Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter! Elise came in Friday night and we were able to sneak into the Lunetta hotel, so we just crashed there. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell Elise how much walking we would be doing, so she didn't bring any walking shoes (Elise would like to add that Angers is much smaller and she has no need of aforementioned walking shoes). Anyway, on Saturday, we went around to all the famous Rome sites- the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, saw a bit of the Trevi fountain in the midst of throngs of tourists and vendors, Piazza Navona, and more of the area around my hotel like Largo Argentina (where Julius Caesar was killed), and the Monument to Victor Emmanuel. We stopped sightseeing rather early and went to St. Peter's to line up for the Vigil Mass- we got there several hours before the gates opened and were plopped in the middle of a large group of Spaniards and Estonians. There was indeed a language barrier. I tried to pull out some of my high school spanish but it was a lost cause. I threw in about 70% italian and they looked at me strangely and in halting english said, "if you speak slowly english we understand". We had an exchange of emails though, so it can't have been that bad. While I was trying this, Elise was going and eating her first gelato at Old Bridge. We had just brought some carry out greek salad and gnocchi pasta with us for dinner, so we sat (in as little space as I can possibly occupy) and ate that in the midst of a whole group in St. Peter's square. Elise is an official convert to Italian food! Once the gates opened, there was a huge crush of people into the lines (there was a buildup for about 15 minutes prior with people shouting "VIVA PAPA!). We were squished, but not separated thankfully, and we sprinted to the door of St. Peter's and ended up with seats in the second row of chairs open to the public! There were about 15 rows of priests in front of us, but we could definitely see the pope celebrating. We were next to 2 Italian boys affiliated with Opus Dei who were from Turin and Milan, so we had a very interesting half english half italian conversation with them- about sports! (and italy and the US in general). The mass did start in near total darkness- only the statues in the wall niches were illuminated- and then we lit our candles, until when the Pope reached the altar, at which point they absolutely flooded St. Peter's with lights which line all along the cornice. The mass was cool, especially the baptisms and confirmations- there were 7 people, representing each area of the world, and they wore native dress, so there were kimonos and south american colorfully embroidered outfits. The mass got out around 1 AM and Elise and I were pretty tired!

We slept in on Sunday and then headed out to see some other sites; we walked through the Campidoglio under a path covered by wisteria, which was really sweet and allowed us to avoid all those horse steps Michelangelo put in, then went to the Forum and walked around the Colosseum. We ate lunch at Tosca so Elise could have pizza, and struck up a conversation with an italian man who told us that we were more Roman because we were more "open" than most foreigners! I love striking up those random conversations and being able to practice my italian, and Elise is just amazing at picking up phrases and pronunciations! We then decided to head out to St. John Lateran, which Elise really liked because it has more of a medieval character towards the back with the tower over the altar and a mosaic along the back wall. After that though we had to book it all the way across town to St. Peter's because we were meeting up with the Notre Dame kids to have dinner cooked by the ND students who study at John Cabot University here in Rome. Poor Elise got a few blisters from that walk and then the walk back later that night! After dinner we came back to studio, checked our email, and headed out to the Trevi Fountain with some limoncello. We just sat there and took pictures and talked and sipped our drinks and it was a lot of fun- a very good way to end the night.

Monday was much more relaxed, mostly because my plans totaly fell through! We were going to go to St. Peter's and see John Paul II's tomb and wander around the basilica before climbing the dome, but the line to get into St. Peter's was the longest I've ever seen it aside from masses- it went all the way around the colonnade inside the square. On our way there though, we heard the funniest line I've heard from a vendor yet- this guy working at a generic souvenir stand called out "we have a special today! Buy one, get my phone number!" Elise and I just about exploded with giggles! After we saw the line for St. Peter's though, we called that plan off and headed instead to the Gianicolo hill, where we could see the Acqua Paula and get a different view from above the city. Then we walked down, had some really good hot chocolate and cappucino at a cafe, and headed out to try and see the Cornaro Chapel and Bernini sculpture at S. Maria della Vittoria, but it was closed. So we headed back, ate a huge lunch at Insalata Ricca, and relaxed before getting some gelato and taking Elise back to Termini to catch her bus to Ciampino. I should have some pictures once Elise emails them to me, so hopefully you can see some more of Rome! I'm also going to try and aim to get more drawings done in my sketchbook ( I got one done while waiting for the mass to start in St. Peter's of the baldicchino) and borrow someone else's really sweet camera and just go around the city taking all of my favorite pictures. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a ton of stuff I should do between now and the time I leave in 2 weeks, but that's the preliminary list. Now that the official tourist season has begun with Easter, I'm ready to be a tourist myself!