During the time that I was seconded to the World Bank from 2002 to 2004, I wrote a weekly email to family and friends to share my experiences of life in the US and of my various trips. Since some of you have said how much you like my posts about my travels, I thought I'd post this email which I wrote after my trip to Rome with Maricris Palarca (a friend from the World Bank) for the canonization of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei.
October 14, 2002
Roman Holyday
Hi,
This is my third day back from Rome, and fortunately, it’s a third day of rest since it’s Columbus Day. Rome was a wonderful experience of 8 grace-filled days (though not every moment). (Pls. note that this is a very long piece, so please read it when you have the time or discard it if you don’t have the time.)
Friday, Oct 4 -- Manny, Anna and I left home around 2 PM to go to the Dulles airport in N. Virginia for my 5:40 PM Air France flight to Paris and then Rome. Maricris and I checked in together. But we weren’t able to get seats beside each other because the travel agency had pre-assigned the seats. No matter since it gave me a chance to meet someone new from Opus Dei. At the departure lounge, we met up with my Tita Nette or Tita Jo as she’s known in the US and my first cousin, Lorni, who was traveling with her. It was in the lounge and also in the plane when I realized how well-loved and held in awe Tita Nette was even in the US. People took her picture, and several even approached me and asked if I was her daughter. When I said I was her niece, they asked about how her work in the hospice, etc., and said what a lovely and amazing lady she was. She truly is.
The 8 hour flight passed quickly. I watched Unfaithful on the personal monitor (I agreed with the critics who panned the movie, though still found Richard Gere very attractive), had dinner with white wine, and then slept.
Saturday—we arrived in Rome before noon (we lost 6 hours), and while waiting for luggage, there was a Filipino who told his wife that Ateneo was leading by 7 points with 7 minutes to go. Of couse, that made me so excited. Then we had our first taste of Italian inefficiency. Although we saw our tour guide, Emma, soon enough, we had to wait for another group who was flying in from Denmark. And then after waiting two hours, Emma found out that their flight had been delayed so we could leave after all. We finally boarded the bus and got to the Ergife Palace Hotel past 2. The kindest things I can say about our hotel are that it’s big, it’s clean, it’s walking distance to a church, and near enough to the Vatican. But it has only 4 very slow elevators serving 900 rooms, the front desk staff aren’t very helpful, and their towels are something else. They’re not made from terrycloth but from seersucker! If it weren’t for their size, you’d think they were kitchen towels. It took some time getting used to, but at least they were absorbent enough, and they were very clean. In fact, at a dinner on our last night with Maricris’ friend, one of the guests was a Filipina married to an Italian and she said that her husband wouldn’t use any other kind of towel. (So when in Rome,...)
We heard the 6 PM mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe, and then went to a nearby grocery to buy 250 gms each of salami and prosciutto. We had dinner at the hotel, and after dinner bumped into Fr. Jim Achacoso, Maricris’ long-time family friend when she was still in Manila and my spiritual director in Manila. We talked a while and then called it a night because all of us were so tired from the trip.
Sunday—this was the canonization day and we were told that pick-up time was 6:45 AM. But we left past 7, and because of the traffic got to the Vatican before 8. We waited in line to go to our section, and reached a side street that led to the colonnade and then to St. Peter’s square. After a while, we stopped moving, and we realized that we wouldn’t be able to get into the square anymore. So we pulled out our tripod chairs and made ourselves comfortable. We were in a good area with a building shielding us from the sun. But there were no video screens so that meant we weren’t able to witness the canonization at all! Fortunately, Maricris had a small radio and shared one of the earphones with me. So we could hear the commentary, and we also had the audio of the proceedings. But even if we couldn’t see the proceedings, when our Holy Father declared Blessed Josemaria a saint, I cried, Maricris cried, and so did many of the other women. And the amazing thing about it is that despite the multitudes wanting to get into the square, when the queue stopped moving, there was no pushing and everyone calmly accepted the fact that we wouldn’t be able to get in. After the ceremony, amidst the throng, I bumped into another cousin, Corrie Pineda, whom I had been wanting to see. Then we made our way to the meeting place, but had to wait another two hours for our entire group to be complete. Our tour guide merely said that after the ceremony we should all assemble in a place she had earlier shown us. Well some of the group took their time and went shopping!
We then traveled to the south of Rome, near Castel Gandolfo, our Holy Father’s summer villa, for lunch. It was past 4 when we finally reached the restaurant which had a magnificent view. We had a very good meal of a salad and two pastas with red and white wine. Then back to the hotel and around 8, Maricris and I had dinner in our room of salami, prosciutto and bread (so sinfully yummy). We then called Fr. Jim and he told us that he didn’t get to see the canonization too. He had tickets for the reserved seats section but he didn’t reach the place and got stuck in the colonnade where the security check was. There were also no video screens. (Tita Nette also had the same experience. Though she had a ticket for reserved seating for the elderly, they weren’t able to get in too, and she didn’t see anything!) At any rate, Fr. Jim told us that he had 2 extra tickets for the thanksgiving mass the following morning, and we could ride with him in their bus.
Monday—we met with Fr. Jim at 6:45 AM, and their bus left promptly (their tour group was led by a Filipino; hurray for the Pinoys who left on time!). This time, everything was smooth sailing. Our tickets were for the San Paolo section which was in front of the altar on the right side. (Fr. Jim’s ticket was for the San Pietro section which was also in front of the altar but on the left side.) We felt so special when we were being escorted nearer and nearer to the altar. Maricris and I couldn’t believe such a great blessing! Since we were early, we could choose our seats and we chose those that had a good view of both the altar and the video screen. The mass was celebrated by the Most Reverend Javier Echevarria, the prelate of Opus Dei. The priest who sang the Gospel (on casting into the deep) looked like a Filipino, and one of the readers of the Prayers of the Faithful who read in Tagalog was Filipino too. Though Fr. Jim later said that he doesn’t belong to any Philippine center, since he has been sent to the Taipei Center, where he’s been for 8 years now. He read very well, in crisp, clear Tagalog. After the mass, our Holy Father came on his popemobile to give a blessing to the crowd. Sayang I had forgotten about our experience during the Jubilee year when were advised to sit near the center railing because that’s where the popemobile would pass. Anyway, we had a good view of our Holy Father on the video screen. He really took his time making his way to the altar—kissing many babies along the way. And during his address, he adlibbed a bit and mentioned all the many babies in the crowd including those unborn. He had noticed all the pregnant women too! After the blessing, the Pope received the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church in Romania (if our Holy Father is called His Holiness, the patriarch is called His Beatitude), and they exchanged greetings, and hopes of uniting the churches of the east and the west. I thought what a masterful politician our Holy Father was also. For his first official meeting with His Beatitude, he chose the mammoth crowd of the canonization, probably to stress the point how strong and vigorous the Catholic Church is.
After the mass, Maricris and I met up with her friend, Marist Gavino, her classmate at STC from grade school to college, and now is the Philippine representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization based in Rome, and Fr. Jim for lunch. We had it in one of the cafes near the Vatican, and we had more pastas (sorry for this senior moment, but with so many pastas, I can’t remember the kinds that we had; suffice to say that we were eating them with gusto up to the end of our trip). After lunch we went shopping, and it was like being in HK during the Christmas season. There were so many Filipinos! And like in HK, we exchanged tips on the best buys, e.g., where rosaries were cheap -- 12 for $10 for the rosepetal ones.
In the evening, Marciris and I met with Fr. Jim again at Piazza Navona for dinner in one of the sidewalk cafes. The ambience there was incredible—a huge Bernini sculpture in the fountain, a mime performing in the square, artists selling their paintings, troubadours serenading the guests, tourists marveling at the sights, and everyone just enjoying the cool Italian weather. My boss, Fons, had earlier told me to try the gelati (tartufo) in Piazza Navona and the pizza in Piazza Trastevere. I had them mixed-up, and had the pizza in Navona and the tartufo in Trastevere. They were both so good.
Tuesday—this was the day of the tour of the city and the catacombs. Pick-up time was 7:45 AM, and again our bus left 1 hour later. (If Filipino time is 30 minutes late, Italian time is 1 hour late!) We had a very good tour guide, Rita, a very smart-looking and knowledgeable Italian who spoke deprecatingly of the Italian’s lack of efficiency and promptness, and Rome’s horrendous traffic, but showed her love for her city nonetheless (who wouldn’t?). It was just a bus tour but we saw most of Rome’s ancient sites—the Coloseum, the Roman forum, the Carcala (sp?) baths, etc. Rita also explained why the traffic in Rome is so bad. She said that Rome is an ancient city trying to cope with the challenges of a growing population (3 million Italians, and 2 million non-). Even if they wished to widen the streets or build subways, they couldn’t because inevitably they would come upon ruins and would have to halt the project. So imagine Rome with very narrow streets up and down the hills, with cars double-parked on the sides, and tourist buses snaking their way through, then you will know that the Pinoy jeepney driver cannot hold a candle to the Italian bus driver. There were times when Rita would tell us to hold our breaths so our bus could squeeze through!
After the city tour, we went to the one of the biggest catacomb sites in Rome. Contrary to popular belief, the catacombs are not the hiding places where the early Christians would say mass, but the cemeteries of the early Christians. The one we visited was 27 km long, with the tombs of 5 popes (though all the bodies had long been transferred), St. Cecilia (a sculpture of her in the original tomb clearly shows the line on her neck where she was beheaded, and her forefinger pointed upward manifesting her belief in one God; Ninang Auring, we had seen a replica earlier in the Franciscan Monastery here in DC), and half a million Christians. There were various sizes of catacombs, and some were clustered together representing family catacombs. Some still had the original paintings and names (such as those of the popes). There were some paintings typically used such as Jonah coming out of the whale representing the resurrection of the soul since Jonah also stayed 3 days in the whale; a fish since the Greek letters for fish spell Christ, etc.
From the catacombs, we were brought to the Termini (Rome’s Union Station or Grand Central Station) where we took the Metro to go to Santo Eugenio where St. Josemaria’s remains lay from Sunday till Thursday. It was quite a moving experience to see his coffin beneath the altar where priests concelebrated masses every 30 minutes. It was already 3 PM when we left Santo Eugenio after shopping for more souvenir items. Since we were going to join the Filipinos at Santa Maria Trastevere (and not the Americans in Santa Maria Maggiore) for the 5 PM thanksgiving mass, and going to Fr. Jim for confession at 4 PM, Maricris and I literally had lunch on the run. Halfway through the walk to the Metro, we bought a slice of pizza each and ate while walking briskly. Near the Metro station, I bought and gulped a coke, and in the Metro, we freshened our makeup. From the Metro, we ran to catch the bus, and fortunately there was a Filipina who told us where to get off and showed us where we would take the tram. When we got to the tram, there was another Filipina who showed us where to get off. So we got to the church at 4, in time for confession and the mass. This mass was for all English-speaking nationalities other than Americans and Canadians who each had separate masses in other churches. So the crowd was not all Filipino (probably included Australians and New Zealanders), but the choir was, the main celebrant was, and most of the readers were. Unfortunately, during the homily, the sound system conked out and didn’t come on till communion.
After mass, we waited for Fr. Jim to finish hearing confessions, and then joined two Filipino couples for dinner at Piazza Trastevere. It was another enjoyable dinner, with an Italian singer regaling us with his songs, and Fr. Jim joining him in some of them.
Wednesday—Maricris and I signed up for the optional tour to Naples and Pompeii. Again, our bus left late, but we had gotten used to it. We got to Naples past noon, and it was a breathtaking sight. It reminded me of Jerusalem where the houses were built like rice terraces on the slopes. But unlike Jerusalem, the houses were not of uniform color, and they were facing the sea and Mt. Vesuvius. So imagine houses on a hill on one side, and the sea on the other. Amazing! We had a bus tour of the city and then proceeded to Pompeii for lunch. This time I remember distinctly what we had for lunch—a forgettable pasta and an unforgettable buffalo mozarella shaped like a dome surrounded by tomatoes and basil. It was soooo good! And unlike the sticky mozarella on pizzas, this one is not sticky at all but had the consistency more like that of Laguna’s kesong puti. Though infinitely more delicious I can still feel its taste.
After lunch, we went to see the ruins of Pompeii. And this was a truly incredible experience. Pompeii was a city built around 6 BC, and was buried by ash and lava from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It was discovered in the 17th century, and about 75% of the 66 acres have been excavated. Since it was covered mostly by ash and not lava, most of the structures were intact (except for the second floor and the ceilings which collapsed under the weight of the ash) and many treasures were recovered which are now in the museum in Naples. But the ruins clearly showed how advanced Roman civilization was then. They had a forum, theater, baths, cisterns to recycle water, gaming rooms, gym, brothels (Pompeii was an important trading port; the paintings on the walls showed the menu consisting of “positions”). The houses of the rich had mosaic floors and paintings on the walls, atriums, foyers, living and dining rooms, indoor gardens with fountains, massage rooms, and bedrooms. The message of Pompeii? After 2 millenniums, nothing has really changed. After touring the ruins, we asked to go to the Church of Our Lady of Pompeii. Since we were already running late, the tour guide gave us only 15 minutes. It was enough to appreciate the beauty of the Church—with the vaulted ceilings covered with mosaic frescoes. I thought then that it isn’t true what people say that if you’ve seen one church, you’ve seen them all.
Thursday and Friday—This was a free day, so Maricris and I decided to go to St. Peter’s Basilica to hear mass before meeting up with her friend, Marist. We were both pleasantly surprised to see the Basilica all lit up, unlike in my previous visit in 2000, when it was dark. It is truly magnificent and I couldn’t help but thank God profusely for making me a member of the Catholic Church with its rich heritage and tradition.
After mass, we completed our shopping for religious articles and then Marist picked us up in her car to go to FAO for lunch. One thing that ADB and World Bank do not have is the view that FAO has. On one side is the dome of St. Peter’s and on the other is the Coloseum. No wonder, FAO has its cafeteria on the top floor. While having your meal, you can feast on the incomparable sights of Rome. After lunch, Marist brought us to a shopping mall in an area which had modern buildings. I found the prices steep and didn’t buy anything, except at the supermarket where I bought some chocolates and Knorr risotto of various flavors. Then Marist brought us to her home for dinner with her friends—the above-mentioned Filipina married to an Italian, a Filipina MD married to a German and based in Bonn who comes to Rome twice a year to provide acupunture treatment to her clients in FAO, and a British visitor married to a Filipina though his wife stayed in London. It was a very congenial group with good food (mozarella with anchovies f or appetizers, pasta with funghi sauce for the first plate, a very delicious meatloaf with green salad for the second plate, and grapes and English fudge for dessert).
Marist’s Italian boyfriend brought us back to the hotel at 1 AM. Then we packed our stuff, got up at 5:30, and left for the airport. On the flight from Paris to DC, Maricris and I were seated at the bulkhead. And I think that my seatmate on the left by the window was a US marshal. He was tall, big and had a crewcut. Before we took off, the purser came to him and said that she had received a fax about him, that he had requested a window seat, and that if he needed any assistance to just call her. After she said this, he turned to me and asked what she had said. So I repeated verbatim and added you must be very special. He just smiled. A few minutes later, a flight officer came and greeted him too. Throughout the flight, he stayed in his seat, drank only water, and was so courteous and helpful. (He helped me pull out my video monitor, and reached for my earphones.) Then when we landed, the purser came to him again and asked if he enjoyed the flight. If he were a real VIP, he would have sat in first class. I was sorely tempted to ask him, but thought the better of it.
So that was our Roman holyday. With God’s grace and St. Josemaria’s intercession, everything went smoothly for Maricris and me. We didn’t lose anything to pickpockets though one of our group lost her wallet, and a Filipina in another group lost her bag. We spent time with Fr. Jim and were re-inspired by him. We met many Filipinos who reminded us of the strength of their faith.
But there’s still no place like home.
May you have a grace-filled week.
Love and prayers,
Aggie
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