The Pope, Cinque Terra, and Much, Much, More

Hey guys, sorry about the delay. I've been so busy the last few days; I just got back from Cinque Terra, which are 5 cites along the coast of the Mediterranean. We walked the entire stretch of the towns from start to finish, which took 2 days total and was exhausting. The view from the mountains between the cities were absolutely incredible. The towns are called Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore, in that order. Mom, I bought you some tiles for the kitchen too that are pretty awesome, from Corniglia, the third town, where we also stayed the first night. At the top you'll see some the best views from the trails. We also swam in Monterosso, Vernazza, and Corniglia. Vernazza has this awesome beach / cove area where we swam out and went cliff diving. The second night we camped out up in the mountains, which was alot of fun, minus the ants.

The weekend before, I walked up to the top of Castel Gandolfo and was 50 feet away from the Pope praying the Angelus! That was out of control .. people around me were going crazy, some were crying just to be that close to him, it was surreal. Everyone was packed into this tiny square, which they only let about 1,000 people into. We were lucky to squeeze in there; thousands more didn't get in. We spent the rest of the day at the lake at the foot of Castel Gandolfo, Lake Albano, which is a volcanic lake. The water is really warm and the sand is black, it's really cool. I'm thinking about swimming across the entire thing with my friends some weekend.

School is pretty hard, but doable. I'm trying to figure out a plan to meet up with Father Mathar and Mary in Belgium, that would be awesome. As of right now it seems I'll be traveling with some baseball players to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Munich. Hopefully I'll be able to make it over to Barcelona over Thanksgiving Break.

Ciao for now!

James