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Our second day in Roma was quite eventful. We met up with Kathleen’s friend, Matthew, who is a seminarian at the North American College – one of the seminaries in Rome.

We met up at Piazza Navona, and from there we went to the Pantheon, a Roman Temple to all of the gods. It was raining and we were able to see the rain coming down through the hole in the roof. The Romans, even though there were master architects, were not able to figure out how to complete the dome without it caving in. It has since been converted into a Catholic Church and the tomb of the great painter Raphael lies there.

Tomb of painter Rafael
We then stopped into Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, a basilica made to show that the Virgin Mary is much greater than the Roman goddess Minerva. This church is absolutely magnificent, a splendid example of gothic architecture. The body of St. Catherine of Siena is there, although her head is kept in Siena. We were able to pray in front of the main alter where her body is kept. It was amazing to be so close to such a great saint and pray for her to grace the rest of our journey as well as for our many intentions that we carry with us to every church.

Next, we went to lunch, a glorious Italian lunch. For our appetizer we had mozzarella de bufala with prosciutto. This is a small ball of fresh mozzarella with lovely, salty Italian smoked ham. For our main course we shared three different pasta dishes. The first, Macichano, Matthew’s favorite, is a meaty sauce over homemade spaghetti noodles. The second, Bolognaise, is another red sauce over thick linguini noodles. And lastly, (both Ivana and Kathleen’s favorite), the Carbonara, is a white sauce which is made by mixing egg and parmagian cheese and then pouring it over the pasta as it comes out of the boiling water. Bacon and fresh ground pepper are added to finish the dish.

The last thing we did was go to a Norman Rockwell exhibit at the museum. This was definitely a highlight of the trip. Being able to see the original work of such a prolific American artist, was amazing.

We then hopped on a bus to head back to our hostel. When we got back, we were hungry, so we went and got some gelato and ate some dinner from the grocery store.

Ciao!

❤ i&k

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Well, we’re in Rome! The day started off rainy – there was a thunderstorm with lightning, super exciting…except when you have to wake up at 6 a.m….however, as soon as we were on our way to breakfast, the weather calmed down, making it a much more pleasant day after all; it was still raining, but we didn’t have to worry about getting struck with lightning or anything 😉

We ended up having a glorious day! It started off with a yummy free breakfast, provided for by our hostel, at a nearby pizzeria. Our breakfast consisted of croissants with shredded coconut on top, a cappuccino for Ivana, and tea for Kathleen. Getting a free Italian cappuccino every morning was super exciting for Ivana. 😉 We also hoped that we would get to try a new pastry every morning.

After breakfast, we went to St. Peter’s square to take the Scavi tour beneath St. Peter’s Basilica. We met two American gentlemen who were also in line for the tour. We talked with them for a while and they gave us plenty of information of what we should and should not do in Rome. It was so nice to be in the midst of fellow Americans for a bit and receive some friendly advice.

The tour itself was absolutely wonderful and very enlightening! Our tour guide was an archaeologist from Israel. We got a lot of history about the excavations done where St. Peter’s tomb still lies today! It was awesome!

Afterward, we went to a cafe nearby and ordered some yummy pasta. Ivana ordered connollini with spinach and a cappuccino and Kathleen ordered tettuchini with chrimini mushrooms. It was delicious.

We’ve been learning that in various parts of Europe, the way you order and pay for your meal is rather unconventional compared to what we’re accustomed to. In many places, you order your food, coffee, what have you, and then go up to pay when you’re finished eating. This always seems a little strange and I can’t help but wonder if some customers ever take advantage of this and just leave after they’re finished eating. But it does, however, allow one to eat slowly and enjoy their meal as an experience and not have to worry about paying until the very end. There is no rush – whenever the customers are done, they can simply leave and pay for their experience. It’s actually quite nice!

We then waited in line to reserve tickets for the papal audience on Wednesday! The Swiss guards were very kind and helpful – we almost wished we could stand in their place and have their jobs, even just for a moment – what a blessing that must be for them!

In the evening, we enjoyed gelato at the oldest gelato factory in Rome.

Ciao,
❤ i&k

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One word to describe our long trip to Rome: horrible, rainy, alone.
I realize this was actually three words but after the last two days they are all kind of blurring together and look like one…. So cut us some slack per favore.

We had realized when planning our agenda that this part of the trip would be the hardest going from Lourdes to Milan and then to Rome the very next night – it was going to be brutal. And it was. Our trip from Lourdes to Milan took all day. We had to travel back to Paris, catch a train in a completely different station across town and then travel seven hours to Italy. Things were going very smoothly, we made our connection and were on our way to Milan. However, as soon as we crossed the border the train stopped because of some sort of accident…we didn’t know where that accident was, but sat back to wait patiently… And then not so patiently for the next two hours. We still had three hours left of our journey and no way to communicate with anyone else; we felt pretty helpless and alone. We couldn’t really even understand the announcements that the conductor was making.

We don’t really have very many happy pictures from this part of the trip, mostly just ones of us looking tired and sad…. But here is a cute picture of Ivana with her first ever snowman from Lourdes. 😉

We finally made it into Milan. We walked to our hostel with the help of Google Maps, we had saved the directions while we were still in Lourdes. We collapsed on our hostel beds and fell asleep.

The next day, we checked out by eleven and set out to wander the streets with all of our luggage. The first thing we did was go and buy our tickets to Rome for that night’s red eye, something that we had yet to do, and then we went to find breakfast. We stopped at a cute little cafe called The California Bakery, this place was amazing. We both got a chocolate coffee drink and a bagel with prosciutto on it.

We sat here for as long as we could, not wanting to venture back out into the cold. Finally, we left and went to find a grocery store. Without internet, we were amazed that we ski ally stumbled upon a market and picked up some cheese, bread and meat for the day.

By the time 5 o’clock rolled around, we were tired and sore, and in desperate need of wifi so that Kathleen could call her bank. We finally went to a restaurant/bar and sat for a good while. Both of us called our parents. Heartbroken after such a difficult day, we each found ourselves holding back tears as our moms encouraged us to push forward.

After leaving the restaurant, we went to withdraw some cash from a bankomat. It was then that we discovered that Ivana’s credit card was missing! We went back to the train station to search her bags, and just as we were leaving, we stopped into the cafe that Ivana had bought water at earlier in the day to ask if they had seen her card. We knew the chance of them having it would be quite slim and Ivana was completely prepared to call her family right away and inform them of the tragedy. However, miraculously, the man behind the counter came to her aid and brought forth the little blue card! She had forgotten it when she had paid! It was the most beautiful sight she had seen all day! Needless to say we were both a bit frazzled, but this discovery raised our spirits quite a bit.

Because our train didn’t leave until 11 that night, we went to find a bench and eat some dinner. The ricotta was particularly delicious, smooth and creamy; it was lovely to dip our bread into it.

We met some fellow Americans who were also going to Rome on the same train as we were. We talked to them while we waited for our train. When it was finally time to board, we found our compartment and settled down to sleep. Luckily our seats kind of reclined and we were able to get a little more comfortable than we would have, had we been sitting upright. We woke up just as our train was pulling into the station. We followed our map to where our hostel was, and while we waited for our check-in time, we had some Indian beef curry for breakfast. So yummy and perfect after a long stressful night of travel.

We arrived at our hostel feeling slightly worse for wear, but grateful to finally have a place to put our luggage and a bed to stretch out on.

We took a nap and then went to get some gelato. Ivana got limone and Kathleen got Strachiatella. A sweet end to a rocky few days of travel.

Ciao!

❤ i&k

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Saturday was filled with so many blessings and graces! We started it off by visiting the Basilica of the Rosary and the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is right behind and above the Basilica of the Rosary. The two churches and the area where Mary appeared form a small village. The Churches were absolutely beautiful!

The Basilica of the Rosary had little chapels all along the sides and behind the altar of the entire rosary – each mystery is depicted by a beautiful mosaic. What really caught our eye were the many mosaics that had Old Testament stories that pre-figured the New Testament scenes. We had the chance to pray the rosary there by moving along to each chapel – it was absolutely beautiful!!

We also visited the grotto where Our Lady appeared to Saint Bernadette. Unfortunately, the area was under construction so we couldn’t get as close to the site as we would have liked, but we were still able to see it and lift up special prayers. It was a crazy feeling – standing there and thinking about how Mary had chosen this one, simple spot to grace humanity, through Bernadette, with her presence. We also drank water from the grotto springs. It tasted really pure and refreshing!

We went down to the crypt where there is a relic of Bernadette, her incorrupt body is at the convent in Nevers, France. Further into the crypt, there is an adoration chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. It was crazy to ponder on the fact that all of the places we were visiting were all glimpses or images helping us feel closer and be closer to God and yet, here was God Himself, in front of us – no image, no site where he had once appeared, it was actually him – living; body, blood, soul, and divinity! Even crazier was the thought that he is always waiting for us to visit him in every Catholic Church.

After adoration, we went to Confession with a wonderful, kind, Irish priest. The whole experience was very peaceful and left us feeling very joyful. We then went to St. Bernadette’s home where she grew up as a small child.

For dinner, we went to the grocery store. 🙂 Our simple little meals have been quite enjoyable and are our simple little pleasures to help us wind down at the end of the day.

Sunday, we went to an English Mass in one of the chapels further up the hill from the Basilica of the Rosary. It was a small chapel and a very small community of English speakers that gathered together, which made it very intimate. The priest was very welcoming to everyone and gave us a beautiful sermon. At the end of the Mass, we had a chance to chat with him for a bit and discovered that he knew people from both California and Vermont.

Well, that’s it for now!

Au revoir!
<3i&k

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Today was such a great day!

We started it off with Mass at the Carmelite convent where St. Therese lived a huge part of her holy life. Before Mass started, we were asked if one of us wanted to read the 1st reading, which would have been absolutely amazing….except it was in French…never had we felt so sad at the misfortune of not speaking the language! So sad!! Anyway, we celebrated Mass and then had the opportunity to go and pray in front of the spot under which St. Therese’s body was lain. Such a blessing!

After visiting the convent, we stopped for lunch at a delicious creperie, Les Bles d’or Creps. The waiter was a very sweet older man who explained the menu to us and made it very easy for us to pick our meal. Kathleen ordered a crepe with egg, cheese, endive, creme, and ham. Ivana ordered a crepe with goat and gruyere cheese with a salad on top. As the waiter put it, the food was “very nice” – it was so good!

After lunch, we went to the Basilica of St. Therese, where we prayed in front of her relic, as well as in front of the relics of her two parents who are also saints.

We then visited her house and her parish church as a child. It was absolutely wonderful and such a grace-filled experience to walk the steps that this very holy and blessed saint walked and to get a little glimpse into her personal life. We walked into the rooms where she and her sisters played as children. We saw the room where she was healed by the smile of Our Lady, and a replica of the statue which Mary used as the instrument of her healing. We also saw her real hair – it was absolutely beautiful!

In the evening, we were determined to learn French! We downloaded an app called Duolingo and diligently started studying. It’s such a great app, so we’re expecting to come home knowing some French. 😉

Au revior!
❤ i&k

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Lisieux today!

We embarked on our long train ride to Normandy to visit the small town of Lisieux. Here we will spend time visiting the various places that are associated with St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

We left our Paris hostel at a quite reasonable time compared to our departure from Dublin, took the metro to the train station, and then waited semi-patiently for our train to arrive. The people at the train station were very kind to us, especially considering how silly our questions must have seemed to them!

Finally, we were on our way! Zipping out of the city and into the lovely French countryside. After six hours, which seemed much shorter than we were expecting them to be, we arrived in Lisieux. We were greeted by some good news and some bad news. Good news: there was a public bus system; bad news: no one seemed to know how it worked… Being the diligent little travelers that we are, we had walking directions from the train station to our hotel. Little did we know it was thirty minutes up hill…. Tired and a little frustrated after being laughed at and honked at on our way, we finally made it to the hotel. We were greeted by a very friendly woman and discovered that our room had its very own bathroom! After sharing a bathroom with eight other girls in Dublin and then our whole floor in Paris, we were presently surprised.

Our next order of business was to figure out the bus system, which, in the end wasn’t as difficult as we had expected. We hopped on the next bus and got off in the center of town. We got some lunch/dinner at a little shop called La Mie Caline. We also picked up some groceries for a snack later and dinner the next day. We got these two kinds of cheeto type chips that were swiss cheese and goat cheese flavored, a wonderful discovery!

That night we made our plans for the next day and watched some French tv. Needless to say, we are very excited to explore beloved St. Therese’s town and share our experience with you here!

Au revior,
❤ i&k

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Today is Kathleen’s birthday!!

We started off the day by exploring more locally close to our hostel.

We had our hearts set since the night before on the perfect restaurant to experience a Parisian dinner, but being that it was Monday, the restaurant was not open, much to our disappointment. We scoured the internet for another option, refusing to give up on partaking in this unique experience. The restaurant we ended up finding? Le Potegere. It did not disappoint! It was a very small restaurant, sitting only about 25 people at the same time – quite cozy. There was only one waitress serving everyone, and she was very kind and helpful.

The restaurant opened at 8 pm, and we set out cautiously early since it was raining and we wanted to make sure we would have a table. While we were waiting for it to open, we stepped into a small shop with original paintings by various artists. The woman who worked there started talking with us about art and where we were from. We told her we were filmmakers and appreciated art very much.

Finally, it was time for dinner! We were seated promptly and began ordering our three course meal. Kathleen ordered baked egg with foi de gras, as an appetizer, and chef’s sea scallops as the main course.

Baked egg with foi de gras

Chef’s sea scallops

Ivana ordered eggplant with cottage cheese and tomato as the appetizer and baked duck breast with au gratin potatoes as the main course. It was so rich and delicious! For dessert, we both ordered Creme brûlée.

Eggplant with cottage cheese and tomato

Baked duck breast with au gratin potatoes

Creme brûlée

Like true Parisians, we took a nice long time with our dinner, we were actually very proud when we realized that we had been there the longest time out of all the people who came in at the same time we did. We’re starting to get the hang of eating like Europeans! Yay!

The environment of the restaurant was very warm and it was fun to listen to the people around us talking in their various languages. When we left, it was 10 pm – the latest that we have been out this entire trip…. Walking everywhere and being out in the cold all day turns you into an early to bed person!

This dinner was a perfect end to our time in Paris and we can’t wait to see what the rest of our trip brings!

Au revior!
❤ i&k

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Bonjour, from Paris!  All this post card writing is starting to rub off on our blog…. Haha just kidding!

Today was a big day for Paris sight seeing: Notre Dame, L’eglise de la Madeleine and the Eiffle Tower. We had all day and all night to knock them off our list (we’re starting to think that Paris is the real ‘City that never sleeps’). Luckily our hostel is only a short walk from a metro station so even though it would have taken forever to visit all those places in one day, we were able to get there in no time at all.

First stop was The Cathedrale de Notre Dame. Translated to The Cathedral of Our Lady, this church is a clear example of the city’s devotion to the Mother of God.


Being built over many, many years the cathedral is a true work of art directing all who enter to focus their eyes to the main altar.


The cathedral has small chapels up and down both sides of the nave of the church as well as circling behind the sanctuary.  Each chapel is devoted to a particular saint and decorated according to the century that it was put up in.


Saint Clotilde

A particularly spectacular work of art was displayed by two reliefs on either side of the sanctuary that depicted the major points in the life of Jesus.

Next, we hopped over to L’eglise de La Madeleine. This beautiful church was also built over a period of years and before it was consecrated, was even almost used by Napolion as barracks. By the time it was finished it had gone through several architects, each put his own style on the building while keeping with the main style of Greco-roman.

As its name suggests, the church is dedicated to Mary Magdalen. On either side there are 4 small altars, each dedicated to a different saint. These small altars lead up the the high altar where there is a large statue of Mary Magdalen as the focal point.

Lastly, as evening was growing closer we went over to the Eiffle Tower. As beautiful as the pictures of this monument promised, we were amazed.

Au revoir,

❤ i&k

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Today was our first full day in Paris! We started it off with Mass at Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart), on top of Montmartre (Hill of Martyrs). It was absolutely beautiful! The singing was led by one of the sisters there.

After Mass, we had the opportunity to walk around the inside of the Church and let the beauty touch our souls. This church has been a source of peace and consolation for the French people for hundreds of years, for whenever they look up towards the hill, they know someone is praying for them. It was deeply touching to see the majestic beauty that brought our hearts and minds directly to God and pointed to the eternal glory that waits us in Heaven.

Before lunch, we went to look at the Moulin Rouge so we could get a picture for Haley, our friend, because she likes the movie so much.

Next, we visited Holybelly, a trendy little cafe. We both ordered Camembert roti au miel salade de petites feuilles, poire comice et huile de sweet noisette. It was baked Brie with honey and nuts and a delicious salad with apples. It was a fantastic meal! Also, we both ordered a latte, it was the first coffee drink Kathleen had ever ordered so naturally, Ivana was very proud and excited. 😉

Then, we got lost in the not so nice part of town. A man tried talking to Ivana, who politely responded in French that she didn’t understand. When he seemed insistent on talking and almost following us, Kathleen hurried forward saying ‘don’t look at anyone, don’t talk to anyone!’ We quickly made our way through the crowd, pretending as if we knew exactly where we were headed.

Finally, we decided to do the practical thing and stop off at a pastry shop to use the wifi. We entered Monsier Fernand, ordered a sweet tasting bread, a bottle of water, and most importantly, acquired the wifi password to find our way back home.

In the evening, we went to the grocery store to buy dinner.

Au revoir,
❤ i&k

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We woke up at 5:30 a.m., packed up our things, buried ourselves in coats and jackets, and were on our way. Luckily, our bus stop was right across our hostel, so we waited for about 15 minutes and then mounted the bus that would take us to the airport to reach our next destination, Paris!

When we got off the bus at the airport round-a-bout, there was no sign of the airport so we were slightly terrified and had no idea which way to turn next. There we were, in the freezing cold, tightly bundled in our jackets, Kathleen with a huge backpack and purse, and Ivana with a smaller backpack and a rolling suitcase in the early dark morning.

Finally, we made it to the airport, checked-in, passed security, and waited to board our flight for about 2 1/2 hours and the rest is history.

Then, we arrived in Paris!! As soon as we stepped off the plane, on our passageway to customs, adorable French music was playing, almost as if to welcome us to this beautiful country.

We passed through customs, acquired help in finding which bus to take, got off at the right stop, and were LOST! Everything is Paris looked the same to us and we had no idea where to go. We stopped inside a McDonalds, in hopes of accessing wifi, but to no avail. The language barrier made it kind of difficult for us to communicate with people and was a bit of a culture shock, coming right out of Ireland, where everyone spoke our language and were more than happy to lend a helping hand.

Finally, we decided to stop into a restaurant called, Cafe la Piscene. It was a perfect place to re-fuel and use wifi to locate our hostel. We ordered Croque Monsieur – it was so deliciously creamy and cheesy – yum!

When we arrived at our hostel, the lady at the reception desk was so sweet and funny, it made us feel welcome and at ease. We then climbed 6 flights of narrow little stairs to reach our room. Needless to say, we were completely exhausted when we reached the top.

Our hostel, however, is super cute and our window view is gorgeous!

Au revoir!
❤ i&k