Easter at the Vatican

Catherine and I ended up just hanging out after our flight got in that Saturday morning. It was pretty early in the day, around 11:45 am, by the time we got in. As soon as we walked in the door, I got an email from Alex saying that I could pick up my tickets for the Vatican mass for Easter by 12:30 pm today at the North American College. I had no idea where that was, and hurried up and sprinted out the door to try and get our tickets in time. After a hurried metro ride and a transfer, I was outside the Trevi Fountain, running in different directions and trying to dodge the eight trillion tourists that had invaded the city while we'd been away. Finally, I went into the liquor store at the corner of the Trevi Fountain and asked the guy working where it was. After taking a few seconds to make fun of my frazzled-ness, he pointed me in the right direction.

I showed up with 10 minutes to spare. Pretty impressive. I got in the long line forming outside of the office once through the doors, and then a nun came through asking if anyone in the line had reserved their tickets. So I got to skip the line and got my tickets, and on the way out, the nice nuns were giving us all directions on what time to get there (be there by 7 am!) and where to enter, dress code, etc. It would be outside ran or shine, so we had to dress accordingly. Honestly, if it was raining, I really wasn't too keen on going...


I went back to the apartment and hung out with Cath. We went to the grocery store to pick up dinner and snacks for the next week. Of course, Catherine is still the same as when she was six years old, so instead of coming away with the ingredients for the dinner menu we'd planned for the next week, we had a stash of snacks that she thought was ridiculous that I didn't already have. She made me go through the aisles, translating each of the cookie brands and what they were. Finally, we made it out of there. I took her to Stuzziko for a rice ball (suppli) and some good pizza and we headed home. Some of the girls ended up going out that night, but there was no way we were gonna make it to mass if we did that. So instead we hung out and watched a movie and I made us some chicken parm.

Up close!

Bright and early

The next morning we were up before the girls even made it home from the clubs. Catherine made us egg sandwiches and the two of us and Danielle headed out. The metro wasn't packed until we got on the orange line to the Ottaviano stop, and we rushed ahead of everyone. There were already a ton of people in line, and it was barely 7 am! We got a pretty good place though.  While we were waiting, I ran around St. Peter's Square on a hunt for McDonald's coffee and rosaries to get blessed by the pope. While I didn't find the coffee, I managed to bargain for three pretty pearl rosaries, one for me and Catherine, and one for Gramma. When security finally started letting people through over an hour later, we actually got seats. The morning turned out to be really beautiful, and apparently there were over 200,000 people in attendance. We were lucky we had gotten seats so close! The mass was actually pretty long, and at the end, Pope Francis got into his little "Pope Mobile" and rode around the crowd. We were literally so close to him.

My professor and his family were also in attendance at the mass, and his disabled son actually got picked up and kissed by the pope. While he was being picked up, everyone around Mrs. Gondreau and their son were crying, and one woman shouted, "Your son is here to teach the world how to love." The image went viral over the next week, and Professor Gondreau and his wife and family were interviewed by numerous news outlets, including CNN, FOX, and Providence local news. Pretty cool.

FOX: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/03/watch-megyn-kellys-emotional-interview-with-dr-paul-gondreau-dad-of-disabled-boy-embraced-by-pope-francis/

CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57578045/an-american-boys-unforgettable-moment-with-the-pope/

Pope Mobile!

Celebrating Easter with 200,000 other people

After mass, the three of us decided to walk around a little for some gelato. One of my favorite places, Old Bridge, was closed, but we went to Bar Della Palma near the Pantheon, which has 150 flavors. Although a Catholic city, everything in the tourist areas was open and crowded. We ran into some of our friends, and they showed us the image of Gondreau's son being picked up. We hadn't even noticed what was going on on the screens! Finishing up our gelato, we took some pictures by the Pantheon and decided to walk down to the Colosseo metro stop. We realized that the entire street, a main road that's usually pretty full of traffic, was completely shut down leading up to the Colosseum, so everyone could just walk in the road. We took a bunch of pictures at the Colosseum and then headed home.

We were so tired after the past few days that when we got all set up to watch Argo, both of us ended up falling asleep. We woke up around 6 and I started making dinner. I made fettucine alfredo and chicken, and then we both ate our desserts that we had picked out at the Sicilian restaurant the night before. We watched some episodes of shows, and then passed out again. We had an early morning for the Tuscan wine tour the next day!