DANVILLE - Five years ago, Tyson Monfredini landed in Italy without a job.

Today, he's giving tours at the Vatican and showing groups around the country.

Monfredini, 27, leads groups of English speakers through St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican museums, explain-ing the history of the art, ar-chitecture and politics of the Vatican. He also talks about theology for those who aren't Catholic so they might better understand the themes of the artwork.

The Danville native will miss Easter Mass in Rome, as he's escorting a group of 50 Canadian students around Italy. Instead, he'll celebrate today at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice.

Has he met Pope John Paul II?

"Unfortunately not," Mon-fredini said via e-mail. "I've seen him at his window a few times and have been to mid-night Mass a couple times, as well."

With the pope missing most Holy Week events, Monfredini said, "The past couple of days here have been extremely somber."

He said the English-speaking community is fortu-nate to have a weekly series called "Theology on Tap" at a local pub, with speakers rang-ing from John Allen, who is CNN's Vatican correspondent and author of "Conclave," to SKY News correspondent the Rev. Thomas Williams.

Last week's topic was "John Paul II - Rock Star?"

Patricia Prall, religion teacher at Schlarman High School, taught Monfredini at St. Mary's School in Westville and Schlarman. He graduated from there in 1996.

She has taught hundreds of students, but few have earned her highest compliment: "He's intellectually eager."

She also described Monfred-ini as being adventurous and having great integrity. Plus, she said, "He was an excellent student in theology, and he's well-grounded in his faith."

Monfredini's parents - Jim and Phyllis Monfredini of Danville - are proud of their son, as well.

"He just loves the country," Phyllis said.

She and her husband have visited him in Italy a couple of times and went to midnight Mass last Christmas in Rome. That was one of the pope's last appearances.

"We're proud of (our son)," she said. "He has a very inter-esting life."

Three of Jim Monfredini's grandparents are from Italy. With that lineage, Tyson was able to secure double citizen-ship - which was no easy task.

He had to gather all the per-tinent birth, marriage and death certificates. If the docu-ment was in English, as most were, it had to be translated into Italian. All documents from the United States had to be certified by the Illinois secretary of state.

"Once I had all the paper-work I had to submit it to the Italian Consulate in Chicago, which then sent it to the home-town in which my grandfather was born. They then register my birth, and all the paper-work gets shipped back to Chicago," he said. "There's actually more to it than that. Let's just say it wasn't easy."

Tyson had studied for a se-mester in Florence six years ago and mastered the language then.

"I probably have the vo-cabulary of a 10- or 12-year-old, but speak well enough to have any sort of conversation," he said. "It's only been in the past two or three years that I've felt really comfortable speaking the language."

A native of Danville, Mon-fredini grew up in Westville and graduated from Auburn University in Alabama in 2000. A month after he finished college, he moved to Italy. He was landed one job after the next, which led to his guide work.

His mother is an adminis-trative assistant at Holy Fam-ily School. His father is super-intendent and principal of Braceville Elementary School northwest of Kankakee and former principal at St. Mary's, St. Paul's School and Schlar-man.