Buon Natale and Mille grazie

This will be my closing blog post. I thought this was the best way to reach my family and friends. I have found out over the last couple of days just how many of you have been following and enjoying this blog of our Roman adventures. Now that I am back home, I want to take this opportunity to:
a) Thank you for sharing this amazing and pretty unbelievable chapter of our lives. It made it all the more fun to know that you were sharing it with us!

b) send our Christmas greetings.
        While in Rome, we visited a myriad of churches and museums which contained works by Carravaggio. He has now become a favorite of Pat and me and so I would like to send you one of his images. It is called "Rest on The Flight Into Egypt" and shows Joseph holding the sheet music for a violin- playing angel, while the donkey rests and Mary and the Babe sleep. The music of the angels unites heaven and earth. I love the idea that Joseph (a most neglected member of the Holy Family) makes the music possible by holding it for the angel to see and this comforts Mary and the Baby on their arduous trip. Of course, this speaks volumes to me as a musician and a believer!
     So I send this to you with our wishes for a most blessed Cristmas and New Year filled with the music of the angels!

I got this today!

WAAAAAAHHHHH!! Pat is still over there and he went back to Assisi this week-end with our friend Rob! Actually, I am glad because they were able to see some of the parts of Assisi that I wasn't able to walk to because of my back.
    Here is what he wrote
"Of course Rob showed me places I had never seen: the cathedral with Clare's house; the square where Francis stripped with 4 high school kids enacting the scene in medieval costumes, Francis' house with his Dad's workshop, Clare's preserved body in the crypt of S. Chiara, and of course San Damiano

It is still the basic medieval Cloister where Chiara and the nuns lived.  Very primitive and lovely.  We went ther for vespers.  The underground chapel was packed with all ages including lots of teenagers.  The singing was incredible!  There is a community of about 20 friars. I think it is the novitiate for Italy.  There were several young friars."

     I am a leetle envious, but I am happy I made it back here for my friend's wake and funeral and to be with my kids and grandkids.
    This is Pat and the creche in front of the Basilica of San Francesco

As it is now.....

.....my life is pretty "un-blog-worthy"! Nobody really wants to read about my awakening at 5:30 AM, but falling asleep midday because I am still jet lagged.
Nobody cares that I picked up Pat's gasses and went to the bank and had a mani-pedi. The fact that I picked up a new recycle bin in thoroughly unexciting. Planning a wake service and funeral for my dear friend who passed yesterday has taken up a lot of my time that was formerly spent haunting museums and churches. Supremely boring is my unpacking of the box of goodies we sent home and sorting out what will go to whom! The fact that I hate taking out the garbage and recycling is of interest to no one!
      So, after my whirlwind life in Italy - Rome, Florence, Orvieto, Assisi, Bolsena, Viterbo - I am settling into my usual routine of week-end Masses, funerals, weddings, school masses, holy day masses, Advent Evening Prayer and anything else that arises.......and preparing the home and the church for the celebration of the Nativity! It is of little interest to anyone, but I love my life - what God has chosen me to do with my life - and I love being with my family here; I loved seeing my family in Italy.....and I look forward to the return of Il professore!! :-)

water lily in Bolsena

     It may be boring.....but God sees that it is very very good!!

Jet lagged and freezing, but home

    The last photos taken in the rain and through the windshield of the car, as I was heading for the airport

The ruins of a Roman aqueduct (beyond the cycle -lol!)

My umbrella pines that I like so well!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      With the help of some wonderful porters, I was able to get to the right terminal, get my boarding passes and get my luggage checked! Then it was the 10 hour flight, during which I sat next to an aging hippie who is a physics professor at University of Delaware......and who liked to talk......once again, God was good - he gave me sleep and kept my motion sickness at bay!
     When we landed in Philly, we had to get passports stamped (45 minutes in line), pick up our checked luggage (another truly wonderful porter to my rescue), put it through a scanner and re-check it - walk a 1/2 mile to the customs area (another 40 minute wait) then go through security (another 20 minute wait!)
      NOW, I am finally cleared to go to my gate for the next leg of my journey home to Providence from Philly. Of course, my gate is in another terminal - grab my cane, carry-on and purse and board a shuttle which will take me to the F terminal. Upon arriving at the F terminal, I am informed that my gate is about a 1/2 mile away - enter the little electric cart!!!   YAY!!!
      The flight to Providence was uneventful - I was sitting next to a man from Saskatchewan who was traveling to Providence because his son, who is a Ph. D candidate at Brown, had fallen and was suffering a blood clot in the brain. How tragic - he was going to RI hospital right after he got off the plane. I listened to him talk for an hour.....about his son, his unemployment, his life in general..... and promised to pray for his son, Adam.
      My daughter picked me up from the airport and brought me home - I promptly fell asleep as it was getting close to 24 hours of being up!!
I awoke early....I guess.....I am not sure what time I am in.....and began unpacking and organizing......it will be a long road.......
      My Julie is doing the 4 PM with me and we will begin Advent together - I have rehearsed nothing and we are beginning new acclamations with this liturgical season.......tonight.....hopefully.....the GRANDS!!!!!!