I loved Siena. It was so much more manageable than Florence — quieter, not as crowded, fewer panhandlers and potential pickpockets, more medieval. I could stay in Siena for a few days and just soak up Italian life from my seat at an outdoor cafe in Piazza del Campo.

Although we had only about four solid hours in the city of Siena itself before heading to the outskirts for lunch at a winery and agriturismo, we packed in a lot of great sightseeing. We started with Mass at the Basilica of San Domenico, which is where St. Catherine’s remains are located. Visiting this basilica was probably one of the most unexpected emotional moments of the entire pilgrimage for me. I was so moved by the experience, not just praying before St. Catherine’s remains, but touching the pillar that she once touched when she prayed, being in this space that was so special to her, this great woman saint and Doctor of the Church. If you are in Florence or Assisi or the general Tuscany region, be sure to set aside at least one day for this beautiful city. Here is a quick photo journey through Siena. (As always, you can click on the photos below to enlarge them.)

The Chapel of St. Catherine inside the Basilica di San Domenico.  We had Mass at the basilica’s main altar.

Basilica San Domenico

The street where St. Catherine lived, just beyond the umbrella on the right.

St. Catherine’s street

A gelato (or two) a day keeps the doctor away.

Gelato in the piazza

The main cathedral in Siena. Stunning.

Siena Duomo

Lunch of wild boar at the Badia a Coltibuono winery in the outskirts of Siena.

Wild boar for lunch

The winery was a former abbey. Breathtaking view, beautiful buildings.

Former abbey

The winery’s garden.

Italian garden

My vintage in the wine cellar.

A very good year.

Next up: Assisi. Stay tuned. (If you missed my post on Florence, you can find that HERE.)

The post A Moveable Feast: Enchanted by Siena appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

We will arrive in Rome on Oct. 7, 2014, and head straight for Montecatini Terme, a spa town in the Tuscany region. That will be our base for day trips to Florence and Siena. From there we will move to Assisi for a wonderful two-day visit in this beautiful and special city that was home to Sts. Francis and Clare. Our Assisi stay will also include a lunch and wine tasting at a local agritourismo. We then head to Rome for three nights in a  magnificent hotel that is walking distance from St. Peter’s Basilica but also in the midst of everyday Italian life — near bustling piazzas and restaurants, churches and historical sites. We get to spend three wonderful nights in Rome with a full schedule of all the important things  you won’t want to miss — papal audience, Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel, a walking tour of the main sites — as well as lots of free time for exploring on your own. Finally, we head to the south of Italy, where we will be based in Salerno in a  hotel overlooking the water. The southern portion of our pilgrimage will include visits to Pompeii, Naples, the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Massa Lubrense (the town where my grandfather was born), and the Isle of Capri. These last few days will also include some spectacular extras, such as a cooking class and olive oil tasting in Giffoni, a Mass and dinner at a monastery, and a boat ride to the mystical Blue Grotto off Capri.  We will depart from Naples airport on Oct. 19, 2014, full of wonderful food, spiritual sustenance, and a lifetime of memories. As you can tell, I’m a tiny bit excited about this pilgrimage. If you are reading about this trip for the first time today, please click HERE to see the full itinerary and the all-inclusive details.

If you’ve been thinking about this pilgrimage, now is the time to send in your registration. Spots are going fast (I am so happy to say), so don’t delay. If you have questions, feel free to email me through the “Contact” tab on this website, or call Melani at Travel Overtures directly through the information on the online registration form.

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But let me first address something that has come up when I mention this tour to friends and family. Inevitably the first thing they ask is, “How much does it cost?” And when I say $4,999, their eyes glaze over and they say, “Never mind.” So I wanted to talk honestly about this because if you price this tour against other tours, what you find out very quickly is that there is simply no way you are going to get to Italy for 13 days, stay at spa level hotels, have almost all of your meals included, incur no hidden costs, AND take a cooking class, do an olive oil tasting at an agriturismo, a wine tasting at a vineyard, and cap it all off with a boat trip the Blue Grotto on the Isle of Capri for less than this. When Melani over at Travel Overtures says “inclusive,” she’s not kidding around!

Price out airfare and top-of-the-line hotels alone and you’re likely to find that you’re getting close to our cost before you even eat one bowl of pasta, sip one glass of wine, or enter one fabulous museum. And you won’t have an English-speaking tour guide guide taking you step by step through the whole glorious adventure. And if you see other Italy tours that seem to cost less, look at the details. How many nights are you staying? How many meals are included? Is all your in-country transportation and tax covered? What about entry fees to various sights and special events? Yeah, you just won’t find anything like this.

When this pilgrimage possibility came up, Melani told me to “dream big” and spell out what I would consider the perfect pilgrimage to Italy. I came up with the outline of this trip and then Melani took it over the top and made it more than I ever could have hoped for. So know that when you join me on this tour, it’s not simply a “job” for me or even a vacation; it is the culmination of a dream, and I want it to be as close to perfect as possible for all of us.

If you have any questions, email me directly. If you haven’t already liked our Facebook page, click HERE and then click “like” and you’ll receive regular updates, beautiful photos, and other goodies as the trip gets closer. If you want a hardcopy of the brochure, email me your regular mailing address and we’ll get a copy out to you right away.

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For most of my adult life, I dreamed of going to Italy. I wanted to pray in St. Peter’s Basilica. I wanted to know the country of my grandfather’s birth. I wanted to eat the delicious food that had inspired so many family meals when I was growing up. Three years ago, when I stepped onto the streets of Rome for the first time, I cried from the sheer joy of being there, and I knew right then that I’d have to return some day soon. Italy had captured my heart!

I’d like to invite you to join me on the trip I’ve been longing to take ever since — the journey of a lifetime, a true feast for body and soul. Our October 2014 pilgrimage will begin in the beautiful spa town of Montecatini, and we will work our way down to the stunning coastal city of Sorrento. In between we’ll visit Florence and Siena, Assisi and Rome, Naples and Salerno, the Amalfi Coast and Capri.

There is nothing typical about this spiritual pilgrimage to Italy, which will focus not only one those sacred places that deepen our faith in obvious ways, but on the everyday moments that give us a chance to experience God in unexpected ways – in an olive grove tasting oil, on a narrow road winding through Assisi, in a cooking class in Giffoni, on a boat ride to the mystical Blue Grotto.

Come along on what promises to be a magnificent melding of relaxation and excitement, spirituality and spa elegance, simple local flavor and culinary inspiration. I’m already counting the days. I hope you are too!

In addition to the wonderful itinerary you’ll find outlined HERE, I’ll be offering three brief talks: one on spiritual friendship while in Assisi, the home of Francis and Clare; another on the connection between food and spirituality while in Rome, where a great meal or fabulous church is always just around the corner; and the third on the joy of discovering the Divine in the everyday while in Sorrento, amid the breathtaking beauty of God’s creation.

Here’s what the $4,999 price of your trip will include:

• Roundtrip air from New York-Rome/Naples-New York
• First Class and Superior First Class hotels
• Welcome drink, Welcome Dinner and Farewell Dinner
• 10 Buffet Breakfasts, 11 dinners, and 3 lunches as noted, below
• Beverages/Wine with Meals (limited)
• Winery tour, Wine Tasting, and Lunch in Tuscany;
• Agriturismo (Farm) tour, Wine Tasting and Lunch in Umbria
• Cooking Lesson, “Oil” Tasting and Lunch in Campania
• Papal Audience (if Pope Francis is in residence at that time);
• Mass arrangements with local priests
• All Admission and Sightseeing costs including, among others:
  • Acadamie Musee
  • Duomo in Florence
  • Basilica and Tomb of St. Francis
  • Basilica and Tomb of St. Clare
  • Cathedral of Siena
  • Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels
  • Portiuncula, Francis’ Church of the Little Portion
  • Vatican Museums
  • Sistine Chapel
  • Pompeii Ruins
  • Convento di San Francesco
  • Ferry from Naples to Isle of Capri
  • Blue Grotto boat ride (weather permitting)
• Taxi shuttles to Grotto of St. Francis and Hermitage of the Carceri;
• Private Guide fees in Florence, Siena, Assisi, Rome, Capri/Anacapri;
• Private tour bus and bus parking fees
• City Hotel Taxes
• English speaking Italian Tour Manager
• American Tour Escort
• Tips for drivers, guides, porters, kitchen staff
• Luggage Tags and Travel Documents Pouch

In other words, everything except travel insurance, items of a personal nature (souvenirs, postcards, stamps, laundry, etc), some lunches, local church offerings, and connecting air from your hometown to New York. That’s pretty dang inclusive. You won’t really have to think about anything except enjoying yourself, connecting with God, and eating one fabulous meal after another.

I’ll be posting more information with more specifics about various stops on our pilgrimage, along with suggested spiritual reading, travel tips, recipes and more here and on my Italy pilgrimage Facebook page. Click HERE  and “like” that page and you’ll always be up to date, even if you’re not planning to get a passport just yet.

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On my second full day in Rome, I struck out on my own to try to squeeze in as much sightseeing as possible before the “Church Up Close” program began the next day. So after a delicious breakfast of cappuccino and cornetti, I went to Mass at the Gesu, the Jesuit church near my hotel, and visited the rooms of St. Ignatius. Then I made my way to the Vittorio Emmanuele Monument, the Imperial Way, the Colosseum, and, eventually, the Roman Forum. And although I could clearly see the Roman Forum from where I stood outside the Colosseum, getting inside the gates wasn’t so simple. I began walking up a hill, only to find an entry point closed with an arrow pointing me toward another hill, where I assumed I’d find the correct entry gate.

So, on this 90 degree afternoon when I was hot and hungry from wandering all over and skipping lunch, I began the long slow climb up Palatine Hill. And I climbed. And I climbed. And I wondered, Am I going in the right direction? But it was beautiful and there were some others making the same climb, so I trudged on, passing the beautiful cloistered monastery of San Sebastiano on the way up. Finally, I got to the top. A dead end. Wrong turn.

But there in front of me was the simple but stunning Chiesa di San Bonaventura al Palatino, as seen in the photo above. And it was open, despite the fact that it was siesta time. So I went in and found a little oasis in the desert. In that lonely, darkened church, a lone voice sang Gregorian chant, and as I knelt there, grateful for the mistake that led me to this place, I was reminded again that pilgrimage is not about checking off a list of destinations visited but a journey meant to take us to places we have never imagined.

There were so many moments like that on my Rome trip, moments I hope to share with you in the days ahead. And it makes me wonder, how many of those moments do I miss in my everyday pilgrimage through life here at home?

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But more than the art and the food and the buildings, Rome will be seared into my memory because of the smaller moments of grace that seemed to come one after another as I made my way around the Eternal City. God really is in the details, especially when those details take the form of human encounters that make a place or a meal or a church come alive with a real spirit of Christian brotherhood and sisterhood.

During my recent 10-day visit to Rome, it was the chance encounters that made the overly scheduled trip the success that it was. Like the night two colleagues and I — after a busy day at the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum — set out in search of a specific restaurant. We walked for more than a half hour only to find it closed. Then we went in the opposite direction to find yet another restaurant we’d heard about. We couldn’t find that one at all, and so we “settled” for La Pilotta, a small restaurant with a view of the dome of St. Peter’s. There at a long table in the center of the restaurant was a group of men, who were talking and laughing and eating. A good sign. Locals, we thought. We sat down and ordered pasta cooked to perfection and a house wine better than anything I’ve had at home. As we ate, the men at the next table began to sing at the top of their lungs, first in Italian and then in Polish.

They were seminarians from Belarus, there with their bishop and pastor. They were so filled with joy, and they sang extra loud once they heard our applause. We were sad to see them go as we shook hands and tried to communicate in parsed together Italian and English.

The next morning, I stood in Piazza San Pietro with thousands of other pilgrims waiting to get into the papal audience. I was lucky enough to get a special ticket, and ended up in the front row, next to a Jesuit priest and his sister. Since I was hours early, I got out my Magnificat and began to read the Scriptures for that day. A few minutes later the priest asked if I’d like to join him in Morning Prayer. And so we prayed amid the joyful noise all around us, and it was another grace-filled moment.

A little bit later, as Pope Benedict welcomed different groups in attendance, the camera panned to a group of young men. When the pope said their name, they stood up and started singing a familiar song. I looked at the jumbo video screen and saw the seminarians from the night before, our seminarians. Alone in a throng of thousands, in a city where I couldn’t speak the language, I felt at home and in close connection to those seminarians, making me realize that what I had thought was aimless wandering the previous night was really the road I needed to take to meet those particular people in that particular restaurant.

Yes, I saw the pope and reveled in the joy of the thousands of pilgrims who cheered and sang and prayed, but what will stand out most from that morning will be that time of shared prayer, that moment when strangers become friends, and that instant when a song resonating across the Pope Paul VI Hall made me feel as though I was part of a very large family. Which, of course, I am. A family of Catholics who cannot be separated by language or continents.

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A little store with dried sausage hanging from the door. This one is especially for Dennis, amore mio, who would love this little market. I’ll bring you here when we visit.

This imposing and mournful statue dominates the square. It’s a monument to the philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned alive as a heretic in 1600. Not one of the Church’s shining moments.

Lots of chili peppers:

Preparing the vegetables for market:

Wish I could take that garlic ring home with me:

Another shot for Dennis, meat and cheese right in the piazza. What more could you want?

Roman zucchinis. I did not get my stuffed or fried zucchini blossoms because they were out of season, as were the carciofi (artichokes). So now I have to come back at least two more times in order to hit both of those seasons.

A square within the square, bustling with coffee drinkers this morning.

Arrivederci, Roma. Now I understand the song.

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So here’s a quick run down of how things went. We started with Mass at the university in Rome. Then we took a bus to Subiaco where we went to the monastery that is built on top of the cave of St. Benedict. This is the actual cave where St. Benedict, father of western monasticism, spent three years living as a hermit. Amazing. That’s the monastery below. It’s filled with beautiful frescoes, including the only fresco of St. Francis of Assisi painted while he was alive. (They know that because he did not have the stigmata or a halo in the painting, so they date it to 1223, which is when the monastery’s records show St. Francis making a visit there.) That was a really great moment during the trip. To know I was walking where both St. Benedict and St. Francis once walked? Wow.


After St. Benedict’s Monastery, we went down the hill a bit to the Monastery of St. Scholastica, which is one of the original monasteries that St. Benedict founded and the only one that is still a working monastery. But before we went on a tour, we had lunch at the monastery restaurant. Amazing.

A Meal in Five Acts…

Act 1: Antipasto (quite a plate, no?)

Act 2: Primo (pasta alla’Amatriciana)

Act 3: Segundo (some sort of pork loin with rosemary potatoes)

Act 4: Dessert (cheesecake with raspberry sauce, I think)

Act 5: Espresso

After that giant meal we went to the monastery. Over the door is the heart of Benedictine thought: Pray and work, Ora et Labora.

OSV’s Sarah Hayes with me at the monastery:

And a few more monastery shots from the various courtyards and cloisters:

Finally, back in Rome, we cannot even imagine eating another meal.

Gelato: It’s what’s for dinner.

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The Church Up Close program provides us with lunch, in this case at an amazing little restaurant just around the corner from Santa Croce University. Here’s the antipasto from the first day. Need I say more?

During a break between classes, I ventured up to Piazza del Popolo to have my picture taken between the “twin churches.” I have an original etching of these churches hanging in my dining room back home, so it was especially cool to stand in this spot.

The next morning at 6:45 a.m. a colleague and I walked over to St. Peter’s for morning Mass. This is the time to go to St. Peter’s. You’ll have the place to yourself. I was able to stand in front of the Pieta with no one else around:

I was also able to touch the foot of St. Peter without standing in line (so many pilgrims have done this they’ve worn his toes right off):

At this time of day, Mass is being celebrated in every chapel in the basilica. We joined one where the Nigerian priest was offering Mass in Italian all alone. Spectacular experience. I followed that up with confession. Two sacraments in St. Peter’s. Not a bad way to start the day.

On the way out of the piazza, we spotted a horse having a little breakfast. We stopped for cappuccino and cornetti at a nearby shop and, yes, I drank my coffee standing at the bar like a true Italian (as was on my wish list).

After a full day of classes, nine of us headed across the Tiber to Trastevere, a funky little Roman neighborhood with my favorite church of all time (outside of St. Peter’s): Santa Maria in Trastevere. Here’s St. Peter’s at sunset from the Ponte Sisto bridge:

Here’s Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the oldest churches in Christendom. Just beautiful. We attended sung vespers with the Community of Sant’ Egidio. I sat there and cried like a baby before they even started singing. Most powerful moment of the trip. (More to come on that later.)

We had another busy day of classes today and then I tried to squeeze in lots of things I really wanted to do. I made it to the Capuchin Crypt, which is decorated with the bones of 4,000 monks. Unfortunately, they are very strict about the no photo policy. You’ll have to trust me on this one. It’s beautiful in a scary and bizarre sort of way. In front of the skeletons it says this: “What you are, we once were. What we are, you will be.” A little light food for thought.

I stopped at the Spanish Steps on the way back. A popular place on a Saturday evening in Rome:

I liked Caravaggio’s paintings before this trip. Now I love them. The are are three at San Luigi di Francesi, not far from my hotel. Just for the record, in the past 24 hours, I have seen numerous Caravaggios, Michelangelo’s Moses, Bernini’s St. Teresa in Ecstasy and more. All in free and fabulous churches. I love this city.

Gotta love a street called “Propaganda Way.”

I planned to make it an early night and picked up gelato for dinner. But, one of my “classmates” called and asked if I would be joining some others for dinner at a restaurant run by French-speaking African nuns who wear traditional dress. So, off I went. Nice dinner, followed by an even nicer little ritual: The entire restaurant sang the Ave Maria in Italian with the Sisters.

Rome: Che bella citta. Here I am with tonight’s group of journalists. More to come…

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That’s me trying to have my picture taken with the Swiss Guard at the Bronze door of St. Peter’s He was not amused. (My tour guide took the photo when I went to pick up my special ticket for the audience.)

This is Castel Sant’Angelo, which was originally Hadrian’s mausoleum and later became a fortress where the pope could escape to via secret tunnel when the Holy See was under siege. Now it’s a museum. The Ponte Sant’Angelo is amazing with its fabulous angels, each holding one of the instruments used to torture and kill Jesus Christ. Like the one below with St. Peter’s in the background.

Art students and others sit on Ponte Sant’Angelo and sketch the angels. The light at it hits the angels makes the whole scene especially breathtaking.

No photos of the Sistine Chapel or much of St. Peter’s because I either wasn’t allowed to take photos or could not because my camera is not good enough. Let’s see if I can give you at least one shot from inside, the Pieta. St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel are, as you would expect, unbelievably beautiful and inspiring and overwhelming. I’ll do a separate post at a later date on those.

Part of our day also included meetings with Vatican officials. Here’s a photo from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In a courtyard there a family brought some turtles and dumped them into the fountain. It was a really sweet moment. That certainly doesn’t look like the Inquisition.

After a long day, I went to dinner with two friends from the program. That’s Sarah Hayes, OSV’s presentation editor on the left, and Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, author and EWTN TV host on the right. Great meal in a place we found by accident when two other places were closed and MIA. Another great story from that night, which I’ll post about later.

Bonus for eating near the Vatican? We got to go back through Piazza San Pietro at night. Here it is.

Yesterday included the papal audience, for which I had front row seats. It was pretty amazing, to say the least. Here’s the best photo I could get with the lame-o camera:

Later, after a tour of the Scavi — no photos allowed there but a post to follow later — I rambled back over the Tiber and found the Trevi Fountain, which seems to appear out of nowhere when you turn a little street corner. I threw in two coins so I can try to get back here some day.

After an evening class on canonical stuff far too heavy to discuss on this blog, I went with some friends to Tre Scalina, a restaurant on the Piazza Navona, where I had this delicious but somewhat scary looking meal. Don’t worry, Olivia, I didn’t eat that thing sitting on top that looks like it could be a house pet. I followed that with a tartufo, a black truffle ice cream sort of concoction that I was told to order by the priest I met on the shuttle bus to JFK. Squisito! Now I’m off to class. Ciao.

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