Midterm Week and Dad's Visit To Roma - Part 1

Midterm Week 2010 definitely came through Rome like a giant hurricane!  All of us were wiped out, studying like crazy for our midterms.  I had all four of my midterms in a span of 27 hours.  It was pretty brutal, but I made it through.  I had my first midterm for History of Modern Europe on Wednesday afternoon.  I spent the whole first part of the week studying, and I felt pretty solid about that one.  It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, but it definitely took me a while to do the people and event identification questions that my professor stuck on the exam.

Thursday morning started out with me waking up a little earlier than usual to take the train to Fiumicino Airport to pick up my Dad!!!  When I got there, I walked to Terminal 1 to see if that is where his plane was.  No luck, so I asked a nice lady at the information booth where American Airlines flights land?  She told me to take the shuttle bus to Terminal 5, so I did.  There were a bunch of American couples traveling back home to the USA, and they were all discussing the good food they ate and how interesting Rome was.  When I got to Terminal 5, I looked around for arrival screens - no luck.  I asked the American Airlines information man where the arrivals were, and he told me that they were in Terminal 2.  Oh yet another mix up in Rome!  Luckily, I found the arrivals and Dad came through the Customs doors a few minutes after I found the correct terminal.  It was so nice to see him and to welcome him to Rome!  After I impressed Dad with my Italian skills and bought us two train tickets, we hopped on the train back to my neighborhood.  We caught up on the train ride there and luckily Dad had a smooth and easy flight.  Once we got to my apartment, we relaxed on the balcony and I got ready to go and conquer my last three midterms.  I left the apartment around 11:30 to take the tram to my 12:00 midterm.  Dad just relaxed on the balcony after I left.  Soon, my roommate, Cuyler, came back and made him and Dad some pasta for lunch.  They ate out on the balcony and talked for a long time. Dad really enjoyed meeting Cuyler since he is one of my best friends here.  Around 2:00 Dad went over to his hotel and got checked in and settled.  I was so wiped after taking my Abnormal Psychology, Italian 101, and History of the Catholic Church midterms all within a span of 6 hours.  History of the Catholic Church was by far the hardest midterm because my professor expected us to remember a lot of information and we barely had time to write it all down!  I was happy to have midterms checked off of my list and be free to spend the weekend with Dad!  Dad came back to my apartment around 7:00 PM and we hung out for a bit with Cuyler before he flew to Barcelona for the weekend.  Dad and I met Casey and Bliss for dinner around 8:30 PM and we went to our favorite Pizzeria around the corner.  The owner loves, Casey, Bliss, and I, so we knew we had to take Dad there.  Immediately after we said, "Buona Sera" she looked at me and asked, "E Papa?"  or "Is this Dad?"  I said, "Si" and then she proceeded to comment that we looked alike!  We had a great dinner that night - Fettucini, Bruschetta, and House Wine!  After dinner, Dad and I walked around my neighborhood for a little while and then I took him to the bridge by campus to see the dome of St. Peter's lit up at night.  I was quite the sight!  By then, it was 11:00 PM and we decided to go to bed since tomorrow was going to be a busy day at the Vatican!

Dad and me in St. Peter's Square

Saturday, we started our day bright and early!  We met at my apartment around 8:00 AM and went to a small cafe around the corner.  We both got a pastry and a cappuccino for breakfast.  Dad's first cappuccino - and he thought it was great!  We hopped on the the tram and took that to the end of the line and then took the #40 bus to San Pietro.  The bus dropped us off right down the street from the Vatican, so it was perfect!  We walked up to St. Peter's Square and seeing the look of awe on Dad's face was amazing!  We walked around the wall of Vatican City to get to the Vatican Museums.  We had ticket reservations for 9:30 AM, and good thing we did!  The line was around the block at 9:10 AM already!  We would have been in line ALL DAY for tickets if we hadn't gotten them online!  We walked right in and saw the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel!  The Museums were okay - a lot of gifts given to Popes from around the world when they visited foreign places, old stamps from Il Poste Vaticane, statues commissioned by Popes, crucifixes, Bibles, Monstrances, all things that belonged to past Popes.  The Sistine Chapel was really amazing to see!  The paintings and decoration were overwhelming!  Unfortunately, there were no photos allowed, so we could only remember the paintings.  After that, we went into St. Peter's Square and got in line to go into the Basilica.  We went through security and again, Dad was in complete awe!  It was so neat to see the Statue of Pope Pius XI and the body of Pope John XXIII under a side altar.  While we were in there, there were some dignitaries that came to pay homage to the Blessed Sacrament, so the Swiss Guard walked them through the crowd.  That was really neat to see.  By this time, Dad and I were pretty hungry, so we went to a restaurant a couple of blocks away from the Vatican.  We had bruschetta, ravioli, and two giant Cokes!  The bill was a little high - each huge mug of Coke cost 10 Euro!  I guess that's what we get for eating two blocks from the Vatican!  Haha!!

After our expensive, but filling lunch, we went back to the Basilica and walked downstairs to see the Tombs of the Popes.  We saw Pope John Paul II, Pope Pius XI, and many others.  Pope John Paul II's tomb is heavily guarded and many people stop to kneel and pray before it.  There was a strict silence required down in the tombs and no photos were allowed.  We also got to see the front of St. Peter's Tomb through glass.  After our tour of the tombs, we went back out to the square because we had some time to kill.  So, we found a clean place to sit and just soaked in Rome.  Dad caught me up on life back home, and it was a very nice way to spend the time just sitting in St. Peter's Square enjoying family.  Around 3:30 PM, we walked over to get our tickets for the Scavi Tour to see the Necropolis and the excavated Tomb of St. Peter.  There were 12 of us on the tour including a priest from La Crosse, Wisconsin.  Our tour guide was a seminarian studying in Rome from Toledo, Ohio.  He was very interesting and talked about the history of the Necropolis and the history of the Basilica dating back to Constantine in 313 AD.  We saw many Christian tombs in the Necropolis and eventually made it to the spot where we could see a part of the original monument built to mark St. Peter's Tomb.  When we were there, our tour guide talked about the secret exploration of the Necropolis that began in the 1930s.  The Vatican kept it a secret so Hitler wouldn't try and get involved.  For years, archaeologists worked at night with hand tools to dig out many tombs and see what they could find.  Then, in the Christmas message of 1949 from Pope Pius XII, it was announced to faithful Catholics around the world that the Tomb St. Peter had been found.  1950 was a jubilee year in the church, so this was an awesome way to start out the celebration.  Our tour continued to the area where we could see another angle of St. Peter's Tomb, and out tour guide continued on with when the archaeologists found bones in the tomb.  After testing, the bones were found to be from a young man and a woman - a blow to the search for St. Peter.  After many years of retracing steps and putting more clues together, it was determined that St. Peter's bones were placed in a marble lined box hidden in the wall next to his tomb for protection.  There is an inscription in Latin in the marble that proclaims, "Peter is within".  When we got to this part of the tour, we got to see two of St. Peter's actual bones.  We saw part of his jaw bone and part of his tibia bone.  The tour guide let us all see the bones and then gave us a moment to pray.  He then read a bible passage:

Matthew 16:13-18
"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church"

Wine at dinner in honor of Grandpa Kasprzak's 96th Birthday

That was one of the most powerful experiences I have had here throughout my time in Rome.  It was so awesome to be in this cramped little space right below the altar of St. Peter's Basilica praying and looking at the bones of St. Peter and realize that my whole entire faith life was built off of Jesus Christ who passed his church onto St. Peter.  Simple amazing.  Needless to say the tour was excellent and really was a great way to end our day at the Vatican.  All throughout the day, I was carrying a picture of Grandpa Kasprzak with us.  Friday would have been his 96th birthday - the first birthday where he hasn't been with us here on earth.  It was really neat to spend his day to honor him at the Vatican - a place Grandpa would have loved to see in his life.  Such a great man and a devout Catholic - a true model of faith.  Grandpa was with us throughout the day and that night, Dad and I raised a glass of wine to him at dinner after we met up with our friend from St. Matthias who is here on business, Dave L'Empereur.