April 10, 2018, 6:18 p.m. |   Novosti

All roads lead to Rome. So he took us our way too. Going to Rome means to feel a fraction of world history as we can see in his old nickname "The Capital of the World". Everyone knows the legend about the formation of the city of Rome. Throughout its history, Rome has dominated the great part of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. For nearly a thousand years, Rome was the most important political, richest and largest city in the Western world, and this remained after the fall and division of the Empire. Rome was and remained the center of the Catholic Church. Within it is the Vatican, the smallest country in the world. The Vatican has the head of the Catholic Church - the Pope. We stayed in Rome from 23.3.2018. until 28.3.2018. As I have already said, Rome was an extremely important city in history. He could talk about it for days. In the following text we will list the most important places we have visited. 22.3. On Thursday, at 22.00, we should set off on the road, but all the roads leading to Rome this time were closed for the bus because of the strong bura. So we spent the whole night awaiting the call of honorable Victoria when they finally get on their way. There was a long, unfulfilled night before us. 03/23/2018. On Friday at 19.00 the next day we went to Rome. Since all the roads were closed for the bus because of the strong bora we had to go to the old surrounding road. 03/24/2018. On Saturday, we visited the Basilica of St. Paul outside the wall. It is located outside the Aurelian walls on the site of the historic tomb of St. Paul. Below the altar, the relics of the saint are kept. Below the window there is a long row of medallions with portraits of the pope, Petra to Pope Francis. Then we went to the basilica of St. Ivana Lateranskog. The Roman cathedral, the official headquarters of the Pope. It is the first church in history that was publicly consecrated. It has one of the most beautiful facades. They are on the main altar of the relics of the apostles Peter and Paul. Here are five church councils. After the Basilica of St. Ivan went to the church of St. Peter in the fences. This church is famous for the majestic sculpture of Moses, the work of the famous Michelangelo, and the chains to which Saint Peter was bound in Jerusalem. We visited the catacombs of St. Kalista. The catacombs extend to four floors, reaching a length of nearly 20 kilometers and counting about half a million tombs, of which about 40% of children's tombs. Eight bishops and 16 popes were buried there. Later, the bodies of the catacombs were placed in the basilica bases. We have seen the Colosseum, one of the most recognizable symbols of Rome. It had a capacity of about 87,000 seats. Inside, gladiators and wild animals were in the field. It is believed that more than 500,000 slaves and over one million animals have been killed. We were still watching the Forum Romanum and the Capitol. 03/25/2018. We participated in the flowering of the Holy Mass and the procession with Fr. Franjo on St. Peter's Square. There were many strong emotions present. There was a sense of respect, humility, compassion, hope, happiness, contentment, love, ... So many people from all over the world in one place and so much joy that we could participate and obey the words of the Holy Father. We came an hour earlier to catch the order of the Pope's passage. At the end of the Holy Mass, with the utmost enthusiasm, we expected the Holy Father to pass by us. Even when we saw him around the heart, heat was created, even if we could touch it, the desire would be filled to the end. We were watching the city of Rome tomorrow. We first visited piazza Navona. It is a Baroque town square in the form of a jumble that was in that place. Here the ancient Romans came to watch horse racing. In the middle of the square is the famous Fontana 4 rivers, next to it is Palaca Pamphilj with its beautiful frescoes. At Piazza Navoni there are 2 large fountains: the Fontana del Moro with its large swimming pool and the Neptune Fountain. Then we visited Fontana di Trevi. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous in the world. It is 26 m high and 50 m wide. The fountain marks the end of the aquadukt that flows from a 20 km distant source. The same aqueduct is also used to fill many other fountains in the center of Rome. According to the legend, if you put a coin at Fontana di Trevi in ​​Rome, you will certainly return. Then we headed toward the Spanish Square. Stairs to the fountain and the church at the top of the hill create a special atmosphere. We also visited St. John's Institute. Pope Nikola V. 21.4.1453. he gave to the ruinous church of St. Marine and land next to it. The fraternity, after restoring the church, dedicated it to St. Jerome. At the end of this day, we attended Holy Mass at the church of St. Jerolima held in Croatian language. At the end of the Mass, the priest blessed our items that we bought to our loved ones in Rome.

03/26/2018. On Monday we visited Pompeii, located near Naples. 24.08.79. Whatever. Battalion erupted and destroyed the entire city. Pompeys were buried beneath the ash layer 1600 years before they were accidentally discovered. The Pompeii forum was framed on three sides, while the fourth on the Jupiter's temple. It was paved and framed by the most important public buildings such as the Apollo Temple, the Basilica with a Courtroom, the Eumachiae Priestess's Clothes Factory, the Sacrifice Temple, the Covered Market, the Forum Hall. There is an amphitheater in Pompeii that was built in the third century. BC He could have received about 20,000 viewers on his three floors. Along with the amphitheater there was the largest open space in the city, reserved for Imperial ideological presentations - Gym. On the way back from Pompeii to Rome, we stopped at Montecassino where there is a Benedictine monastery founded in 529 on the hill of the same name. The monastery founded Sv. Benedict. Pope Paul VI. he proclaimed it as the patron saint of Europe. The monastery is in the 2nd c. the war was used as a German fort. 27 March 2018.On Tuesday we visited the Vatican Museums located in the Vatican Palace. The Vatican Museums enter the Vatican City. The largest collection of invaluable antiques and art works in the world are found in the Pio Clementino Museum and the Chiaramonti Museum. The largest collection of Italian and European paintings is kept in 18 rooms of the Vatican Pinakoteka. The Vatican Museums are associated with Rafael's rooms and the beautiful Scythian chapel whose altar painted Michelangelo as the altar fresco of the "Last Judgment". In the Sikstine chapel is held conclave and a white smoke emerges from it when a new Pope is elected. We also visited the Vatican garage where we could see the carriages and cars in which the Pope was driving. After the Sistine Chapel we visited the Basilica of St. Peter, which is the most magnificent church in the Christian world. It was built on the spot where the apostle Peter, the first pope, was buried. St. Peter's cemetery and the papal altar are under the canopy of the greatest bronze artwork in the world made by Bernini. You can also climb the dome from where you can see the entire Rome. Then we went out to the beautiful square of St. Peter to whom he is approached from the "Road of Reconciliation" connecting it with the Angelic Fortress. St. Peter Square is an oval square with a four-coloned colonnade. There are two large fountains on both sides of obelisk that are located in the center of the square. The angelic fortress is the mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian, on the coast of Tiberius. The angels on the bridge and the one on top of the building got their name. With the Vatican it was connected to a long underground corridor, and in the Papal States it served as a barracks, treasury, arsenal and dungeon. In the 20th century has been restored and converted into a museum. 03/28/2018. On our return visit we visited Asiz, which is known as the birthplace of St. Francis and St. Clare. First we saw the Basilica of St. Clare containing the crypt of the saint, frescoes and paintings from the 13th century. After that, we went to the basilica of St. Francis of Assisi under UNESCO protection. In the basilica we have a lower church under which is the tomb of St. Francis and the upper church which contains frescoes depicting the life of St. Francis. The famous symbol of this saint is Tau, the cross of the shape of the letter T. We were also in the church that was made at the place of St. Francis within which is a small pavement with gratings in which St. Franjo was locked up when he was angry with his dad. Together we agreed that this was one of the most beautiful weeks in our life. Also, we should go one more time to Rome because we forgot to put a coin in Fontana di Trevi. Finally, we would like to thank all who have chosen, supported and enabled us this wonderful pilgrimage. We thank our school and director Davor Vidaković, sister Danijela Kovačević, our priests Tomislav Dubink, Domagoj Kelav and Šimun Sindija, sister Viktoria Gadži who has been watching us all seven days and most of our parents. Thank you all for your heart.

Josipa Golem, Ivona Fantina and Sara Peričić