The altar of the Church outside of Palermo.

The Church where we celebrated Mass this morning in Palermo.

The lovely ladies of the trip outside of the Cathedral of Palermo.

The view of the Meditteranean from the windows of our hotel this morning!

Ciao, Palermo!

Tonight is our last night in Palermo and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day. We began with mass at a beautiful hidden treasure Church in the center of the town, followed by a quick tour. We then drove outside of the city and climbed almost a hundred stairs to an amazing Cathedral. We spent over half an hour looking at the details of each wall alone. We were then given a little time for shopping and walking around the town, many pictures were taken as we were on top of Palermo with a gorgeous view of the Meditteranean. Another Church was then explored in an old castle of Palermo. Here we saw how the elite group of people celebrated the Eucharist many years ago. Finally, due to the good weather of the afternoon (in the morning it rained quite a bit), we were rewarded with a small trip to the Sea where many of us were able to put our toes in the water and enjoy some galato! Tonight we are all studying for our first oral exam and practicing skits that we will soon perform at an old theatre. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Sicily as we are all anxiously awaiting our trip to Rome. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Church of Saint Nicholas where we celebrated Mass this morning!

Night view of one of the temples which is decorated with the colors of Italy in celebration of their 150th anniversary of Italy being unified

Ciao,

This morning we departed from our hotel to attend a beautiful and private mass at the Church of Saint Nicholas which overlooked the entire city of Agrigento. Following our mass we went to the Museum of the Valley of the Temples next store to view some very old pottery. Then we went to the Valley of the Temples where we viewed 7 ruins of Greek temples, they were absolutely beautiful and encouraged thought about the importance of Greek influence on Christian culture. All of this was before noon! We then hopped back into our little bus for a two hour drive to Palermo, the capital of Sicily. Here we were given a two hour break to shop and then were taken to the hotel where we now await dinner and night activities. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we are enjoying our adventures!

Sunny Sicily with the group in front of the Greek theatre ruins

Here is the group gathered at the ruins of the Greek and Roman Theatres!

2nd and 3rd Days in Sicily!

Bonjourno,

We are sorry for skipping a day in the blog, but our hotel in Siracusa did not have internet access the second night! We had a wonderful first day, beginning with our trip to the catacomb di s. Giovanni (one of the earliest catacombs) and a visit to a Greek archeological museum, all within walking distance of our hotel. Later that afternoon we traveled over the bridge to a small island where we enjoyed a very interesting lunch (some food had tentacles!) followed by a tour of the cathedral and town. It was a fantastic day followed by mass at the Church of Saint Lucy (Patron Saint of eyes) and another dinner at the hotel and a good night’s rest before our early travels this morning.

Today, Sunday, we began our morning a little earlier with packing up all of our bags and moving out of our first hotel. We traveled to ruins of both a Greek and Roman theatres. The weather was 70’s and sunny. While you were all sleeping, we were enjoying the sun and scenery of Sicily. We then jumped into the bus for a two hour drive to a small town where they discovered beautiful mosaics in 1929 which they are still restoring. Another 2 hour drive lay ahead of us in which Fr. Joensen entertained us with a wonderful lecture about philosophy and the history of Agrigento our current location in Sicily. We are all very tired and ready for an early bed time as our wakeup call is scheduled for 6:30 and a full day of events lies ahead. We are finding that internet is harder and harder to come by, so check often but know we are all thinking of you and anxious to keep you updated on our travels.

The group gathered in the coach bus before leaving for Chicago!