Montecassino and Roccasecca

From Naples we drove, via coast and mountain, to Montecassino where, atop a massive cliff, sits St. Benedict and Scholastica’s bones. And that’s not all. On top of those bones is a spectacular church, both the exterior and interior were worth the hairy switchback drive up the mountainside.

As it was Sunday, we attended a sung Mass with stellar acoustics, the loveliest Mass we’ve had here in Italy. Three weeks of Italian Masses has not improved my Italian, but talking to locals helps.

we had a lunch on the hillside in historic Roccasecca. Then climbed through the village and ruins of the Castello d’Aquino sits, where the saint nearest and dearest to me spent his young childhood before being sent to Monte Cassino for his formal education.

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