The Pope

Holy Week in Rome has to be finished off with a visit to see the Pope. I secured tickets with the US Bishops office in Rome in January. We had tickets to both Good Friday Mass and Holy Saturday Mass but we couldn't get to St Peter's in time for Good Friday. On Holy Saturday we got to St Peter's at 5pm to stand in line. Mass started at 9pm - yes that means standing in line for FOUR HOURS! The doors did open at 7:30pm though so we could get through security and seated for mass. The line was hands down the most intense line I have ever been in. People were eating, talking, sitting, standing, wandering, cutting, trying to buy tickets. The line eventually snaked all the way around the square!

The line stretch all the way around the square

At 7:30 the gates opened and the line suddenly got very wide - people were cutting in the front- grr! The best part was the people cutting included nuns and clergy! After getting through security we walked all the way around St Peter's to the back and entered through a back door. Our seats were in the right transept. We had a good side view of the alter and the Pope - we were maybe 150 yards away. We couldn't see the main aisle but it was still good. We received a program which was - kid you not- 87 pages. The entire service, except for 4 readings, was in Latin. The program translated the Latin into Italian only. Service was 3 hours long and we only saw one group of people leave early. The service was pretty cool. It started with them shutting off all the lights and the Pope entering with the "new light" and lighting people candles so the glow spread.

Statues inside St Peter's in the dark

Once he reached the front lights came back on. The Pope actually did a lot more then we expected considering he did at least one service every day during Holy Week including 2 on Good Friday. He did many readings, baptised a few people and did the Eucharist/holy communion (that's right I teach Religion!). We were super impressed with how well the Pope read Latin- he could read it out loud faster then we could read it in the program. It was a long service but a once in a lifetime experience and well worth it. Plus St Peter's is even more amazing inside at night!

We never figured out who these guys were but their outfits are so cool!

The next day was Easter and we slept in! It rained most of the day so we did a little shopping and had a great pizza lunch. In the afternoon we headed down to south Rome to check out the Appian Way - which is the original road leading into Rome. It was neat to see the original sections of road and some ruins. There were also some amazing houses there! We got quite a work out in (about a 3 hour walk) and then headed back to town - we also walked along with original city walls which are very well preserved. Then we had the best dinner of our trip at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel. We all had a different starter that was delicious - I had caprese salad, Chris had truffle gnocchi and Jason had carbonara. We all had rabbit for our main course and it was so good. I had tiramisu for dessert - I had to have it once in Italy! Chris was off early the next morning - we followed him shortly back to the cold north. It was a great trip!