President’s Club Adventures

Buongiorno (good day) from Italy! Week four in Italy consisted of hosting President’s club and tagging along on all of their fun adventures. Monday was a typical day with class in the morning, lunch as a group, and dinner together. Tuesday, we headed into the city for art history where we explored the Ara Pacis Augustae. We had sack lunches in town and walked around to look at various tourist shops. Around six we met up with Presidents club at the Vatican Museums for a private tour. We got to see the museum and the Sistine Chapel after it was closed with just our group. Afterwards we headed back to campus for a pizza party.

On Tuesday we woke up around five a.m. to head out to the Vatican. We grabbed front row seats for the Papal Audience for ourselves and President’s Club. We got to see the Pope and our Residents Life Director’s baby got kissed by Pope Francis. After the Papal Audience we headed to McDonalds for lunch. A group of us headed back to campus, where we all took naps or relaxed. I headed down the hill with some friends for dinner. On Wednesday was NAC Diaconate ordinations. The Pontifical North American College, called the NAC by the students, supplies our seminarians and chaplains on campus and a few of them were getting ordained. We where able to attend the Ordination mass at St. Peters with members of President’s club. After mass we headed to the NAC, where we had lunch. We headed back to campus for a quick break before heading out to supper. At supper we enjoyed live music and many delicious Italian dishes.

Friday consisted of relaxing and homework on campus. On Saturday I headed into town in the afternoon to take some photos. After walking around the ancient part of the city and hitting every major tourist spot, I headed back to campus. Went out to dinner with some friends. On Sunday I headed into town to meet up with some friends for a picnic lunch. Afterwards we headed home to work on some homework. A small group headed to the Vatican around 6:30 as they were unveiling a new light show on St Peters. Andrea Bocelli sang a few songs as part of the unveiling. We stayed and watched the light show which was the story of St Peters life. We had a tough time catching the bus back to campus and ended up walking for over 20 minutes.

Ciao, Ann