Rome

Ah, Rome. What a fantastic city! So much history--both known and unknown. At the same time, both humbling and rejuvenating.

One of the best things about living in England is its proximity to other places. Throughout the next several months, I fully intend to exploit that fact to its fullest measure. Aside from the great trips to Portugal, I had as yet to venture any further onto the Continent...until last week, when Jenny and I took a brief yet absolutely wonderful trip to Rome.

We left Norwich early (4:15 am) on Wednesday and headed to Heathrow airport. We had planned this holiday in February, so by this time we were pretty excited to finally be on our way. Of course, the weather wasn't that great and our flight was delayed...but no worries, we finally got there. After collecting my luggage from baggage claim (it was too heavy to carry on...stupid books), we made our way through the airport and found the train station. Da Vinci airport is about 18 miles outside the city, so we took the train in, caught the Metro (subway) and finally made it to our hotel....where we collapsed. Later that evening, we ventured out, found a nice sidewalk restaurant, had some great Italian food (actually authentic Italian...what a concept!), and walked back to the hotel. We slept really well that night.

On Thursday, we decided to do the Vatican. Our hotel was only two blocks away, so it was really convenient to just walk right over. Yes...we walked right over to the Vatican. Insane, really. To be close enough to walk. Amazing. Anyway, we walked over and made our way into St. Peter's Square. So we're already really excited and we get there and just take it all in. After a few moments of reflection and photo taking, we head in to St. Peter's Basilica. Absolutely gorgeous building, though we were dismayed at the number of people inside. We shouldn't have been shocked, really, but there were tourists there for which the building had no meaning, other than being a beautiful work of art. But for Christians (even non-Catholics), it has much more meaning. Even for Protestants, the history of Christ's Church comes through this place. It was difficult to take it all in because of the sheer number of people. So we walked around the basilica, seeing what there was to see, and on our way out, they ring a bell, a group of five priests file in to one of the side chapels and Mass begins. We decide to stay. We didn't understand a word that was said, but we understood what was going on. We went to Mass in St. Peter's...incredible. We then went to the Castel Sant'Angelo, looked around, and then headed back to the Vatican Museum, home of the Sistine Chapel. We had been by earlier, but the queue was longer than we wanted to endure. When we went back, we felt it was managable, so we waited in line. We finally get in and walk for miles. In order to get to the Chapel, the route takes you through the rest of the museum. Beautiful artwork throughout the museum, but nobody really stops to look at it because they all want to get to the Chapel. So after walking FOREVER, we finally get to the Sistine Chapel. Again, lots of tourists and lots of noise, so we didn't feel we could take it all in properly, but it was still pretty cool. I couldn't believe I was seeing, in person, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Yet there we were and there it was. Phenomenal. Literally. So after that, we decided we'd had enough, so we walked back to the hotel, rested for a couple of hours before going out again. We went to the Spanish Steps and the Piazza del Popolo and engaged in some anthropological tourism (people watched). More on our evening festivities later.

On Friday, we were slated to head across the city to see the ancient Roman things. We walked to the Metro station with our day planned out as to which station took us to which site. Come to find out, Metro workers were on strike. Great. Now what? We took a taxi. God was with us and we made it to the Coloseum. Yep, we went to the Coloseum. Ha! Fascinating place. Absolutely enormous and so full of history. Jenny had a hard time thinking about all the martyrs who gave their life for the faith in that place. It was definitely a heavy thing to think about. We then walked through the Forum, saw the Italian government buildings, stopped for some lunch, and visited the Pantheon. We stopped and did some shopping in the Piazza Navona and then made our way back across the city on foot. Rome really isn't that big, and we had gorgeous weather both days, so we walked back to the hotel.



I think our favorite (or favourite) parts of the trip were the evenings. We went to a sidewalk cafe that we would stumble across, eat some delicious Italian food, drink some good Italian wine, and then head over to St. Peter's Square. That place is absolutely magical at night. There were only a few tourists about, the were quiet and unobtrusive, and the place is beautiful all lit up. We'd stare at the Pope's window to see if we could catch a glimpse (we didn't) or gaze at the beauty of the basilica lit up at night. Basically, it was a time to relax and reflect...something I hadn't had time to do in a while. And to think of the things of God in such a place held deep meaning for me. Ever since my Church history classes at Duke, my understanding of faith has been deeply rooted in the Tradition (not traditionalism) of Faith that has been passed down through centuries of faithful (and some unfaithful) believers. What a debt we owe to those who have gone before. And so in this historical and richly beautiful surround, I found time to think on things of God. From that time, I returned to England, hesitant to let the feeling go, but wanting to carry it forward into the work of ministry.

Of course, then I ran smack dab into Sunday and Monday morning and the glow couldn't last, but I do take with me the memories of the days in Rome with me and will recall those moments of peace to carry me through when needed.