Convento Dei Cappuccini and Giovanni

Mar 4th

We got up really early and took a hike down the Rupe (cliff) and then up the other side of the valley and climbed up to the Convento dei Cappuccini. I think they were from the Franciscan order originally, but then their little branch or whatever was the Cappuccin sect. A funny side note, they wore brown cloaks with white hoods and so that is where we get the word for Cappuccino. :) Today was the first day I actually started taking pictures. I have just wanted to soak everything up in person without having a lens in front of my face all the time, but I decided that it was time to bust out the camera. I took pictures through town on the way out of town, during the hike, and up at the convent, and on the way back. I think I took about 500 and have 200 good ones that I saved. I’m afraid of what I will do with all of these pictures because I know people won’t want to look through literally thousands of pictures by the end of the semester so I don’t know what I will end up doing, but hopefully I can start getting some on my blog and eventually get some on facebook. So, anyway…the convent was beautiful. The olive groves on the way up were gorgeous. The view from the other side of the valley looking back up at the cliff side town of Orvieto was beautiful. You could see the Duomo(cathedral) and the big clock tower in the center of the city.

Oh, I almost forgot. Right as we were entering the valley on the way down from Orvieto we were going along this little path that went alongside this quaint little countryside house and I waved to this old lady in her garden and said Ciao as we were going by. She got all excited and stopped gardening and came over to talk to me. A couple girls and Prof Doll stayed around to talk with her. It was a small little conversation that I had with her at first in the little Italian that I knew and was able to understand. I explained that I knew only poco(small) amounts of Italian. Then Prof. Doll was able to talk to her quite a bit and somewhat translated bits and pieces for us. She liked my curly hair and kept commenting about it and touching it and just going on about it. Her name was really obscure and so she was trying to explain to us that some Italian soap opera actress had the same name as her. She was also complaining about how the wall that ran alongside her house that goes all the way down the mountain had loose rocks that would fall and were dangerous. She wondered if we knew of anyone who would have sway in town to get it fixed. She wondered if I was engaged and seemed surprised that I wasn’t. ha. It was just a fun little 10-minute interaction or so with this crazy old Italian lady. As we were getting ready to leave she went over to the wall and pulled some Mimosa flowers for us and gave each of us a sprig. Supposedly in a few days there is a holiday called Women’s Day and it is tradition to give the women you love, not just romantic, but like moms and others Mimosa (beautiful yellow flower). Prof. Doll said that it probably her week or month to talk to us.

So yeah, once we got up to the convent we had the sack lunches that Locanda del Lupo had made for us and got to explore around the convent and take pictures. It was so peaceful up there and beautiful. I can’t wait until spring when everything will be full of color…it will be a wonderful retreat that I am sure I will frequent.

After we got back into town I grabbed my backpack and went off on my own to find the Blue Bar to transfer pictures with their wifi and to listen to Italian conversations. It was nice and relaxing and was a cool little café.

I had been in there for about 3 hours when I decided to leave and on the way out I remembered that there was a vigil in the town that I wanted to go to, but I didn’t remember when it started. I was kind of mad at myself though for not remembering and was worried that I had missed it. About a block down the road though I heard faintly some speaking over a loudspeaker and decided to head in that direction and check it out not even thinking that it might be related to the vigil. I walk out into this piazza (open plaza area) and there are hundreds of people all standing around with these candles with a colored wax/tissue paper shaped like a flower to go around the burning candle like a luminary type thing. It was really cool. There were several polizzioto(police) in the piazza and the person talking was using the loudspeakers from the ambulance down in the middle of the crowd. I looked around for some people from my group, but didn’t see anyone so I just decided to weave my way in through the crowd and try to see what was going on. I thought I recognized the voice and caught a glance of someone I knew, but I wasn’t sure so I kept getting closer and closer until I saw that it was Alessandro (Italian teacher…also worship leader at San Bernadino the chapel service I had been to a couple nights before) speaking to the whole crowd! Then they started singing worship songs and I saw Luca (guy whose house I ate dinner at the night before) playing the drum and his wife Elise was standing nearby. It was so cool…like I know those people! It was a big deal too, there were several news cameras around and like several hundred people and right smack dab in the middle of it all were people that I knew.

I guess I should explain this whole vigil thing…the current bishop of Orvieto is going to be asked to resign this Sunday I think. There was some fiasco about his old assistant who committed suicide recently by jumping off a bridge around here when he found out that he couldn’t be another bishop or other church leader. I don’t know all the details, but some people in town blamed the current Bishop (Padre Giovanni) for this other guys’ suicide, when it was not his fault at all. Anyway, so these people that thought it was Padre Giovanni’s fault evidently had a lot of sway in the Vatican and were responsible for the inevitable letter, which will be received soon dismissing Padre Giovanni from service here. It is all very political and I don’t quite understand all of it, but that is what I have gathered so far. The significance of it though is that Padre Giovanni has been the bishop here for numerous years and is very well loved by the majority of the town. Supposedly he has been very involved in the comune (community) and has done all sorts of good for the people here. Prof. Doll said he has done a great job of shepherding his flock here in Orvieto. It was very sad though for most of the townspeople because they really liked and admired Padre Giovanni and were sad to see him go in such a dishonorable way. This vigil/sing/speak/walk through the town with candles was to sort of honor Padre Giovanni and just show him that he had the comune support behind him.

So, yeah back to the piazza…As the singing was about to end I noticed a few people from my group coming into the piazza and met up with them as we grabbed candles ourselves and joined into the throng of people starting to move down the corso (main street that runs through the town next to the clock tower). It was really cool to be involved in because we actually felt like we were Orvietani and were a part of the community that had gathered together to show our support for Padre Giovanni. We sang as we all walked down the corso and stopped to sing and hear Alessandro and others speak at various piazzas on the way to the Duomo. During our walk I saw the priest for San Bernadino out and about in the crowd dressed in street clothes. You wouldn’t have been able to tell him apart from everyone else. He was hugging people, laughing, and even made eye contact with me and smiled with a head nod. I don’t have much experience with Catholicism as I explained earlier so it was cool to see the humanness of a priest and just see him interacting in the community. So we all ended up in front of the Duomo and eventually moved to the side as more and more people joined the throng. They had a giant banner stretched across the steps of the Duomo that said Padre Giovanni Tiamamo e siamo conte, which I think means something along the lines of our love goes with you Padre Giovanni. The whole thing was exciting to be a part of, but was a very somber and solemn event and people’s emotions were running high with women crying and a lot of passionate hugging.

Btw, cena (dinner) was delicious tonight! The pasta had a little eggplant and zucchini mixed in with a ton of melted golden brown cheese that was sooooo delicious. It might have been my favorite pasta so far. Then for desert we had this delicious coffee flavored cake with chocolate chips. Yum. : )