My 2nd trip to Italy

In 2000, I went to Germay for 2 weeks to visit Jan, my foreign exchange student friend.  Two weeks after I got back, I flew to Rome with my church youth group for World Youth Day.

Some things stand out about this trip:

  I was just shy of 18.  There was a cute hispanic guy on the trip, probably about 25.  I don't remember his first name, but his last name was Zavalas.  I've always loved that name.

It was August.  It is so hot in Rome in August, all the locals leave.  Rome was full of about 2 million "pilgrims" and then the remaining gypsies.

We were joined with the youth group from Asheville's Basilica.  That meant, there were too damn many of us.  And they refused to split.  Hence it took days for us to get anywhere.

It was so hot in the metro, I actually took my shirt off at one point and put something else on.

We spent the first few nights on the floor of a middle school in a small town outside of Roma.  The place nearly looked abandoned, perhaps it was.  But one thing I've learned, Italy is like a 3rd world country in a lot of places.  There was graffiti on the walls inside.  I remember Red Hot Chili Pepper lyrics about Kurt Cobain.

The school was across the street from a mexican restaurant and a bar.  There was a lattice fence between the two's patios.  There were about 4 of us under 21 that headed over there one night.  I found love in a drink called Punch.  Our chaperones were at the mexican restaurant next door.  Really not sure how we pulled that one off.  Especially considering I dropped a shot glass as I was walking past the doorway between the patios.

One night of our trip was spent in a field at Tor Vergata.  We walked quite a distance, probably a few miles (because it was a pilgrimage...).  At some point we get to a food station where they hand us some Sodexho boxes.  We proceed to carry our boxes until we finally get to the field, and then spend a while scouting out a campsite.  When we finally opened the boxes, we were pretty pissed we'd bothered carrying them.  I remember the pudding was good.  I didn't try the potted meat.  There was a lot of rationing for that day and a half.

Father John and Brother Bill brought air mattresses.  We leaned them together for shade and told Father it was his confessional.

People were raiding the nearby farms.  Finding plastic or wood to try to make shelters with.  It was excruciating heat.  At night the pope drove around in the popemobile and we called JP Junior, Nascar Driver.  Then he performed the longest mass I've ever attended.  Then there were fireworks.  I don't know what happened the next day.  Probably another mass.  Then we trekked back out.  Local vineyard owners sprayed us with hoses as we walked out.  It was a nice gesture.