Assisi and Papa Francesco

This weekend was close to perfect if one forgets the details that went wrong. Three friends and myself took a day trip to Assisi on Saturday and we woke up around 4:15 AM to walk 40 minutes to the train station. So our trip started off with us getting there and finding out that the schedule online was completely wrong. We bought tickets for the earliest train and then I passed out in the middle of Roma Termini. Yeah...see, since the day of my review (Friday) I had had a constant headache and fever and chills and Saturday morning at 5:45 AM was no different. I remember realizing that I was going to pass out so I leaned up against the ticket machines while my friends bought the tickets and, instead of just sitting down on the floor like I should have, I collapsed. I pretty sure I fainted onto one of my friends or at least he caught me somewhat. When I regained consciousness one of the first things out of my mouth was "This is awkward. Sorry for passing out.". About three Italian security guards were standing around saying "ambulance? ambulance?" and I definitely didn't need an ambulance. One of my friends gave me his water bottle and when they asked a bit later how much of it I drank I shook the bottle and said "All of it?" which made us laugh. Suffice to say, it was an interesting start to the morning.

We waited at least an hour for the train and it's not worth relaying the details of our commute because it was all a bit messy and confusing. When we arrived in Assisi it was raining and intensely foggy. It was hard to see the church through the fog but we quickly decided that the fog just excited us and made for great pictures. 

Basilica di San Francesco di Assisi

Continuing on the fever and chills theme, while it remained rainy, foggy, and cool I was told that my lips and fingertips turned a shade of blue. This eventually caused a friend to lend me his down Eddie Bauer jacket which worked much better than what I had. However, the weather did not stay like this all day and there was a point when everything cleared up very quickly and the sun shone down with intensity. We walked around the town a lot and saw the tomb of St. Francis and St. Clare and the original San Damiano crucifix. They also have some pieces of St. Clare's clothing and St. Francis's breviary behind some glass in the crypt of Santa Chiara opposite from St. Clare's body. I remembered many of these things from visiting before. We went to the Basilica di San Francesco, Cattedrale di San Rufino di Assisi, Santa Maria sopra Minerva and Basilica di Santa Chiara but I don't have many pictures because you weren't really allowed to take photos in most of them. 

We stopped in a little grocery store and got panini for lunch and ate on the steps of the Temple of Minerva/Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The inside is quite a surprise if you compare it to its temple front. 

At some point we walked up and up and up until we reached the castle, Rocca Maggiore. That's about the time when the sun burst forth and for an hour the four of us sat at the base of it just being content. If I could describe how peaceful it was I would.  

Rocca Maggiore. This is also a view of where we sat looking out over the city.
Yes, this is how drastically the weather changed.

I guess there's not much else to say about Assisi besides that it was such a good break from Rome. I absolutely love this town.

The train ride home was rough and we were all exhausted. The reason we didn't stay the night in Assisi was because someone found out that Pope Francis was going to say mass in St. Peter's Square. So this morning I set off at 8:30 with four other friends to St. Peter's. We had been warned that was not early enough for 10:30 mass and that warning was correct. We stood almost at the very front of the second barrier, a little ways outside the colonnade. I'm feeling better today than I was yesterday but standing for at least three and a half hours in the sun was enough to make me feel quite dizzy again. Very pushy Italians also do not help. But anyways, Pope Francis was celebrating mass today because of the anniversary of the last apparition of Our Lady of Fatima and there was a procession of the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima around the crowd. The statue's crown now contains the bullet that hit John Paul II on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima May 13, 1981.

A rosary was led in Latin before mass. I was happy it was in a language I knew even though the Italian lady next to me said it loudly in Italian. Papa Francesco has a really soothing voice and I didn't understand every part of his sermon but he spoke more slowly and clearly than the average priest in Italy. He led us in the Angelus in Latin after mass ended. It took him forever to get into the pope mobile after mass because he was being individually greeted by priests; however, when he did drive by it was like a mad rush of excitement with people lifting up cameras, iPhones, even iPads trying to get a view of him. He passed us once, went down the street and obviously had to come back. He sped by the second time and as we were turning to leave I saw him on the screen kiss a baby and it was just adorable. The last thing he said was something about wishing everyone a good and blessed day and "Arrivederci!".

"Ciao, Papa!'