TrulyGrace

Visiting--Boston, North End

I visited the North End with the intention of getting great gelato. Instead, I found that some gelato has actually very very low milkfat (~3%) compared to ice cream. I stopped in the public library, and Mike's pastries (where my former college roomie, Maria, and I used to go for cannolis), where I purchased a yellow cream cannoli (no powdered sugar, please) and a torrone brick for Mom and Dad. I ate the cannoli there (as well as my turkey wrap for lunch), then headed to St. LEonard of Port Maurice Church to admire the Peace garden and to pray in this first church built by Italian-Americans in the new world. As I exited, I asked the guy with the bicycle at the door,
"Is this your neighborhood? Have you been here a while?"

"I've been a Franciscan for 23 years. What would you like to know?"

"Where is the best gelati?" I asked, expectantly.

"via A., in Rome." he said, helpfully.

---we discussed this for a few moments, he gave me some general directions, then I ended up down the street, where I ended up in St. Stephen's church, where Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was baptized and buried. There is a bronze plaque outside the Church, which reads:
"The most important element in
human life is Faith."-Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

St. Stephens is a church designed by Bullfinch. The tabernacle is directly behind the altar, and there are Corinthian columns in the balcony/gallery and Doric-type columns on the first floor. The church is simply decorated in white paint and has wooden carved stations. There was a nice guy explaining the architecture, etc. I asked him about the consolidation of four parishes in the North End.

From there, I headed to the Old North Church, where a tour was winding down and then I had a chance to walk down the right aisle to check out the pews and the organ.

I walked back to the Haymarket stop, taking green line to red line transfers at Park St. (a good station for accessibility), and back to Harvard Square and the bus transfer.

Labels: Boston, Church, ice cream

posted by Grace @ 6/11/2007 04:36:00 PM