The Grotto of Frasassi

Even though this trip was a while ago, I want to write about my visit to the town of Genga (pronounced Jenga) on August 17th. Me and three other seminarians decided to go and see the Frasassi Caves which is one of the largest subterranean cave systems in the world. These caves were not discovered until 1975, and they extend for almost 19 miles on 8 different geological levels. Originally, I was hoping to go spelunking through the caves for 4 hours on Sunday, but that didn't work out because of the train schedule. Instead, we were able to do the one hour tour through the caves. The caves were amazing, but I wasn't allowed to take photographs. I have one photograph of myself in the caves with Lam (a diocesan brother) which the Staff of the grotto took, but I will not be able to post that until I find a scanner.

After touring the caves, we decided to hike into the mountains to find a church known as Saint Mary's Inside the Saxa Hermitage (Santa Maria Infra Saxa Hermitage) which was built into the cave of an old hermitage by Pope Leon XII in 1828. We hiked along an old creek, and we eventually saw the hermitage far above us in the mountain. After hiking half a mile past the cave, we found a paved trail that led up to the Hermitage. There were Stations of the Cross posted along the trail which was very appropriate because the path was quite steep and painful. When we arrived at the top, I was stunned by the view. It is hard to express how beautiful it looked to see this church situated as it is.

After we spent some time enjoying the view and praying in the church, we decided to explore further back into the cave where the hermits lived. This ended up being a hilarious experience. I had brought the only flashlight, so the four of us crowded around it as we explored deep into this pitch black cave. As we delved furthed into the back of the cave, it began to slowly ascend up along a pile of shale. The shale was very noisy and the footing was treacherous, so we began to move slowly. As we settled down, we heard the chittering of nundred of bats above our heads. Immeadiately, one of the seminarians ran down the hill which scared all of us, so we all turned and started running down this loose hill of stones. Eventually we realized how ridiculous this was and began climbing back up into the cave. I made a joke about putting our shirts over our heads when the bats came after us. Not to long after that, we looked back to see that one of the guys was crawling up the hill with his shirt over his head. It was a hilarious experience.

On the way back, we decided to take our shoes off and wade through the creek. We had a great time exploring the creek bed, hopping across rocks, and swimming through a few spots. The funniest moment of our time in the creek bed came when one of the seminarians got stranded on the other side of the creek with a deep pool of water between us. He didn't want to swim yet, so we passed his bag across the creek with a long stick, and then he tried to pull vault across the entire pool. He almost made it without getting wet, but he ended up landing a little short.

It was a great trip. I look forward to going back at some point to enjoy this area of Italy again. I want to include this last picture that I snapped on the train ride back home. I think this picture captures well the experience every travelor has on the way back from a succesful trip, so I labeled it "Aftermath" in my computer.

Cascata delle Marmore

Last Friday I decided at the last minute to go with some other seminarians who were trying to go see the Waterfall of Marmore. This is the largest man-made waterfall in the world. It was begun by the Romans in 271 BC to drain the swamps around the ancient city of Rieti. A canal was dug to the edge of the cliffs in order to drain the water. This solved the problem of malaria that plagued Rieti, but when the Velino River flooded, water overflowed to the point of threatening the city of Terni. This waterfall remained a contentious subject until the flooding problem was finally solved under Pope Pius VI in 1787. Today, the waters power a hydroelectric plant, and the water is released over the falls at different times.

We arrived in Terni to find out that most of the buses were not running because of the holiday of Ferragosto. I have heard many times that Italy shuts down in the summer for vacation, but it was never real to me until now. As we walked around Terni, we realized that every single shop was closed. It was like the town had been evacuated. It was amazing to see because there is no way that any town in the US would be able to completely shut down for vacations. The Italians approach life in a completely different way. Terni is a large industrial town, and every single plant and factory that I saw was shut down.

When we finally arrived at the waterfall, I was amazed by its size. The total height of all of the falls together is 541 feet, while the tallest single drop is 272 feet. The falls are surrounded by a haze of water vapor from the spray off the rocks at the bottom. There is a free bus that brings people to the top of the falls, and our original plan was to ride the bus to the top and hike back down beside the falls. As we waited for the bus, we were able to experience first hand the Italian concept of "standing in a line". As the buses approached, everyone begins to push and shove until they are in a position to fight their way into the bus. They end up strung out along the road, and surge to wherever the bus stops. There is no real advantage to being in the front or back because it all depends on where the bus stops. Once the bus stops, all of the yelling starts. I didn't understand all of the yelling, but it started with one woman saying that they needed to let her into the bus first because she was carrying a child. At this point, everyone else with children starts yelling and screaming. The whole time that this is going on, there are two empty buses waiting to pull up as soon as the first one is filled. As funny as it was to watch, we decided to hike to the top instead of fighting the "line" anymore.

The park is beautiful. When we entered, I was surprised to find out that there is whitewater that comes right off of the base of the waterfall. I met a local paddler who said that he might be able to set me up with some gear for paddling. As my friends describe it, I quickly became "a kid in a candy store." I enjoyed walking up the creek and watching the rafts come down. Eventually we began the hike up beside the waterfall. At one point, we were able to stand in the spray coming off the bottom of the first drop. We were instantly drenched which was a nice way to cool off. The top of the falls are beautiful, and give an amazing view of the valley below. We decided to hike back down the mountain to get to the bus back to Terni. Unfortunately, we missed the bus we needed to take, and had to wait for about 40 minutes for the next bus away from the Falls. While we were waiting we had our first porchetta paninis. To call it a pork sandwhich wouldn't do it justice. At the bottom of the falls are numerous vendors with whole pigs that have been roasted. When you want a sandwich, they carve the meat right off of the pig.

We finally made it down the mountain to find that we only had one train left to Assisi. We hopped on that train, and when we got to our connecting train we discovered that our connecting train had been cancelled. After that, we ended up taking a bus to get from Foligno to Assisi. Unfortunately, our bus was going to be stopping at the base of the mountain that Assisi is on, and of course all of the buses to the top had already stopped by the time we arrived. The guys chose me to try and convince the driver of the bus we were on to take us to the top. I was amazed that my Italian ended up being capable of telling him what I wanted, but I was not able to convince him to drive us up to the top. It ended up being a long walk back, but the day was worth it. Next time, however, we will remember to check the bus schedules ahead of time!

Celebrating the Saints Italian Style

The past week has been filled with a lot of activity. The city of Assisi has three patron saints who lived and died here in Assisi. The first is Saint Ruffino who was an early Bishop of the city and won the martyrs crown. The second is Saint Francis who lived a life devoted to God, and in the process helped to renew the Catholic world with his message of peace and simplicity. The third is Saint Clare who was a contemporary of Saint Francis. She devoted herself to a life of prayer, and began the Franciscan Order for women.

This week is special to Assisi because on August 11 is the Feastday of Santa Chiara, August 12 is the Feast Day of San Ruffino, and August 15 is the Feastday of the Assumption of Mary. The town of Assisi proved that it knows how to celebrate it's saints. Monday started with a mass in a crypt that holds the body of Santa Chiara. In the evening, there was a procession that began at San Ruffino, moved to the Church of Santa Chiara, then to the Church of Maria Sopra Minerva, and then back to San Rufino. The procession consisted of a cross leading the religous, then the priests, followed by the Bishop. Behing the Bishop was an effigy of San Ruffino, which was then followed by all the towns people. What made the night extremely special was that they lit up all of the roads and castles in Assisi with candles. It made for a beautiful night. After the procession, there was dessert put out for all of the participants. It was there that I first truly experienced the Italian understanding of lines. To put it simply, there is no line. Those who are willing to push and prod the most make it to the cake, while others are left to fend for themselves. Some of the old Italian women were especially vicious.

The next day had beautiful masses for San Ruffino, and the day culminated in an amazing firewors show over the Castle of Rocca Maggiore. A few of the seminarians stay at a house further up the hill which has a patio overlooking Rocca Maggiore. We decided to through a party, and spent the night on the patio celebrating and watching the fireworks.

The weeks festivities culminated on Thursday night with a Vigil for the Marian Feast down at Santa Maria degli Angeli [Saint Mary of the Angels]. The night starts with a bonfire outside of the Church. In the wood of the bonfire were placed over 20,000 prayer intentions left at the Cathedral by pilgrims over the year. The bonfire started with a prayer service offering our prayers to God. After a lot of singing and prayer, there was a procession with candles through the church. Once we were in the church, there was beautiful singing and prayers for the Feastday. We ended the night going for gelatto [Italian ice cream] with some sisters from America who have been living and working in Assisi for the past 25 years.

The Feastday of the Assumption is also a federal holiday in Italy, so we had Friday off for travel. I did a lot of traveling over the past few days, and had a great time. Those stories will follow when I have time. Interestingly enough, the week was also filled with many other personal celebrations. I had one friend take vowswith the Sisters of Life on the 12th, and another friend take vows with the Franciscan Sisters that we had gelato with on the 15th. To top it off, my mother's birthday is today on the 17th. All in all, it was a week filled with celebrations.

Beginning the Third Week in Assisi

Its hard to believe that I am starting my third week in Assisi. After two weeks I am actually able to speak some Italian. I can carry on a basic conversation and follow most simple conversations. It has made it alot easier to travel in Italy now that I can communicate with the people around me. There were several times when I was saved from getting on the wrong bus by being able to talk to the bus driver. As much as I enjoy it, the Italian classes have been tough because they are so accelerated. In two weeks, we went over most of the material that I learned in one semester at UD. After another few days, most of what I will be learning will be new to me.

My days at Assisi have settled into a steady routine. I wake up early in the morning to do Morning Prayer and Mass in Italian with some of the Franciscans in the area. After that I try to get some prayer time in before breakfast. After breakfast, I go up the the Academy for four hours of Italian. We come back down for pranzo [lunch] at the Hotel, and then we go back for another two hours of Italian. In my afternoons I usually do some running through the hills, and then I go and walk around Assisi. Sometimes I will visit churches or go into an interesting store. If I have had a long day, I might sit in one of the piazzas with some wine. Cena [dinner] is at 8:30, afterwhich we go out to Assisi to relax. Sometimes we will go up to the Casa that has become known as Castille de Mobilae because of the three seminarians from Mobile that live there.

Yesterday, a few of us took the day to take a train to Florence. We didn't try to rush around and see everything which was a nice change of pace. We had mass in the Baptistry where there was a beautiful mosaic that covered the inside of the cupola. After that, we went to the Cupola of the Duomo to admire the view of Florence. We had a funny experience at lunch. One of the seminarians had spent some time in Florence, and wanted to take us to a restaraunt that he liked. He promptly led us the wrong way, and 30 minutes later we found the restaraunt right back where we had come from. Unfortunately, it was also closed for the week. We ended up at an Irish Pub with food that is better forgotten. We wandered around Florence for the rest of the day taking in the sights before we eventualy made our way back to Assisi.