Pavia and Milan

After breakfast in the morning in San Gimignano, we said goodbye to our friends there and made our way to Milan with a stop in Pavia.  The bus ride was long but after a quick drive by the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we finally reached the small town of Pavia.  We had lunch there where many of us ordered seafood.  Then we went over to the Basilica S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro which is ministered by an Augustinian Community of the Italian Province. 

Here we saw St. Augustine's Tomb.  Surrounding the tomb were candles with different countries that have an Augustinian population. We joked when we noticed that the U.S.A candle was very bright but the India candle was very dim.  We are not sure why this was, but Lisa and Rita are going to work on rectifying the matter.  Father Joe then celebrated Mass with us where he spoke about Romans 5:5.  It was very moving hearing him speak about how hope does not disappoint. 

 

Our bus ride continued as we made our way to Cassago Brianza. We were stuck in rainy Friday night Milan traffic and the trip took much longer than expected.  After a little while we all needed to make a stop, so we stopped at a familiar site to all of us…. McDonalds (not to eat, of course, but to visit the facilities).  

Whwn we finally reached Cassago Brianza and we met Mario and Luigi and our hosts the Sangalli family.  We had pizza dinner in Cassago Brianza with our new friends.  They were very hospitable and refused to let us help them clean up.  After dinner we checked into our new hotel rooms in La Villa Ciardi.