Hello again. It has been brought to my attention that while I occasionally mention some people by name, other are unfortunately left nameless because they are incorporated into that tiny little word English speakers refer to as “we.” In general, my use of “we” includes (but is not limited to) my roomies: Laura, Eileen, Kristin (my immediate roomie), Brooke and Jen.
I just wanted to throw it out there that I could not be blessed with a better group of friends. We all get along amazingly well and are drama-free (it’s the way to be). We’re constantly smiling, laughing and laughing. (That sentence may have been redundant, but it’s the truth.) I honestly believe that my current Roma experience would not have been the same if I hadn’t met these rad friends.
Sidenote: Rad is a pretty sweet word that seems to have gotten lost in a previous decade. Please help me find it and bring it back to the twenty tens.
With that said, thank you Jen, Brooke, Kristin, Eileen and Laura for being awesome—truly awesome in every sense of the word.
Ok, well I should probably get to the post-y post part of a blog. Today was a free day, so I guess I’ll tell you about my day. (Isn’t that exactly what you’re not supposed to say? Probably. But yet again, I’m practicing for my future career as an insomniac and am running on very little sleep.)
This morning started bright and early. At 6:30, my alarm woke me up and I got dressed. Making sure to cover up my scandalous shoulders and knees, we (aka: the roomies and I) jetted off to the Vatican for the papal mass. We didn’t pick up our tickets last night, so we needed to get them this morning. Unfortunately, no one had read the e-mail we received saying that our tickets would be held at a place not near the Vatican. Go figure. A few members of our large group hopped in a cab and eventually returned with the tickets. This process was much more complicated, but I figured you wouldn’t want to hear about it.
We found some seats and the pope eventually emerged in his pope mobile. Everyone stood on their seats to get the best views, but my short stature made it difficult for me to get a good picture. I did see him, so that’s a plus!
The papal mass begin and we sat there for seemingly forever (sorry, Grandma). You think regular mass isn’t too thrilling? Try sitting through 90 minutes of a “mass” in foreign languages. The majority of this “mass” was spent announcing different groups of people from different dioceses in different countries, complete with a rambunctious cheer from the aforementioned group.
Eventually mass ended, so we found a nearby pizza place and I consumed a calzone. It wasn’t anything spectacular, so a picture is not included. Please don’t be disappointed. Our extremely large group eventually split up to see the sites.
Eric and I ended up at the Castel de Sant’Angelo, and what a castle it was. I felt like I was in the middle of Harry Potter meets the most epic childhood game of “house.” (Is that not Lord Voldy in the picture?!) I’m not kidding. This castle was just “AHHHHH!!!” (This is not an adjective, but it perfectly describes my emotions while I was inside the structure.)
It was sort of a war museum, with a few exhibits in some rooms. We saw canons, rifles, battle gear, swords, and the like. Other rooms were artsy, as they had beautifully painted ceilings and relics inside of them. We even saw one of the flags that used to fly on the building (which was cleverly deduced by my excellent ability to read Italian words as if they were in Spanish).
Some of the relics dated back to the 15th century, so it was just really neat to see how well preserved everything was. The irony of this is that, while everything looked in near perfect condition, there was no preservation technique. Pieces of plastic covered the front of the paintings, but any attention deficit tourist could easily touch the painting by either going over or under the plastic.
When we were not exploring the war/artsy parts, we plundered the castle. That’s not quite the word I was looking for, but I’m sure you get the gist of it. Most of the castle was free range, so we could explore corridors, jail cells, terraces, and even the very top of the building. The view from the top was spectacular. You could see the tops of most every basilica in Rome and it was just so freeing to see life beyond the polluted streets on which we so often walked.
For dinner, a group of us intended to visit Bir & Fud, but we forgot to make a reservation. We ended up at the same restaurant we ate at for Jen’s birthday and I got my meal of tasty chicken (again). The remainder of the evening was spent eating Nutella and finalizing plans for this weekend.
A group of us will be traveling to Venice and Florence for the weekend (eek!) so my Internet access will be non-existent. Upon my return to Rome, I’ll be posting for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Therefore, this will be my last post for the next few days.
Before I go, I just wanted to throw out a very happy early 19th birthday to mi hermana, Krista. Sorry I can’t be with you on your special day, but I’m sure you’ll have no problem eating my share of your birthday cake.
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