Travel & Day 1

Hi all! Sorry for the delay in posting. I was awake last night to post, but the internet at the hotel was very poor. I will give some updates now! Today (Thursday) we flew to Rome from Chicago O’Hare via Berlin. The flight wet very smoothly and we were fortunate to make it to Rome with everything (and everyone) in one piece. We have about 40 pilgrims on this tour, of all ages and from throughout the U.S. After arriving in Rome (about noon Rome time) we met our local tour guide, Thommase and bus driver Francesco. Our plan was to tour ancient Roma. We started with a brief lunch near the Coliseum. Dad and I shared a delicious tomato, mozzarella and basil Panini with these little butter cookies with chocolate in the middle. Yum! We met back up with our group and had another local tour guide, Deborah. She took us all around Ancient Rome. It was beautiful, but after being awake for many, many hours, it was sometimes hard to focus on all the wonderful information she was sharing! We saw the Forum. The Coliseum. Many Arcs. Statues of Ceasar, Nero and Augustus. I love walking around the ruins of the Forum. We could look at it from above and see the great depth and beauty. It really is amazing to think all of this was built so long ago. We then had our first Mass at St. Peter in Chains. This is where the chains St. Peter was bound in Jerusalem and Rome are saved as a relic. They were also fused together (a miracle!) Very beautiful and it was a wonderful first mass. We finally made it to our hotel at 6pm. After a quick shower we met our pilgrims for dinner at the hotel. We are now fighting with our technology to get it to work! Funny thoughts from day one: 1. Every time I go to a new country, I want to say “thank you” in the language from the last coutry I was in. In Okinawa, I was trying to say thank you in my high school French. In Italy, I’m saying “hai hai” for yes! 2. When landing in Berlin, we parked our big airbus way out away from the terminal. We were bussed into the terminal and then went through passport control. We then went to our gate, wherein we got on another bus to get to our plane. After driving way away from the terminal we arrive at a large airbus plane to take us to Roma. I am pretty sure it was the same plane! We went in a big cirle, and I’m pretty Sure Grandpa Straka was laughing at us. PS - I wrote this blog but didn't post it. Pictures to come soon!