope I’m making a good impression. I like to think I’m a responsible, respectful, and time-efficient worker – hopefully the Council sees this as well.

My first project with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace involves a conference hosted by the Council in July. Essentially, I’m putting together the program for the event which includes biographies and photos of the participants. Meaning I got to email some very important people’s assistants. Exciting stuff! I have to say I have quite a bit of experience in this kind of project, considering it is exactly what I do when I work in the University Relations office at Notre Dame.

My work schedule is a little different than it would be if I were in the States this summer. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the office is open from 9 am until 2 pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it’s open from 9 am until 6 pm with a substantial lunch break around 2 pm. Boy, do the Italians like their breaks! There’s an 11 am coffee break and the 2 pm lunch break that lasts about an hour. One of the women I work with, Pamela, always checks in on me to invite me to take a break. It’s adorable.

This work schedule is great, but I’m definitely not used to it yet. On my first day, I assumed someone would let me know when I could leave. No one did so I ended up working until 4 pm at which point I turned around to see all the lights in the hallway off and the door to the main office closed. I panicked a bit, assuming I’d been locked in, but managed to make my way out as if nothing had happened. On Wednesday, I worked until 2:30 pm and then headed out for the day. Unfortunately, I was locked. I ran around the office checking every other door out I could find until finally one was unlocked. Note to self: stop over-achieving.

Tomorrow, there is a Pontifical mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the patrons of Rome. Yesterday, a priest walked into my office and asked if I wanted a ticket to the mass. UM YES PLEASE! So, I get to see Pope Francis tomorrow!

 

Con affetto,

Sara

Avventura

You may recall I was unable to visit Prague during my school break… Sad. But! This did not stop Emma and I from having quite the adventure. As we laughed our butts off on the train from Florence to Bologna (see last week’s post), we devised a new plan so as not to miss out on the wonderful break we had planned. How did we come up with this plan? Lucky for us, I had texted Emma a long list of cities I still wanted to see during this semester. The list included (but was not limited to) Siena, Assisi, Pisa, Parma, Ravenna, Ferrara, etc. Keeping these destinations in mind, we came up with our ideal route: Pisa for an afternoon to Siena for two days to Assisi for two days.

When we returned to Bologna and immediately purchased a whole slew of train tickets to and from our various destinations. In the end, I think we had upwards of twelve tickets thanks to all the connections we had to make to get from one place to the next. We began our journey the following morning, having decided a good night’s sleep would be the ideal way to process the unfortunate circumstances.

Upon arriving back in the station on Wednesday, we boarded our train to Pisa. Prior to this trip, I had heard that Pisa wasn’t the best town to hang out in; other than the Leaning Tower, there isn’t a lot to do in Pisa. Thus, we only planned for an afternoon to see the Tower, wander around a little bit, and get lunch. It turned out to be the perfect amount of time. The city was pretty crowded (at least around the Leaning Tower) so we were glad we weren’t trying to stay for more than a few hours. The piazza (Piazza del Duomo or Piazza dei Miracoli) that claims the Leaning Tower, which is really the bell tower to the cathedral, also houses the Baptistery and the Cathedral of Pisa. All three structures are really magnificent, built in a Romanesque style that is quite unique to Pisa. We ate a classic Tuscan lunch at an adorable cafe in town and then headed back to the train station for our trip to Siena.

This is not Prague…

Pisa!

The Cathedral (Duomo)

The Baptistry

I did a super touristy thing

My lovely lunch companion

Street art is kewl

We spent the most time at the next stop on our impromptu adventure, Siena. After arriving at our bed and breakfast on Wednesday afternoon, we walked around to get acquainted with the city. Siena is a hilly, charming, ancient town. It is most famous for its horse race that happens every summer, Il Palio. There are seventeen wards/neighborhoods in the city, each of which sponsors its own team for Il Palio. Because we didn’t have a set itinerary for our time there, Emma and I decided to see how many quartiere (neighborhoods) we could find! I think by the end of our stay we had made it to ten of the seventeen, but the fun was really seeing how each neighborhood expressed its love of the team. There was graffiti, special decorations, and tiles to mark whose territory we had wandered into.

Siena had more significance for me than just the horse races. It was the home of St. Catherine of Siena (bet you couldn’t have guessed that one). Because of this, we visited several churches dedicated to or having to do with the life of St. Catherine. nd of course there were plenty of churches to see, as is often the case when you visit any Italian city. We also ate very well, shockingly enough. The first night, we went to a restaurant called Il Pomodorino and had massive pizzas. The next day, we indulged in giant salads and had a nutella and mascarpone pizza for dessert. Wonderful.

That view of Siena

Che bella

San Francesco

Rainbows!

Cute street

Siena

Heyo

RAINBOWS

Santa Caterina

Hillside

I quartieri

Il Campo

Il Campo

Il Duomo

Il Duomo

Chiesa

My faithful travel companion

Spritz, as per usual

Perugia was next on our list and by far our most impromptu stop. We were lucky enough to get beds at a hostel for the night, as most of the towns around Rome and Assisi were packed with pilgrims for the canonization of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII. Perugia is an ancient little town best known for Raphael and Perugina chocolate, the chocolate company that makes Baci. If you’ve never had Baci, please go but some immediately. (Actually I’m not sure if they’re available in the States, but they’re delicious chocolates with hazelnuts.) We basically just walked around and soaked in the incredible views! Every turn took us further into the magical fairy-tale land of Umbria, the region of Italy to which we had traveled. The hills were absolutely gorgeous and we were invited into the stunning panorama from every angle of town. Other than the incredible view, Perugia boasts some of the oldest Raphael frescoes, due to the fact that he studied in the city. Our hostel was across the street from San Severo, a tiny chapel with a gorgeous fresco by Raphael.

We didn’t do much more in Perugia – mainly, we walked around and relaxed. It was, however, an exhausting stop on our trip because every time we made the decision to check out a church or restaurant, the plan fell through due to poor timing or too many people. We still enjoyed ourselves and what Perugia had to offer, but the last minute aspect of this particular stop was quite evident throughout our stay. Additionally, the hostel we were sleeping in was hosting a giant group of French children. I must apologize to every troop leader, field trip chaperone, and retreat leader I have ever known because I know understand what it is like to try to get a good night’s sleep with 60 middle schoolers running around, giggling, and whispering until dawn. I AM SO SORRY I WAS EVER LIKE THIS!

Perugia, from the hills

That vista

Fairytale land

I live in a storybook

Panorama

Hey it’s me!

Main square

Perugina mascot

City, yo

Raphael!

That fresco

Che meraviglioso

St. Martha, what a gal

St. Scholastica

Still love it

Check out that couple

Can’t handle Perugia

Dat city

STAINED GLASS

Don’t Stop Loving

Our hostel

More green

Dem hills

After sleeping through the French kids’ shenanigans, we had a bit of a late start getting on our train to Assisi. The two towns, Perugia and Assisi, are only 20 minutes apart by train, but we were slow moving and made it into Assisi by eleven which didn’t give us much time as our train home was at 5:40pm. Thanks to the American who worked at the hostel in Perugia, we had some tps on how to get where we wanted to go in Assisi, the first stop being the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli. This is the church that was built around the church that St. Francis built and the spot in which he died. From there, we went up the hill into Assisi. At this point, I made Emma go on a bit of a St. Francis pilgrimage with me. We managed to get to San Francesco, Santa Chiara, San Rufino, and Chiesa Nuova – all churches associated with the life of St. Francis. At the Basilica di San Francesco, we ran into the entire country of Poland, and it finally made sense why we couldn’t find a place to stay in town. Assisi was packed thanks to the canonization of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII, which took place the day after our Assisi visit. It was fun to see so many people paying their respects to St. Francis; this led me to the realization that between my Easter pilgrimage and my mini-Assisi pilgrimage, I feel renewed in my faith. I honestly wish we had gotten to spend much more time in Assisi as there was so much more I wanted to see and do, but overall I loved the town and definitely want to go back!

Santa Maria degli Angeli

Basilica

Hey, Lady

St. Francis built this

How fitting

St. Francis’s garden

City on a hill

City on a hill

Pax et Bonum

All of Poland

Actually, all of Poland

Lovely

Beautiful

The city

Pax et Bonum, St. Francis’s motto

Stained glass

Assisi streets

Assisi

The mountains!

I fell in love with this place

This sign does not make sense.

Despite all the mishaps, we had an amazing vacation!

Con affetto,

Sara

Praga

OOPS

So, this past week, my Easter break continued thanks to some Italian public holidays. The plan was to visit Prague with Emma.

But…

We missed our flight. Cue the world’s smallest violin.

We were supposed to fly out of the Venice airport, meaning we had to take a train to get there. When we got to the train station, we headed to our track and hoped on the train. It took me less than five minutes to realize the train we were on was going to Florence instead of Venice. When we got to Florence, we rushed to find a train that would arrive in Venice in time to catch the plane. There wasn’t one.

We evaluated our options and decided the best move would be to go back to Bologna and regroup. We weren’t sure whether to laugh or cry, so we laughed the whole way back to Bologna. I think it was more shock than anything. Emma and I are both rather nervous people, very type A, always sticking to a plan. This was not part of the plan so the fact that neither of us lost it is a miracle if I’ve ever seen one. After later discussion, we decided if either of us had been traveling with anyone else, there would have been a meltdown.

Back at the Bologna train station, we decided on a new voyage: Pisa, Siena, and Assisi. All places we wanted to spend time in but weren’t sure when we’d be able to otherwise. So, we immediately purchased our tickets (which was really comical because we had to buy about twelve train tickets thanks to all the transfers) and headed back to my place to make B&B reservations.

The next road block we hit was the fact that there was no room to stay anywhere in Assisi. Emma’s host mother suggested we stay in Perugia, her hometown, a city about twenty minutes away from Assisi. We set off the scour the web for something with space until finally Emma found a hostel with exactly two beds available. Perfect. However, we still hadn’t confirmed the space by the time we got on the train to Pisa the next day.

What an experience. What a series of firsts. More on our travels (and pictures) to come!

Con affetto,
Sara