What a Weekend!

     This weekend was the first of the three free weekends of the semester. These weekends are long (starting Thursday evening), and many students use them to travel to different places in Europe. The second free weekend, I will be going to Paris (and I can't wait), but this weekend I decided to just hang around and chill. Is that what I did? Well, kind of.... Not really.

     Friday morning, I slept in, even though I didn't want to. It's really hard to wake up here, due to the fact that the shutters and the blinds make the bedroom super dark, and it looks like it's 2am, even when it's 9. After my late breakfast, I did mega-laundry and cleaned the "house." The refreshing feeling when I was done was extremely rewarding. I also made garlic mashed potatoes, which are wonderful when you're starving. In fact, I feel like eating some now, even though I just had two bowls full for dinner, and dinner was kind of late.

     That afternoon, I went to the Spanish Steps. I actually didn't climb up them, I went around because I saw a cool little fountain and a golf ball. At the top is an Egyptian obelish with hieroglyphs on it, and a church with French nuns. Before I went it, I enjoyed the amazing view-- until one of the obnoxious rose guys found me, when I left and went into the church. (There are these immigrants to Italy, Indian and Middle-eastern, who walk around with roses at night in Rome, and probably all day at the Spanish steps, due to the large number of lovebirds who go there. They will give women roses, and then demand that they pay for them.)

 

 

Beautiful painting inside the church

 

The church, the obelisk, and some of the steps.
The bottom ones were really crowded.

     After seeing the church, I wended my way back to the Metro, which was very slow and VERY crowded that day: I was literally pushed into the train by the mob behind me. I got off at Ottaviano, which is closer to St. Peter's than it is to Candia. Got this feeling that I should go to St. Peter's, so I went. On the way there, I found this really cool gothic-style church, a rarity in Italy. (Italians were not fond of the style; they thought it uncouth, since it originated in the countries which were barbaric in the time of the Roman Empire.) I couldn't look around, though, because Mass was going on, so I went to St. Peter's, hung out, and started heading back. At the Gate of St. Anne, I realized that I had only a few minutes left before the girls were heading out to dinner, so I dashed off to Candia, arriving at the back gate in only seven minutes. (It usually takes about ten minutes of fast walking.)

 

The facade of St. Mary of the Rosary, which I got to look at in depth on Saturday.

 

     After dinner, Elizabeth Walsh, the female residence coordinator, took us to the island that's in the middle of the Tiber. It's a pretty big island, considering the size of the river. It's even got its own church! Thus ended Friday.

 

Tiber Island

 

     Saturday was an even more eventful day, even though I slept in then, too. Saturday was homework and voting day. Mailing in my absentee ballot via the Vatican Post Office and with a Vatican stamp on the envelope was one of the coolest and funniest feelings ever. As my roommate put it, "So much for separation of church and state!"

     Before 2pm, I went into St. Anne's, but I had to leave because there was a wedding. I went into St. Peter's at some point that day, as well. I think after I mailed my ballot.

     After that, I went church-hunting, and went into eight more churches in about four hours, about three of which were spent walking.

     Because I was only able to pray in seven of the ten churches (I crashed a vigil Mass in one, and the wedding at St. Anne's; St. Peter's was too crowded to pray and the adoration chapel was closed), I guess I kind of did my own unofficial seven-church pilgrimage. We'll be doing the real thing later on this semester.

     I was able to go into Santa Susanna, which was my family's parish while we lived in Rome. My sister was baptized there, and there I made my First Confession and my First Communion. What's awesome is that I remembered part of the church.

 

Santa Susanna! And check out the American flag to the left of the altar! :D

 

     The church down the street from Santa Susanna, Santa Maria della Vittoria, had what looked like an incorrupt saint there, but I can't figure out who she is! It's so frustrating! I want to find out, so I can see who she is and if she's really incorrupt, or if that's just a really good statue. She was young and pretty, and had a slash-mark in her throat.

     On the way home, I found the Coliseum again, which was cool. By the time I made it back, I had taken two Metro lines (switching lines, I had to hop a turnstile, and from the wrong side, too; because I was a genius and started going the wrong way), a bus, and had done tons of walking. I was very happy to get back home, where I could eat and get water. And go to sleep. Before that was an amusing conversation with Donna, Colleen, Elizabeth, and Gabe (our other residence coordinator), swapping stories about junky cars and tickets.

     Now for the events of today: the Papal Mass. It was AWESOME. I cannot sufficiently stress its awesomeness. So after going to bed rather late last night (because I got distracted and wanted to Skype my family), I got up at 6:15, and made it to the place along the Vatican walls between the Gate of St. Anne and the Doorway of the Angels (Rome ones-- do I have that translation right?), where I met up with Colleen Anderson, Donna Kelly, and Annie Willson. They got there some 5-15 minutes before I did, which was at 7. We stood in line for about an hour, and then they finally let us all into the square. Between Colleen's charging and my speed-walking, we managed to get really good seats. We would have gotten decent seats even if we had been slow, due to the fact that we had tickets, but the speed helped us to get even closer. Then we sat and waited an hour and a half, part of the time being spent saying a Rosary with everyone else in the square.

 

It was pretty chilly outside until nine, when the sun started hitting our backs.
The rays were very welcome.

     Finally, Mass started, and we got to see the Pope!!!!!! Because his chair was behind the altar, it was not possible to see him for the ceremony and for the first half of Mass, but we did get to see him incense the altar, which was so very cool.

 

YAY!!!

 

 

     Today the Pope proclaimed Sts. John of Avila and Hildegarde of Bingen to be Doctors of the Church, which was pretty sweet. There were plenty of very excited Spaniards and Germans to be found at Mass. Some of the more important Spanish women who were up at the front were wearing these HUGE mantillas, complete with big combs. The Germans weren't as decked out, with the exception of the lady in front of us who was wearing a dirndl.

     There was row after row of clergy, and we thought that they would be giving out Communion, until the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when suddenly, MORE priests come pouring out of the Vatican and onto the steps. The priests who were giving out Communion in the main aisle had these dudes next to them with these Vatican umbrellas. It was both awesome and hilarious at the same time. I was very disappointed that our priests didn't have them. Alas. The deprivations we suffer.

     After Mass, we had the Angelus and the Pope read to us concerning... Well, I honestly kind of forget. Sad, I know, but I was so psyched that he was speaking English, that I kind of had a hard time paying attention. He read in several other languages as well.

     Next, the Pope-mobile came careening up the church steps, and the Pope got inside and drove past everyone. People everywhere, including priests in cassocks, got up on the plastic chairs to get a better view/picture of the Holy Father. We thought he was done, the girls and I moved to the back of our section so we could leave once the gates opened. Then the Pope came right past us. We were SO CLOSE! I was standing just three people away from the barrier! It was amazing!

 

 

 

     Getting out was, of course, something of a miniature madhouse, but that's okay. It was a happy madhouse, and we were too psyched to care. It wasn't that bad, anyway. Getting in was worse. No sense of personal space. :) On the way out, there was a fence to my left with people lined up against it, and a Swiss Guard on my side of the fence. I think the lady behind tapped him, because he turned around, and there was this adorable little girl (she was about three years old, with curly blonde hair, so cute). So he shook her hand and wished her a happy Sunday before he left for some other post. I think that made the mom's day. It was adorable.

     By the time we got out of the country (so much fun when you remember that it's its own country), it was about 12:15. I realized that I had spent five hours going to and being in the Vatican. Five. Then came the rest of my breakfast and a very long nap.

 

     And that was my totally awesome weekend, with each day better than the last. The awesomeness level just kept escalating.

     So is living in Italy inconvenient? Definitely. Is it fun to get up early and stand in line for an hour, only to have to wait for another hour and a half? No. But it's so worth it. If nothing else, the events of today make up for all the annoyances of the past month.