JoAnne's Family Traditions

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Location: Western, New York, United States

I spend most of my free time gardening, reading garden magazines, photographing the garden or baking (mostly sweets, which list chocolate as the main ingredient). I play the guitar and sing in a contemporary choir of which I have been a member for 26 years.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Margaret

Menacing Margaret Mary meandering merrily amidst St. Clare's many memorable meditative meals at her monastery.









Here is Margaret connecting with St. Clare by sitting in the seat where St. Clare ate, totally ignoring the "Do Not Enter" sign and the Sr. posted to keep an eye on those with such behaviors.... Just kidding! :)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Missie and Me


Here is Missie on our way up the mountain to see Rocca Maggiore, which is the castle in my first posting of Assisi. It was cold and breezy that day and we bundled up for this hike. We walked by this window so many times, drooling over the many exquisite Italian pastries on display. We would stand there pointing and talking about all the ones we wanted to try. Here is the dilemma, we ate so well at each meal that we were never hungry enough to make a purchase. How very pathetic that we didn't think enough to buy now eat later. No matter, we still enjoyed the anticipation of tasting these pastries.


Here are a few pictures of me and Missie on Mt. Sabasio where there were Caves and the Hermitage. This is the mountain St Francis came to when he wanted to be alone. It is also said to be the place where he preached to birds.

There were several benches in this area so we all sat while Craig read the story of St. Francis from a children's book. One of the children in our group whined about seeing the pictures so yes, we even got to see all the pictures...thank you Vickie!!! :) That is Vickie in the red jacket.


Here's Missie posing during picture taking of her own. And here we are in the chapel.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Pic's Around Assisi

The restaurant at the top of this hill had this
street lit up every night.
This fountain was at the main shopping square.








One of the widest roads in Assisi :). This archway to the right led to a main road. It also led to San Damiano. The picture to the left is the other side of the archway. Here are the words on the archway, what they say....your guess is as good as mine. :)


There are shops lining just about every street. Though I have to say, it appears as though I didn't get any pictures of them. And finally a picture of the group we went around Assisi with.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Assisi and Espresso


Have I mentioned that the exchange rate was a killer? One euro equaled about $1.60. That means if something was 3 euros it cost approximately $4.80. The Internet Cafe turned out to be the place to hang out after dinner. I asked the waiter if they had anything decaffeinated, since I hadn't been sleeping well he says "oh, caffe?" Si, I say back. So I think I am getting caffe or in plain English, coffee since at our hotel restaurant caffe is coffee. Here is what I got. Okay, now this is in a demitasse cup, you know, those smaller than small cups Italians use because their coffee is too strong to drink a normal sized cup? To give you a more visual picture think of say...orange or lemon extract that comes in a 1 ounce bottle. This is about half of that. I think I'm getting a whole cup of coffee and I get half an ounce of this stuff. He puts it down in front of me and I am in disbelief, so much so that I look at Melissa and Mike who are sitting with me, my hands gesturing to my cup of whatever and say "what the :-))) Where the h--- is the coffee?" It was just to funny to get upset about. It looked a little thick so I swirled the cup slightly and half of my drink spilled into the saucer :) good grief! Mike comments that I just lost half my drink. We all laughed! Of course this fraction of an ounce of espresso cost me 2.5 euros so some where around $4.00 for less than a mouthful. Melissa and Mike were smart. They got tea.

Margaret and I attended daily mass here at Santa Chiara (St. Clare's). Santa Chiara was about a 5-7 minute walk from our hotel...going down hill. Going up was a different story. Here is a scenic pic of Assisi. You can see Santa Chiara in the distance here. The body of St. Clare is displayed in this church. Her body did not decompose so we could see her but no pictures were allowed. As with many of the churches, no pictures were allowed inside. I did sneak a few without a flash. Here is what I got.


This is Santa Maria di Angeli and one picture I took inside of a fresco on the ceiling.

Next is the Basilica of St. Francis. Believe it or not, I never got a picture of the basilica from the outside except for these double doors, guess i was preoccupied. There is a crypt in the lower level which holds the remains of St. Francis. His body was not preserved. Remember you can click on pictures to enlarge.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Hotel La Rocca and Our Room


You've seen the outside of our hotel. Here is our room and the view. It was a pretty small room but we weren't in it much anyway. Oh their towels...thin, like a dish towel but large ones for showers and smaller ones for hair and hands. Didn't think to take a picture of them. We had a walk out to a balcony with a great view.

The key to enter the room was a piece of plastic like some that we have here only it also turned the lights on. Once you enter the room, you have to insert it into a slot and it turns the lights on. I can't tell you how many times I came into the room, plopped all my stuff down, walked to the bathroom, flipped the light switch on only to walk back to the door to insert the key in order to turn on the lights. The hotel in Florence was not this way, it was normal, with a normal key.



It was recommended that we pack a few snacks, so we did. Here they are. We even had some left over. Okay so we may have over done it a little :). These snacks came in pretty handy at the airport during layovers.

Tomorrow the Internet cafe and an unbelievable cup of espresso.

Monday, October 06, 2008

From the Beginning

Okay here we go, leaving Rochester, New York.



Killing time at JFK and waiting for
our long overnight flight to Rome.







We all pile into a bus from the airport and head to Assisi. One of the first sites we see is....well, see for yourself... Yup! McDonalds.
Now that is just wrong!



It is a long ride to Assisi, about 2 hours but we finally arrive at our destination, Hotel La Rocca.
That is it for tonight. I did not sleep very well while I was away, was falling asleep at work today and so am headed to bed for some long awaited sleep.
More pic's tomorrow. Good Night Everyone!

There's No Place Like Home!

If I remember correctly, this is a chapel in San Damiano.

Leaving Pisa was uneventful. We pretty much left as scheduled. We watched three movies on our return flight, were served lunch and several drinks/snacks. They have to keep us adults and children entertained. After the third movie I checked the time. Good Grief, we still have 4 hours of flight time left. It was a long flight and then we had a 5 hour wait at JFK which ended up being delayed due to routine maintenance. We actually landed in Rochester about 12:10 a.m. I got home about 1:00, checked on my house plants and fell into bed thinking “God it is so good to be home.”

In the morning I transferred all my pictures so I could view them then while I ate breakfast, then got ready for church. Upon entering I hear the choir just finishing their gathering song. What a wonderful sound. They begin the Processional song and I observe they (the choir) are doing just fine without me. How insulting! Of course I am only kidding. It is wonderful to see and hear that group and sound that is so familiar. BEST OF ALL . . . Mass is in English! Praise God!!! I am taking it all in and see a new sign on the altar promoting the special program/mission that began during my absence. The sign reads:
New Beginnings
We Are Family
I flash back to the past 10 days of my life and find it satisfyingly humorous that our pilgrimage meditation sessions were about that very topic. It was presented basically as . . . We have been created by God and are a part of God. We all have God’s genes and therefore are all connected to God and to each other. There was much more to it but since I am not a presenter, and never will be, the bottom line will have to do, ‘We Are Family’. At that moment I felt connected to everyone there and my eyes filled with tears at the thought of my experience, being home, being in my church, with my people, my choir, my friends, my family. This journey was everything I had hoped for.

I have been asked, what did I enjoy the most? How can I answer this question? There are no words to express the experience. Ask me what I liked the least and I can tell you…the exchange rate!!! How can you not love the countryside? It was all breathtaking, the scenes from the mountain top, the stone buildings, stairs, sidewalks/streets , the thought of all the labor intensive work involved in it's creation, the hanging gardens, the pastries, the food, the cleanliness, the friendliness of the waiters and waitresses, the meditation sessions were interesting, informative, prayerful and ended spreading a feeling of oneness, traveling with Melissa and seeing that she was also enjoying it, meeting wonderful traveling companions to share feelings, ideas, food, etc. So in answer to the question, what did I enjoy most? ALL OF IT!!!

Please stay tuned for more pictures of Assisi and Florence.