Montecatini - Monsummano

This morning, we were treated to a slightly later 7:00 AM wake-up call and were soon back on the bus to travel from our hotel in Montecatini back to Florence for the day. This time, we were there for a walking tour of the city, which fortunately mostly took place in the shade!

Our first stop was the church where Dante was inspired to write The Divine Comedy. I immediately thought of reading The Inferno with Father Joe and fellow Villanova classmates in our first semester Augustine and Culture Seminar. What a fantastic work of literature! And the seminar was not too shabby either - a great freshman introduction to academic life at Villanova. Thanks Fr. Joe! But I digress .....

Located on a very small side street, more like an alleyway, this was a simple village church, but significant nonetheless. Can you imagine being able to stop at a place like this for morning prayer on your way to work? To our surprise, just at the end of the street, we found an actor performing scenes from The Inferno! Too cool, even in this heat.


After walking through several beautiful public squares, each filled with large and beautiful statues, we ended our guided tour at Santa Croce, the "Westminster Abbey" of Florence. Sprinkled through the magnificent church are the graves of important Italian masters, Michelangelo, Galileo, Rossini, and my personal favorite, Dante, to name just a few.



Yet again, I am overwhelmed by the rich history of European countries such as Italy. How did they accomplish so much with what seems to us as so little? No computers, nothing like the heavy duty machinery we use for building sky scrapers?. Amazing!

The tour concluded with a quick song for our tour guides and then it was off for lunch on our own. A small group of us decided to check out a pizzeria and what a surprise I was in for! As soon as we placed our order, a server, from semmingly out of no where, reached around me and drew a riddle on my placemat. We had no idea what the picture meant, and we thought we had seen the last of him. To our surprise, he continued to stop by our table to talk to me. There were even a couple of back massages!

My "friends" quickly dubbed him “Emily’s Italian boyfriend.” Well, he did give me a quick kiss on the cheek as we left the restaurant. First, a hug in England, now a kiss in Italy. My friends back at home will be so proud! But alas, there are no pictures as far as I know.

After lunch the group traveled back to the hotel to get ready for our first liturgy and concert in Monsummano Terme. I would never have imagined how beautiful and ornate the inside of the church would be from its rustic exterior. It was small and intimate but surprisingly grand at the same time - an interesting paradox that I think describes many of Europe’s churches. The name of the church, Basilica Santuario di Maria S.S. della Fontenouva, was certainly grand as well.

We had time for a quick rehearsal before Mass. And yet, it wasn't until the Sign of the Cross, that it hit us that Mass would be in Italian - duh. :) As we listened, watched and prayed, it occurred to me that this is really what we mean when we speak of the universal nature of the Catholic faith. No mater what language is used to pray the Mass, every Catholic can follow, can experience the beauty and power of the prayer. What we believe is relevant, really fundmental to every thing.

Even though we couldn’t understand a word of the lengthy Italian homily, (There was a mention of the closing of the Jubilee Year of Paul and the upcoming Year of the Priesthood, I think.) I loved watching the attention that those assembled gave the celebrant. Nobody reads the bulletin, eats a snack, chats with a neighbor or nods off in Italy.

After the final hymn, we were rushed by the locals for hand shakes and expressions of thanks. It was hard to leave for dinner.

Our restaurant had such a great local feel, and the wait staff served us with lightening speed at our request - a major offense to standard Italian form, I am sure. The grandfatherly owner was so cute! He gathered the whole family for our "Bless You and Keep You" tribute, which left them and most of our parents in tears. I'm pretty sure that he shook the hand or kissed the cheek of every member of our traveling show as we left!

In a blink, we were back at the church for the first presentation! The place was packed and things couldn’t have gone better.




It's at these moments when you understand the power of music sung with passion for the glory of God - when we're lucky enough catch a glimpse of an old man singing along to Salve Regina, (There were several times tonight where it truely did seem more like a "sing along" than a concert. The people here were just remarkable.) or the woman in the first row sobbing through Amazing Grace. Singing for them was such a privilege. It's thier heartfelt responses to what we do that make the CCVA experience so deep, so rich.

We sang "Bless You and Keep You" outside in the square for a finale and the Pastor made a brief presentation to Mrs. Campbell. What an incredible first moment!

It was late when we finally make it back to our hotel, and Lisa and I collapsed into bed exhausted, hoping to get sufficient sleep before another early wake-up call!