Thursday 7 February 2013

Day 1-Finding our way around

As mentioned above we had Mass at 3pm. Isn't it handy to have a priest in your group!? We grabbed some lunch after Mass and then began our tour of Rome. We went to St Peter's Square first so we could all see St Peter's, the sun was shining so brightly it was difficult to look up at The basilica. From St Peter's we began to walk up one of Rome's seven hills, passing the North American College (NAC) on our way, where we shall be having Mass and lunch on Sunday morning. At the top of the hill we sat down and looked out over the city of Rome. Fr Alex explained some of the history of Rome to us and pointed out some of the main sites of Rome.

From there we walked down through some of the city visiting different Churches on our way. We visited Santa Maria in Trastevere, which was so beautiful. We took time to pray in the small Church that is built where St Benedict's residence was in Rome. We visited a few other Churches as we wandered around Rome, each one of them was beautiful and truly fit for giving glory to God. The artwork and general design of each Church is unbelievable, there are no words to describe it.

As we walked around we crossed over a bridge which dates from (oops I forget the date it said on the sign but definitely before the time of Jesus) - which means Peter and Paul and others would have actually walked on that exact bridge! Really brings it all alive to you to think that not only are you standing where they would have stood but you are actually standing on what they would have stood!

To finish the evening off we had a lovely supper and then it was back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.





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