Knocked Up - Madonna Style.

Our sixth excursion! We were busy today, hitting up three places, and all of them were cool in a very different way.

Stop 1: Loreto.
Fun fact, I actually traveled out of Italy today!

That's because Loreto is technically part of Vatican City, since it's the location of the house where allegedly the Virgin Mary lived/was when she got pregnant. They actually point out the window where the angel allegedly came through to tell her the good news - peeing on the stick would now come back positive. According to the legend, the three-walled house (originally the house was around a cave, so there were only three walls, with the natural cave forming the fourth wall), was found in the Middle of Nowhere, Italy - it is said to have been transported there by angels. The current theory is that it was transported there by a Mr. Angels, who received the relics as a wedding gift. However it got there, the small town is home to a huge church honoring the relic, and a major pilgrimage site. Inside, there are these elaborate chapels in the apses from different nations, decorated at different times throughout the centuries. It was very beautiful, but it was almost too much to take in, because there was just so much going on and so many styles and time periods next to each other. The last chapel to be completed was finished so recently it has JFK's face in a crowd, standing next to some astronauts. An interesting juxtaposition of the new and the very, very old.
Because in the middle of the apses, you can walk through the relics of the Madonna's house. The three walls are enclosed in a marble structure, and you aren't supposed to take pictures inside.

The altar.

Professional photo of the altar.

Snuck a picture!

Visiting this church was a little awkward for me, since it was such a functioning site, and so many people there were making pilgrimages to see the house, while we were there from a purely tourist/student perspective. Usually, we're only disrupting a few people when we traipse through and talk about every single fresco in the church, but here we had to have little microphone headset things (which would have made me feel like a stealthy secret agent except they were pink....) because we were by far the minority. Most everyone was confessing or praying. Despite that, the church was really pretty and I totally dug the Piazza della Madonna outside, with it's cool fountain and chill Renaissance vibe. And I suppose not many people can say they've been inside the place where the Holy Spirit knocked someone up, so that's something.

So pretty!

Stop 2:  Sirolo.
They keep teasing us with the beach and I really wish it were warm enough to take advantage of the gorgeous water here, but then I remind myself that it's still only March. Guess I'll just have to come back during the summer... Sirolo is a little resort beach town on the coast, and we stopped there to take pictures of the beach and to see the Parco Regionale del Monte Conero. We walked a bit through the town and saw some of the cutest houses! I love the colors of this region.

I just want to be down there. Preferably in a swimsuit, with some gelato and a really good book.

This is actually how I picture my future house.

Stop 3: Grotte di Frasassi.

This stop made me feel right at home - caves! Have to admit, with all my Mammoth Cave and various other cave visits... I already knew stalagmites are the ones on the ground and that stalactites are the ones that cling tight to the ceiling, so this was actually probably the least educational place I've been while in Italy. Still, these caves are the largest in Italy (though they were by no means like Mammoth Cave) so it was something really cool to see. We took a tour through the first five (of seven) "rooms" and weren't allowed to take pictures inside (copyright issues). It was stunning though - I love caves. It's interesting because in caves, you lose all sense of perspective, since there aren't houses or cars (or other familiar things) inside to help create perspective. So even though these photos, taken from the internet (copyright infringement.... whatever) are cool, they don't give you a sense of how big the first room is - the cathedral of Milan can completely fit inside it.

And this sucker's big.

Stole this picture.

Apparently the mountains above the caves aren't copyrighted. They are pretty though!

And, since I always have to mention the delicious food - at lunch we had pasta with wild boar meat sauce. Um, yum. It's my favorite meat I've had since I've been here. Can we get on that in America?