August 20, 2000, Day 14

Diary entry from Becky Burghart

Today was our last day in Rome.  It started off with an Italian Mass at St. Peter's in the Vatican.  We had a free day where you could do anything, so we went shopping.  Then we caught a train to go back to Paris.  The best part of the trip so far for me was a small church that I found which had a gold altar with a bunch of statues.  In one small room they had a statue of Jesus after he came off of the cross, in which you could go in and pray by yourself.  Some of my other favorites were seeing a castle that the Popes used to live in.  It was built around 100 A.D.   We also saw the burial site of Julius Ceasar, which was from before Jesus.   This trip has been one of the funnest and most interesting ones that I've ever been on.  It hasn't been extremely spiritual, aside from the time that I spent alone with the statue of Jesus.  I'm glad I'm coming home because I miss Phoenix and all my friends.  See ya when I get home.  I miss you all.  Love, Becky.

Becky saying hi (312 kB)

Travel log

Today we were able to sleep in a little bit, 8:30am.  We ate breakfast, packed our stuff, and headed towards St. Peter's for Mass.  We arrived there at 11am, but apparently Mass had started earlier since we were already at the homily.  After Mass we were given free time for the rest of the afternoon.  Eric encouraged everyone to spend some time alone in St. Peter's praying for our Parish and all the intentions that were sent with us.  Then people went around Rome - some people climbed to the top of the dome in St. Peter's, some visited the Crypt in St. Peter's, and everyone went shopping.  Because it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed.  This morning was also the big Mass with the Pope at the Tor Vorgata, so Rome was pretty much bare.   We met together at 4:30pm, then drove to have dinner.  We had chicken, which was actually pretty good.  For most of the meals in Rome, they serve you pasta as an appetizer and then chicken (or turkey) and salad for a main course.  In France they served us dessert, but in Italy, dessert is not near as common (maybe every other meal).   After dinner we said goodbye to Salvatori, our bus driver, and the Westby's since they are staying in Italy for another two weeks. From there we went to the Termini train station and fought our way through the crowd of the two million people all leaving Rome.   We got on the train, only to find our that we had it good on our first train ride because this one did not have air conditioning.  So we had a tradeoff on the train - either leave the window down and be cool, but not be able to talk to each other, or close the window and get really hot.  But, as the night went on, it became cool enough so that we could have the windows up and still be comfortable.

More Pictures

Westby talking at dinner
Mike and Joe S. in front of St. Peter's Holy Door
Joe S. hanging out in Rome
Laura and Brian buying snacks for the train ride
Eric and Fr. Jim near St. Peter's Square
A group of people near St. Peter's Square
Hanging out in St. Peter's Square
Inside St. Peter's Basilica
Mike and Alex in St. Peter's Square
Becky and Matt L on the train
Cydney, Stacy, and Megan on the train
Jaime, Cydney, and Damien on the train
Michelle hanging out on the train
Waiting at the train station
Waiting at the train station (2)
Hanging out in the train

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