The Monastic Life, Revisited

Dear Abbot,
I am sending this letter to formally request an opportunity to photograph at your monastery and to meet with you in the near future.
I am a John Cabot University student studying photography in Rome and am interested in photographing members of the monastic community in Italy. With your permission and guidance, I would like to request the opportunity to photograph at your Monastery. I am interested in compiling a photographic documentary on the monastic life in Italy.
I have photographed at a Monastery in the United States with monks of the Cistercian Order. I will call by the 5th of March to speak with you and discuss the possibility of this project.
Sincerely yours,

Michael Rudzinski

I sent this letter, in both english and Italian, over 2 weeks ago to the Monastery of Fonte Colombo in Rieti, Italy. A small industrial town near Assisi, Rieti and its 4 monasteries were the original 4 abbeys that St. Francis of Assisi visited. Fonte Colombo is still active, so I thought, why not do another photo project on monks?
My professor suggested the idea about a month or so ago, and I’ve been trying ever since to get ahold of Fonte Colombo. Whenever I call, I explain my situation in broken italian and receive a “call back in a few days.” A few friends helped me at JCU and interpreted for me, only to receive the same response.
So finally, I decided I was just going to go there this weekend. I got sick and couldn’t make it out there today, but called them and, to my surprise, someone picked up on the other end who spoke a little english. It turns out that Fonte Colombo doesn’t have an Abbot, which means no one read my letter. I’m staying there tomorrow night as a pilgrim inside the monastery and will start my project. Hopefully, I can win the trust of the monks and start to take more of the photos that I’d like.
More on this after I get back.