Parrillo Tours

HI, MARIO PARRILLO HERE FOR PARRILLO TOURS!  Well not quite they probably had a bus!  We walked.  My Mom and entourage (when the pope greets dignitaries the VNS always says, "Archbishop so-n-so and Entourage") arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule and I missed them by 15 minutes, they went for a little walk so I waited and met up with them at 12:15pm.  Then the Mario Parrillo tour began....eeerrrrrr or as Erin would call it "the Crimean Campaign March".  We went to S. Mary Major, OLPH (to give Rosemary a thrill), then to S. John Lateran, Santa Scala, Holy Cross in Jerusalem, Colosseum, and who remembers what else.  We had lunch across from S. Mary Major and dinner at Cotto around the corner from their hotel.  We ended with, what else??? Gelato of course!
I then hoofed it 45 minutes home as I live across the city.  It took me an hour tonight as there were two English speaking damsels in distress who needed help getting to their shuttle pick up.  All in a days work.

Here is a picture of OLPH, a Redemptorist Church about a block and a half from St. Mary Major where the original Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is kept in a glass case above the Altar.

OLPH Church Rome

Original Icon of OLPH

You know what I learned today?  It is hard to take pictures while your flapping your gums!  I meet up with them again tomorrow, pray for us, it is suppose to rain all day.  I think we will see the Forum, Colosseum, and Palantine tomorrow then head off to the old city to do the top 40 hit parade.  We will end with Mass at the Casa Santa Maria where we will pray with the other 4 Trenton Priests here in the City for the Success of the Diocesan Eucharistic Congress that begins Friday.

Ciao for now!