So much has happened since I last blogged that I felt overwhelmed and have have hardly had a minute to type out my thoughts and observations. Well.. okay, I have had some down time. But I've either been napping, reading, or working on my crossword puzzle book. I guess today I'm feeling.. descriptive?
Okay, ROME:
Our last days in Rome were spectacular!
On Wednesday, we went to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. While there's so much to tell about what I saw that day, I'll just cover the highlights.
In the Vatican, I really enjoyed the Raphael rooms and a giant map room that had maps of all the provinces of Rome. I remember learning about the provinces in Mr. Rau's Latin class in high school, and it was cool to see how ancient yet accurate they were. I even found fair Verona on one of the maps!
Unfortunately, I lost our tour guide in the Egyptian room, and latched onto another group of kids from my study abroad group (Lizzie and Lanier had quickly run through the Vatican and gone to lunch. I don't think they're really into museums!) I knew the Pope was supposed to speak at 11 a.m., and I told some of the kids in my group we should head out if we wanted to hear the Pope. Someone thought they knew a shortcut, but sadly the shortcut didn't work out and we didn't get to hear the Pope speak. I was devastated..
Fortunately, our small group later found the big group with our awful tour guide as they were about to enter St. Peter's. And so into St. Peter's I went.
There are very few words to describe the beauty of this masterpiece. I just ambled through on my own, gaping at the vastness of the Basilica and, of course, trying to translate the Latin on the upper walls.
Later, after I had seen where all the Popes were laid to rest below St. Peter's, I was happy to find a gift shop where I bought a pretty rosary from one of the nuns. I already told Lisa, my devoutly Catholic friend and roommate for this fall, that it's going in our room!
As I mentioned before, I was sad not to see the Pope speak. HOWEVER.. the last night of our program, Martin (our trip coordinator a.k.a. my 3rd grandfather) took us all to dinner at a really nice outdoor restaurant near Santa Maria Maggiore. It is here where the Pope was supposed to give a blessing that night, one of the few times of year he leaves the Vatican City.
After dinner, we went to Santa Maria Maggiore church and watched the procession begin: nuns arrived first, then monks, priests, bishops, cardinals, and finally.. THE POPE! Yes, we were about 30 feet away from him! Even though I'm only "water-down Catholic" (Episcopalian), I felt very privileged and honored when the Pope blessed the crowd with his scepter. It truly was a great way to end a great study abroad experience..
..and the beverages and reverie on the hotel rooftop later that evening was fun too ;)
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