TBT: Medugorje

I know that the Church hasn't declared Medj to be a legit apparition site, and I know that many faithful Catholics have differing opinions on the subject, but I for one am a believer. Unless proven otherwise. I had a beautiful experience visiting the apparition sites and meeting one of the visionaries, and I truly felt Our Lady's presence among those mountains. But I'm not here to write a dissertation on whether its legitimate. I'm here for a photo/memory dump! So without further ado, here is:

We stayed at a pilgrimage site called the castle, which is run by a beautiful couple, Nancy and Patrick, who sold all that they had and moved to Medj in order to create a place for pilgrims to stay, and to spread the messages that Our Lady gives here. Nancy reminded me SO much of my late grandmother, so I was very comforted by her presence and often would help her in the kitchen preparing our meals.

It really did look like a castle :) 

My friend Caitlin and I with the castle in the bg.

Ivanka, one of the visionaries, in the green shirt!!

At the top of apparition hill! Where Mary appeared

Top of cross mountain 

The amazing view! 

Just being artsy :)

Me... obviously... great view in the background!

Statue of the Resurrected Christ that leaks human tears from the right knee. They actually tested the properties of the liquid and found it to be same make-up as is found in tears! So cool!

We stopped in Split (Croatia?) on the way back. Beautiful little place.

TBT: When in Rome....

Today I'm going down memory lane to my trip to Rome. I can't even explain how cool it was to be at the VATICAN. The heart of my Church. We got to attend mass at the Vatican and hundreds of priests were processing in, and I really thought my heart was going to explode. 

That being said, we did consume lots of gelato here as well :) 

A couple highlights before I delve into the photo dump: 
1) The Jonas Brother's were in Rome the same time we were! Unfortunately, that was the night I was being tired and stayed in the hotel while other people went out to the Trevi fountain aaaanndd got their pictures with the Jo Bros. At the most romantic location in the world. And I missed it. I guess it just was not my day. And yes, this was the only time I ever regretted being an introvert. Of course, everyone somehow knew of my love for the Jo Bros and I got many questions the following day about if I had seen them and gotten a picture!! And no, no I didn't. But it was still cool none-the-less :p
2) This story is actually really cool and amazing. For those of you who don't know, I have a huge love for Bl. Pope John Paul II. He is the man. We have the same birthday, and I wrote to him in 5th grade and told him that, and one of is secretaries responded. Since then, I always felt like we have this connection. Now that he is in heaven, I know he and I have an even greater connection because he can pray for me :) So, we took the tour of the tombs of the popes (this was when his tomb was still down below with the other tombs, now it has moved up to the main church) and I took some time to pray in front of his tomb. Of course it was packed. There were people everywhere praying. His tomb was roped off though, and they weren't allowing anyone to go near it. And us crazy Catholics, like to touch the tombs/relics of holy people and especially like to touch rosaries, prayer cards, anything of the sort as well. I have a rosary that I had been touching to so many relics up until this time, and I reaaaallly wanted to have it touched to JP2s tomb. After all, he is my main man! So I prayed to him. Basically I said in my heart, Alright JP2, I know you and I have this special little bond going on, and I really would like it if you could make something happen here

I kid you not, what happened next was incredible. This priest appeared, literally out of nowhere, and walked up to the guard and asked if the guard could touch some prayer cards to the tomb for him. He didn't want to say no to a priest so he agreed. I found myself leaping up from where I was kneeling (so unlike me to approach strangers) and ran up and basically threw my rosary into the guards hand. He glanced at me, then glanced around to make sure no one else noticed, and then placed it on his tomb for a few seconds and handed it back to me. My heart was pounding so fast and I felt his presence. It was amazing :)

So without further ado, here are the photos! 

Our first night in Rome! 

On the Spanish steps

Vatican Square in the morning. So beautiful 

My friend Emily and I 

JP2's tomb! We weren't supposed to take pictures... oh well :)

The Colosseum!

The tomb (skeleton) of St. Frances of Rome!

Ancient Roman ruins 

The Angel bridge..  can't remember the technical name... haha

Close up of one of the angels 

SPQR!!! The Latin student in me freaked out 

The Pantheon 

Trevi Fountain!

The chains of St Peter

Papa Benny :) 

Me with purple nuns!

TBT: Venice :)

Sorry I have been on a little TBT hiatus! I was at a conference and then last week was Thanksgiving, so naturally I wasn't here on my blog, but stuffing my face!

Anyways, what kind of Italian would I be if I didn't feature more of my travels in beautiful Italia?

Here are some pictures from Venice. It was just as magical and beautiful as I always thought it would be. I was definitely not disappointed :)

All I took on my trips was my trusty backpack. Here we are waiting for our train!

I believe this is Padua, where we stopped on the way over, but it is too beautiful not to share

Yes, this is real life!!

Too cool for words.

Everyone travels by boat!

So, so beautiful 

With gelato of course!

When in Europe.....

I'm embarrassed by the redness of my face haha. I was walking all day and probably just flustered ;) 

We were only in Venice for the night because we were on our way to Rome, but it was SUCH a great city, and we enjoyed some great food AND I got an awesome pair of purple boots that I'm sure will make their photo debut on here next week! Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday!

TBT: Cinque Terre

This Thursday, we are taking a trip back to Cinque Terre, Italy. This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. The name means "5 Lands" and is significant because it is made up of 5 separate villages. It is seated right on the coast of the Italian Riviera. There is a path along the cliffs that overlook the sea if you wish to walk through each of the villages. We walked through them all, but took a train back to where we were staying. It takes about 5 hours to walk the path. There will probably be quite a few pictures because I foresee having trouble choosing which ones I like best ;)

Classic Italy

The river sparkled in the sunlight!

A portion of the path. You can see another town in the distance.

Some of the lovely ladies I traveled with.

Never before or since have I had pizza that tasted as good as this.

Italia

real Italian wine of course! 

Seafood pasta from the Mediterranean :)

Relaxing and enjoying gelato!

And one my friend took...she had a much better camera ;)

TBT: That one time in Gimmelwald

At the beginning of November 2009, during my study abroad program, we took a little weekend trip to Gimmelwald, Switzerland. This was probably one of my favorite trips! (Who am I kidding, I loved them all!)

We stayed at a little mountain hostel, which was adorable and seated right in the alps, and had to take a little cable car to get to the top. We spent the weekend hiking, getting to know other travelers at our hostel, drinking hot chocolate (may or may not have been spiked...) and just breathing in the fresh mountain air. There wasn't much snow where we were, but that made for perfect hiking!

My friend Caitlin and I on the train ride over

The school always gave us these sandwiches to take with us. We were so sick of them by the end of the semester!

My friend Emily and I prepared for the elements 

The view as we were going up the mountain

Our hostel!

So lovely 

On our hike

Just breathtaking.

Look what was hiding behind the fog!

Glory!