venezia, milano, largo como, bologna

So im back from my whirlwind weekend.
here is the 90 second recap:
-we rode on the bus for 6 hours and spent the first night outside of florence
-the next morning got up early for a couple hour bus ride to venice. venice is awesome, we went in the main churches, took a gondola ride and spent the afternoon wandering around. its kind of over rated, its beautiful but there are 9 bazillion tourists. in the main square, st. mark's piazza, you can feed the pigeons and they litterally attack you. it was interesting. we left venice that evening and drove a few hours to our hotel in milano.
-woke up early the next morning and drove to lake como. it was AWESOME. its right on the border of switz. and the alps are in the background of the lake. its alot like deep creek but much more moutainous, for those of you who know deep creek. we got a tour from a boat of the surrounding villas and towns. we saw a villa where they filmed part of one of the star wars movies, we saw the villa where JFK was two days before his asassination. We saw a huge villa that brad pitt bid on but was out bid by the guy who started Ryanair. We didnt see George Clooney or Modonnas because they were 20 km down the lake.
- Then we spent the afternoon in the town of Como which is a vacation town, lots of familes with their kids.como is known for its silk.
-The next day we spent in Milano, Milan is alot like new york city with the hustle and bustle of a big city. it is the fashion capital of the world and i could tell, everyone was beautiful. we saw the very first mall in the world. We also saw michelangelos last Pieta. he did three and on this trip we have seen all three, the first one is the most famous in St. Peters. The second one is in Florence and the third one is in Milano.

well now im home and have a ton to do because i leave tomorrow night for london and paris.
love you all.
-matteo

update for the days to come....

so now i am past the half way mark of my trip. kinda sad but exciting also.
here is whats happening for the days to come:
i leave today , wednesday the 25 for a weekend trip, we are going to venice, milan, bologna and Lake Como. we get home late sunday night.
i have class monday and tuesday and Tuesday night i leave for another fun adventure.
We are flying out tuesday night and landing in london, we are gonna be in london for a few days, where i hope to meet up with Maura's cousin Melissa. Then we are taking the train from London to Paris at 5 in the morning on friday. We will be in Paris for 2 days then fly back sunday to Roma.
should be a good time.
then i have a week of school. the weekend after that i am flying to Ireland. we are flying into dublin and doing dublin for a day then taking a train to galway then see cork, hopefully see the blarney castle and the cliffs of moehr then fly out of cork. crap! that reminds me i need to buy ticket home from cork. damn me and my memory of an old man.

So those are big trips comming up. so siked. updates later.
love and miss everyone reading this.
ciao ciao,
Matty

ps. this is a pic from the soccer game last weekend.

Just when i think it couldnt get any better.....

So in my last post last thursday, a mere 4 days ago, i told the tale of my unreal experience seeing Il Papa up close, in the front row. i truely thought that was gonna be the most amazing part of my trip... oh no.
Yesterday, we had a mass to celebrate the begining of the school year with all the Ponitcal Univesities in Rome, it was held In Saint Peters Basilica. It was a huge mass 8,000 people where there. All of them were students or affiliates at the Pontifical Schools. The mass was in Latin and Italian. Same drill for this mass too, we got in line at 2:00 for the 5:00 mass, i was up near the front of the line so when they moved the barricades it was a mad dash through the security check point into Saint Peters. Mind you we are running full speed to get good seats and the mass starts 3 and half hours later. haha. well being the athletic adonis that i am (ha!) i got in the very first row in the very first seat. It was so cool. I had to drop my shoulder to a few monks but it was worth it.
The coolest part is yet to come.....
The mass ends and none of the 400 priests present move. Then from all sides come about 100 Swiss guards. Then from the way back fo the basilica there is a ROAR of the crowd. Mind you we are in a church. Here he comes walking down the isle, the friggin pope. At this point im so excited i cant contain myself and my roomate Rob is standing next to me balling. Well he makes his way up the isle and SHOOK MY GOD FORSAKEN HAND. I TOUCHED THE POPE AND HE LOOKED ME IN THE EYE! it was UNREAL!
oh, i was totally composed i had what i wanted to say to him as hes walking down. i was gonna say "bless you your holiness, all glory and honor to you" what came out at the time was "AHHHH OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" hahah didnt go as planned but i think he got the idea.
So me and Benny are homeboys now. it doesnt get much better.

on a side note: on sunday i went to a Roma soccer game, one of the more terrifying expirences of my trip. I knew it was gonna be trouble because i got frisked by what looked like a guy from the navy seals, he had an automatic machine gun out, a bullet proof vest and one of those riot helmets on. well we get in there and its crazy, there are flares going off, smoke bombs. every good call the fans would go nuts and throw stuff. It was amazing and terrifing at the same time. We plan on going to the Roma/ Lazio game which is suppose to be 50 times worse then the game i was at. it was fun


- pace,
Matty

VIVA IL PAPA!!!!!

So today is thursday, i just got back from my run by the river and i met a whole bunch of nice homeless people . unlike the one homeless man's dog that attacked me last week. and i decided that i am going to cook them dinner one night this week.... anyways thats not the point im trying to make.
i am looking through my pictures from yesterday and i am in still in disbelief that it was real.
we woke up at 5:50 am to be first in line of the pilgrims to see the pope at his weekly wednesday papal audience. the doors opened at 8:30 and it was absolute chaos. we called it "the running of the nuns" there were nuns throwin' bows. old german women tripping you and pushing to get good seats. well.... they are old and slow so me and my group ran full speed to get good seats. and we did. the very first row in front of the Papa. im not even kidding our seats were unreal. when he drove by in his pope mobile he was within feet of me. the look in that mans eyes were pure love. ive never been so moved by anyone person. sure, nonbelievers and protestants say hes just another man. just another priest. you have no idea how holy this man is until you look him in the eye. and i did that. he looked right at me. i couldnt hold myself up my knees buckled i started crying. absolutley indescribable.
at home in our shelterd little world we can talk about the pope. the media can critize every move he makes. we complain about his conserative views but i will never again judge the man. he truely is the vicor of peter. god had a plan for him. I hope someday i can be as loving and as wise as Pope Benedict XVI.
viva il papa!

i hope you all have an amazing weekend,

-matty

AMDG

Tuscany

Buona Sera,
Just got back from our weekend in Tuscany. We left thursday night and drove to Aruzzo, a small town north of italy. It is in the middle of Florence and Siena. The first night we got there and checked into the hotel and at dinner at the hotel. the hotel was a really nice it was a 5 star hotel, by italian standards.....think of like a comfort inn by american standards. The next day we got up at 7 to start touring Arruzzo. We saw some original frescos of the Pregnant Madonna and Christ Triumphing Death, they were really quite good and still in pretty good condition even though they were made in the same year Columbus left for the new world. Me and my roomates went to this little teeny hole in the wall italian resturant for lunch and we had 6 courses for only 20 bucks a peice. It was the best food ive had since weve been in italy. We also saw Petrarch's house.
Saturday we got up early and went to Florence, which is very different from rome. We saw the Duomo, The David, the Pont Di Vechio and spent most of the day in musems. It was ok because there isnt alot to do in Firenza. It is a beautiful city but only one that i would want to visit. The David is magnificent it is one of the most beautiful things ive seen. And he is like 15 feet tall which i had no idea. We saw Michelangelo's second and third Pieta's the ones he did after the original most famous ones. Then we went to the Ufizi, which is kind of like the Louve of Italy. We saw some of Da Vinici's works aswell as his notebooks. Also the Birth of Venus and La Primavera were there, they are amazing too, it was crazy to think that art history students all around the world were studying the paintings i was standing in front of.
This morning we went to Seina and had mass in the Church of San Dominico. Seina is really neat, very different then rome, its very laid back. We went to the museum there and saw the cathedral. And then spent the afternoon to ourselves shopping and hanging out.
Anyways, im glad to be back at my place in rome, im beat. And mom and sr. pat and grams are home now, i was very sad to see them leave. They had a great week here and i totally loved having them here.

ciao,
Matty

La Dolce Vita

Hey everyone,
Here is a quick update of this past weekend which has been nuts. My mom and grandmother and Sister Pat arrived in Rome on saturday afternoon and i met them at the hotel where they are staying. Its a very nice hotel near the Spanish Steps. We didnt do much the first day because they were obvi jetlagged like crazy. But we did walk down and we showed them the Spainsh Steps. Gram went to bed early because she had been up for almost 30 hours straight because she was excited for the trip. Then me and mom and sister pat went to an early dinner of pasta and wine. Then came back to the hotel for the Free Cocktail Hour. Now mom was lovin rome.haha. I took the metro home because they were pretty beat.
I met them the next day, with one of my roomates Rob, for Mass at San Mary Magore. It is one of the 4 biggest cathedrals inRome. We got there early to save seats for Gram up close. We got second row seats but had to scare away about 8 nuns and 4 pissed off old italian women. Mass was great it was a traditional high mass, it was in latin the whole shebang. Grams old friend Cardinal Law was present at the mass and was the whole reason we were there. So at the procession out of mass at the end there is about 30 priests two bishops and the cardinal. As he walked past he did a double take then stopped the whole procession to come over and give gram a kiss. And he said he would be back to get us. Now let me fill u in on what is going on while this is happening.... everyone around us is shocked the cardinal stopped to kiss this women and they are all thinking she is some kind of royalty. haha
After Mass we went with his Eminance to his private residence. Which was unreal to think that we were eating with one of the men who elected the new pope. He was telling stories about Grandad and said that he was the single most influentail lay person in the church. It was a real honor to here my family being spoken so highly of. THe Cardinal's face completely light up when Gram told him that i was going into the same line of work as my Grandad. He said that i had big shoes to flll but with that legacy that I had it wouldnt be a problem.
So we are eating crossants and sipping on Cappochinos but when Gram got up to get hers, She was told to sit down, and THE CARDINAL SERVED MY GRANDMOTHER. It was unreal. He had to go to a meeting but it was great to meet such a man of honor. He was one of the nicest people i have ever met, not to mention one of the holiest. It was a day i will never forget.
Needless to say im taking the metro 20 minuts every sunday to see him. because now he knows me, more importantly he knows that i am John McCarthy's grandson!
As we left the residence the cardinal called a cab for gram and kissed her hand, not the other way around.
My roomate rob goes, "god your family is special. ive never seen anything like that" You know what, he was right.
Me and the fam went our seperate ways and then i met them in the afternoon and we went to the Borghese Gallery. Which is the prize of rome, home to more Berninis anywhere, only second to the vatican. Then we went to a real nice dinner on Via Venato, which is one of the most famous roads in rome.
The following day i had classes but Mom and Sister Pat got a tour of the vatican Museums, which is the most expensive, most comprehensive musuem in the history of the world. then they saw the sistine chapel and the necropolis of the vatican. i met them afterschool and me and mom had the afternoon to ourselves and we got groceries for their hotel and i showed her around my place and my neighborhood. We went back to have dinner at the restuant where we went the first night. today they are touring around then im meeting them after class.

it has been really nice having them here. and to think that my 88 year old grandmother traveled around the world to see me is something i will never forget.

ciao,
John McCarthy's grandson.