crazy busy!

Oh my goodness, where do I begin?!?

Matt's visit, a trip to Formia to see Cicero's sea villa and the beach on which he was killed (as well as the possibly spurious 'Cicero's Tomb'), tons of class, a John Scopfield concert at Casa del Jazz, then a trip to locations connected to Thomas Aquinas (Rocca Secca and Fossanova), and this week Anna is here! and we went out to dinner last night, and tonight I'm going to see George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, tomorrow I'm visiting the church my grandparents were married in and then that evening is a secret play meeting, thursday is a thievery corporation concert, friday is a party on the top of the school, and saturday we're going to see Aida. Whew!

So -- Thomas Aquinas was born in a castle on the top of Rocca Secca, which I climbed (Reggie, thankfully, did not) and we saw the tower and the room his biographer describes in which his sister was struck by lightning and killed. The sun was hot and the air smelled of wild mint and fennel, and the path was rough and rocky. The castle was totally ruined, with crumbling walls and precarious drops, which we clambered over like goats in flipflops. A fig tree was growing in Thomas's room.

A few transit changes and several hours later (after pizza and a bus in Monte Cassino, another famous TA locale, but we didn't stop there because it was totally destroyed by the Allies and is now rebuilt), we arrived at Fossanova, at the abbey at which Thomas Aquinas died. We came early, as Reggie waited for those who had decided to swim for a bit in Formia. Incidentally, Eric, who had missed the train in the morning, was waiting for the group asleep under a tree by the church. The abbey is Cistertian, at least it was, and the church is white stone and very austere, early gothic-late romanesque. There were not one but TWO weddings going on at the time. The chapel where Thomas died is in the back, through the cloister, the garden busy with flowers and vines, florists, photographers, and brides. We sat up in the small room and read the inscriptions, admired the relief, and read about Thomas and his brother REGINALDUS, who was by his side...

Back in the church we sang some of Thomas's hymns, which tunes flowed back to us for a full seven second echo...

After a filling dinner at the restaurant on the highway, we made our way back walking to the train station, steeled against the swerving traffic by singing (thanks Jezzie Joe!) and Eric's purchase of Honey Grappa.

(All this on two and a half hours of sleep for yours truly, who had stayed up the night before to purchase HARRY POTTER at 1am in Trastevere!!!!)