Milan

Church of St Ambrose. His bones were in the crypt, but I didn't get a picture. Funny story about this church... We went to the church right when we got in Milan Friday night. The gift shop was open initially, but we figured we'd catch it on the way out. Unfortunately, it closed before we got there. Well, on Saturday, we decided to give the gift shop another shot. Once again, it was closed. Disappointed, we took the metro one stop over to see some sort of castle (pictured to the left). Welllll on our way to the castle we found another church dedicated to St. Ambrose. We marvelled at how obsessed Milan seemed to be about St Ambrose as we entered and marveled even more once we got in because the church was an exact replica of the one we had just been at! In fact, we even saw some of the same people there! We thought it was really dumb that they would make a replica of this church just one stop over. We decided to check out the crypt to see what they had in place of St. Ambrose's bones, but to our surprise the crypt housed the bones of St. Ambrose! 

Yeah, we had backtracked and entered the same church from a different direction. *facepalm* It turned out to be really nice though because confession started right then and I had been hoping to go for a while. In fact, God must have wanted me to go too because the lady in front of me in line for confession was taking too long, and I was about to give up waiting (I didn't even know if the priest could speak English) when another priest came! Yay! And he said confession in English for me! Yay! He was very, very sweet. And I was very, very happy.  

We visited the church dedicated to St. Gianna. And her burial site. But I didn't get a picture of that.

A photograph of a saint! ooo!

The Duomo in Milan! We went to solemn Mass there on Sunday. It was beautiful!

McDonald's has weird decorations in Milan.

Lake Como. Awwww.

Lake Como.

And this, my friends, was the bed I slept on. Ow.

So, is the <3 because I love Cinque Terre so much or because of the "Path of Love"?? Hmmm??? Both maybe??

No, it's really the former. Just feast your eyes!

Future home possibility #3

I want to go splunking! 

I just cannot get over the locks all along the "Path of Love" though.

Tooooo cute! 

My day pass. Apparently I can still be a child!

I don't know why I took a picture of this. I guess I was just so excited. Maybe I'll go here when I come back to Italy some day..

Along the path we hiked there were vineyards! It was very, very exciting!

Since we hiked all the way from the first town to the last one (I believe I heard it was 8-ish miles), it's lucky we had such b-e-a-utiful scenery! (And the grapes. It was lucky we had those, too)

Here's a garden for you, Mom!

Can I? Please? Ahhh?

(Future home possibility #4)

(Future home possibility #5)

Argh. Ok, for some reason I COULD NOT get a good picture of my dinner. Bad lighting or something. But it was spaghetti with fresh tomatoes, clams, shrimp, mussels, calamari, and something else I can't remember. 

It was delicious, but unfortunately it wasn't very much food for 13 euros. Turns out most of it was shells and such. I think it might have still been worth it though!

After this I had my first hostel experience! It went alright. Can't complain. I also ate McDonald's which always makes for a good day.

Backtracking: I forgot Rhodes and Santorini

HOW COULD ANYONE FORGET SANTORINI!?!?!?!? Quite frankly, I don' know. 

But first Rhodes.

This is Rhodes. I mean. It was ok, I guess. JK i really enjoyed it. In this picture we are walking in an old dried up moat. Sometimes they have concerts and things in there.

We went to Mass here. Fr Luke was fantastic! He said Mass for us. I believe he said it was only the 11th time he had said Mass in English in the last 10 years. What a trooper! I can't remember what the Church was called, but if you're ever in Rhodes, I'm pretty sure this is the only Roman Catholic church.

I love the beach. I love water. I did not realize however that the beaches in Europe seem to be "tops-optional" (at least all the ones I have been to). I think this picture is safe, but I apologize if I missed something.

SANTORINI!

We could have walked, but instead we decided to take this cable car type thing. I was scared for my life.

but boy was it worth it!

Future home possibility #1

Future home possibility #2

We seem to have a knack for finding the Roman Catholic churches. I said a prayer here for my mommy :)

Catching up. Rome!

Rome was not my favorite. That seems dumb to say because I haven't been all that many places yet, but I already know Rome is not my favorite. Another silly thing is that I already know I'm going back to Rome later this semester. Oh well, you do what you do. I did see a lot of cool things though; I just didn't like the overall experience. Here are some of the cool things:

This is a picture from the first time I went to the Trevi Fountain. It isn't a particularly well taken photo, but hey it's proof I went. I returned to the fountain about 2-3 more times throughout the week and essentially took the same picture 5-10 more times.

See different picture? This was taken two days later, but I apparently thought I needed to take a few different shots from the same angle.

I can't remember what church this is (there were so many!) but I think this ceiling is pretty neat.

Spanish Steps!

This is from the day we went to the Colosseum. It was really neat to go here because it's so old and big.

My Pringles were the more exciting part though.

il papa!

He's pretty neat, I guess ;)

We climbed to the top of St Peters Basilica and I was so fascinated by the mosaics. They look sooo much bigger from up close (This is one up by [in?] the dome). They are also so detailed. It's amazing.

There was a cage around the walkway up there, but here's my best attempt to get a picture looking down from the dome in St Peters. 

Detail.

Then we climbed higher to outside the dome. There were slanty stairs.

And lots of dust and some people tried to help dust I guess.

The view was worth the trek and the 5 euros!

St Peter's +

St Mary Major +

Paul outside the Walls

St John Lateran = 

4 Major Basilicas in one day! Went to Adoration in all, Mass in St John Lateran, and Confession in Paul outside the Walls. Good day?

Monte Cassino. Ahhhhh! Also, while we were here we saw the graves of St Scholastica and St Benedict but I decided not to take a picture, I guess. I'm sure I had a good reason...

Alli, I seem to remember you taking a similar picture for me when you went to the Vatican Museum.

I'm developing an attachment to St Anthony. So is the rest of Trastevere it looks like.