The Pope. Italy's Rockstar.

A forward. I wrote this early part yesterday, pretty much right after I came back from the Vatican. Then there was an opportunity for gelato and it was important that I took it. SO half way through this becomes a day later, which makes the beginning sentence of this next paragraph a half lie. I apologize. Continue on.

I know it's only been one day but this morning I have a lot to report on. I woke up at 6...am. My roommates went to the bar last night and were supposed to join me, but sleep was very needed. So I headed out on an adventure by myself. This adventure is one I like to call 'Pope Bound 2009'. I went to the Tiber River stop on Trastevre and walked down the river. I hadn't been to St. Peter's Basilica before and was getting worried I was lost. My brave little phone has been hanging on for 7 and a half days now. I left the charger at home and my parents are sending it to me, my phone however couldn't make it that long. It did, however, allow me one last phone call to the tour guide to ask where to go. I got directions and then the phone died. The tour guide informed me we weren't meeting anymore and apparently didn't need tickets so I was severely on my own. It was a pretty sad moment. I made it to St. Peter's pretty easily. Every once in a while stopping to ask Italians if I was right by signing the cross and pointing. Hahaha, that was actually pretty cool. I got there though!! A little victory for me.

The Vatican

At eight in the morning St. Peter's is so quiet. I bought three rosaries and went through security to get a quick peek at the Vatican before going to the Audience of the Pope. It's beautiful, stunning really. I want to go again in the morning when I can spend more time. It's a good thing I left when I did because the line was already OUTRAGEOUS. Here is the part where I'm going to digress a little. Today I learned to appreciate ropes and single file lines. I learned waiting in that line is not nearly as annoying as I used to think it was. In fact, I might go find a line when I get home and wait in that just to show the US system how much I appreciate it. Italian lines are NOTHING like ours. In fact, line not even the right phrase. I'd call it more of a mosh pit. Everyone just rushes the entrance so you have to squeeze your way through and it's only so long before everyone stops and waits. If you are clostrophobic or hate being touched do not do this. Ever. I was completely sandwhiched the entire time. Surrounded by a mass amount of people who were pushing as hard as they could to get a little closer. At one point I literally could not move anything but my head, not because of what I would touch, but because it was that tight. I learned quickly to keep my hands up and my bag in front of me and be aggressive. Hahaha, I'm normally not that aggressive of a person but here you had to be. If you showed any hesitation, you lost your spot to 5 ready people. The worst culprits of this were, of all people, the nuns. Man they were on a mission for sure. I think if I would have fallen it would have been death by nuns. Anyway, I'm sure I'm being repetative here but I just cannot describe how crazy these lines were.

Sooo many people!!

So skip 45 minutes and I'm inside. I think it was actually not so bad that I was alone. For one we for sure would have lost each other in the line, but also I got to sit at the very front of the general section because there were open single seats. There's still the reserved section ahead of that but it's not very big. I could see really well. I guess I should tell you what I was going for hahaha. The Pope was giving a blessing today, to people there, and any religious items you had (hence the rosaries). I got in at about 9 and it didn't start until 10:30. It was packed right away though with people from all over the world. It felt just like a rock concert. People were doing chants and those annoying hand clapping patterns. A children's group from columbia brought instruments and were playing Spanish music. Cameras were everywhere and people were just freaking out with excitement. Mostly the older women. I imagine they did the same for Elvis...or Frank Sinatra..or some foreign super star. I was sitting next to a small family from Argentina. I can't believe how much Spanish I remember. I had a small conversation with them about where I was from and where they were from. Why they were here and they asked me how to say a few simple things in English. It was really cool.

The lady behind me kills me in this picture, so I put it up so you all could laugh too.

Then it finally started. The Pope came out and it was a huge roar or applause and cheering and whistles. Chants started soon after that and I was kind of confused. I figured that everyone would be really reverent because it's a bunch of catholics in front of THE catholic. You don't normally see a lot of craziness, but it's totally different there. There were a bunch of...bishops maybe or cardinals or whoever wear the red caps, I can't remember on the side. Each one spoke a different language so for the readings we went through it for each language. The ones I remember are French, German, English, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and maybe Russian. I didn't know the last one. So everything took a long time. 

The Pope. THE Pope.

Halfway through what I think was the Polish one I took time to look around. To kind of take in the moment I guess. It's amazing to see people's faces at an event like this. For this part I truly cannot describe anything. Maybe it was dumb to bring up. But I personally just want to try and remember the emotions I saw. That experience alone was enough for me.

The Pope speaking in one of the many languages

This is where that forward at the beginning comes in to play. Overall I'm sure that going to see the Pope, no matter how early, was a great decision. I don't think it even matters what you believe really, well I'm sure in some ways it does. But there's a LOT of self reflection that goes on and a lot of thought that happens (at least in my experience). If anything I learned that it's good to take advantage of as many opportunities as you can because they can lead you to some amazing things. That could be related to anything I guess. I just saw, first hand, a prime example of that. Even if I did have to wake up at 6 am.

That's really all there is to report for now. Tomorrow (Friday) we don't have school. It's a mon-thurs week. So my roommates and I are going on a trip through JCU. It's a three day trip to Cinque Terre and Portofino. I'm really excited about it but exhausted right now. I'm slowly figuring out these are all probably going to be long. I write a lot. So just skim, read what you want, whatever seems right. Hahaha. If you have gotten to this line, congratulations, maybe you should take a nap too. I'm sure you're tired. More later at some point.

Ciao!

Anna