Last Saturday Dom and I drove to Rome to meet up with my father, Jack. He had been to a conference in Zurich and tagged on a quick trip to Italy. Part of this was to see Dom and I, of course, but he also wanted to attend the Oct. 21 canonization mass at the Vatican. Seven saints were created last Sunday including a Native American woman, Kateri Tekakwitha. She is credited for a miracle in the Archdiocese of Seattle--
the cure of a young boy with a incurable case of flesh eating bacteria.
We met up on Saturday night at our hotel near the Vatican. There were a number of tour groups there for the canonization mass including one from Seattle. There were so many Americans in the hotel that it would be difficult to tell one was outside the U.S. except for the staff.
On Sunday morning we walked over to St. Peter's and joined the queue to enter the piazza. It was necessary to go through metal detectors but in fine Italian fashion there was not exactly a "line." In fact, it was a real mob scene.
Here are Dom and Jack waiting. Dom doesn't look too happy but this was early on before the real pushing and shoving started. Promptly at 8 am they began letting people into the piazza. It took us about an hour to enter.
You can see the crowd in front of us. I could not see any of this but I held my camera up and took the picture. The real reason was that I wanted to see what was going on and realized a picture would give me some clue. I felt particularly sorry for two young girls stuck in the middle of the crowd with their family. They allowed as how it was quite hot down where they stood. I was hot too because I had people pressed up against me on every side. This is not an experience I (or Dom or my dad) am eager to repeat.
Once we were inside the piazza it was a glorious day. We had tickets to enter the area where there were seats but they began turning people away from the entrances about the time we got to one. It turns out they give out way more tickets than there are seats.
Here is a panoramic video view of the piazza. People came from all over the world for the canonization mass. Once inside the piazza everyone was happy to be there.
After being turned away from the seating area we went over and found space on the steps of the colonnade. We were even lucky enough to find spots with a back rest!
Even though we had seats (of a sort) it was still difficult to see or hear the mass. There was a video screen not far away but even I had trouble understanding the speakers.
As I mentioned before, there were people from all over the world. The kids above were from Quebec. In addition to the maple leaf flag, the boy was carrying the flag of Quebec. That is where St. Kateri spent most of her life.
A boy from the Philippines was also canonized so there were a lot of people from there. I also met a family from New Jersey that was originally from the Philippines.
Shortly before the mass started people came around handing out booklets with the order of service. Also included were biographies of each of the new saints. The biographies were all in English and Italian and also in the saint's native language or languages.
Two nuns from Mother Theresa's order, Missionaries of Charity, sat in front of us. Unfortunately, they were good about standing at those parts of the mass where one is supposed to do so. I could have gotten up and down (with difficulty) but Dad, Dom and many of those around us would have had great difficulty doing so.
On the left of this picture is the video screen closest to us. That allowed us to see most of what was happening at the alter.
Above the alters were hung banners with pictures of each new saint. Cardinals, bishops and priests sat to each side of the alter. The Pope sat in the red canopied chair in front of the red curtain with the cross on it. We certainly did not have the best seats in the house.
You can see that the steps of the colonnade were well occupied. Many people wandered around throughout the mass. When it started at 9:30 the piazza was about 2/3 full. However, people kept coming and coming. By the time we left at 12:00 it was pretty well full.
Some people just sat on the ground.
Other people knew enough to bring their own seats. We saw lots of different sorts of folding stools.
These people were from Northern Italy and were dressed in an "alpine" style. All the boys wore leather shorts. This teenager found an interesting spot to store his water bottle.
The walk from the hotel and the long standing in line to get into the piazza was hard on my father. So we decided to leave early (at communion) and take a taxi back to the hotel. That was pretty easily done and once away from St. Peter's we found a restaurant for lunch. The weather was warm and sunny so we sat outside. Afterwards we all took naps before heading off for dinner later in the evening.
For dinner we took a taxi to Piazza della Rotonda where the Pantheon is located. We randomly picked one of the many restaurants that ring the piazza and had a nice dinner. This was the view from our table. It was just like a summer evening in Seattle.
The next morning we meandered back to Capannori by way of Montalcino. We decided to stop there because it is a very picturesque spot. The town is lovely and not too large so my dad would be able to walk around without too much trouble.
The town of Montalcino sits high on a hill above the Val d'Orcia south of Siena. It is famous for the incredibly good red wine that is made in the area. There are lots of shops where one can taste wine and buy the local product.
We wandered around long enough to find a likely place for lunch. The meal was good but the Brunello di Montalcino we had with it was very, very nice.
After lunch we took a stroll through the town. There are many beautiful buildings such as the one above.
Beautiful lanes are broken by...
...lovely vistas out over the valley.
Many of the buildings have interesting architectural features such as the beautiful ironwork on the window above and...
...this old ring where one would have tied one's horse. It is interesting that the face looks like something from Africa but you see similar designs all over Italy in the old Renaissance towns.
We continued on to Capannori after lunch and arrived about 5:00 pm. Since we had been eating out for days we had a light dinner that evening at home.
The following day, Tuesday, we drove out to the coast for lunch in the seaside village of Lerici. It is located on the Golfo dei Poeti and is about and hour from Capannori. Along the way we stopped in Lucca to pick up Anne from Sydney, Australia who I had been in class with at the Lucca Italian School.
Lerici is across the bay from Portovenere, one of our favorite spots. However, it takes about another hour to reach the latter town. You can see Portovenere through the masts of the sailboats.
Lerici has a large small boat harbor and a big castle. Along the waters' edge is a lovely town with buildings painted golden yellow, terracotta and cream. There are restaurants everywhere and because the weather was so nice tables were still outdoors. Many of the restaurants will close for the season at the end of the month. Even now it was practically deserted. Most of the other tourists we saw were Italians.
We parked at one end of town and strolled to the other in the midday sunshine. There was just the hint of a nip of fall in the air. In the distance we could see another town. We later drove through it on our way home.
It was fun having Anne with us. Dad, She was in Lucca for three weeks. Like me she did two weeks of language school and then she spent this week just relaxing. Tomorrow she heads off to Berlin to meet some friends for a week before returning to Sydney.
There were all sorts of boats in the harbor. It is difficult to tell in this photo but the blue boat on the right has a traditional lateen rigging with the sail held up by a mast that crosses the mainmast on the diagonal. This was the traditional rigging of the Romans and is still widely used throughout the Mediterranean.
After we dropped Anne off in Lucca we headed back to the apartment for a later afternoon rest. In the evening we met up with Mary and Orlando for a really fun dinner at La Terrazza in Valdottavo.
On Wednesday morning we took Dad to the airport in Florence were he began his journey home. Dom and I came back to the apartment where we have lots of chores to catch up on. It's time to get all our ducks in order before we leave Italy on November 13th. It's hard to believe we will only be here for about two and half more weeks.
Tomorrow we are driving to Padova for the day for the annual
Auto e Moto d'Epoca exhibition. It is one of the biggest classic car and motorcycle shows in Europe. We have been before and it is always fun to see the beautiful automobiles on display. Unfortunately the weather finally broke and it is now raining. The temperatures are supposed to drop precipitously in the next few days--from a high of 74 yesterday to about 50 by next Wednesday. We were lucky to have the good weather so long.
The next post will be a recap of the best of the Padova show.
