Today we ventured to Vatican City. It’s really interesting that this one area by Rome is its own country (I’m assuming a no-fly-zone as well). There we visited St. Peter’s Basilica; the single most massive holy ground I’ve ever stepped foot in. The letters atop it are taller than the people at its steps who appear as ants. St. Peter’s Square is a wide expanse and I see why: All the people that come to see the pope fill it up (not quite so much today, but surely on holidays). The basilica is ornately decorated as most of the churches I’ve seen in Europe are. The height of the ceiling which gives an almost limitless amount of space for decoration makes the difference, however. It was here that I attended my first Catholic mass (I’ve previously only walked through during pancake breakfast ticket sales at Sacred Heart). The mass was in Latin so most of us who attended didn’t exactly know what was going on. There was one passage that was read in English amongst other languages though. I was grateful that I sat next to Betty, because she informed me on the procedure regarding the Eucharist: Open your mouth or take it with my right hand over my left. When I received it though, I didn’t immediately eat it so the man stopped me briefly with his hand and motioned that I do so. He was pretty nice to me about it, as opposed to Cambria who walked away to have her guy run and snatch it back from her angrily.
Right after mass we had to work our way through the crowds leaving to meet our group by the fountain in front of the building where Pope Benedict was to greet the crowd. I was impressed with how he spoke to be honest. He gave quite a few benedictions in many languages which was pretty awesome. His voice is softer than I expected. For some reason I’m still used to John Paul as the pope.
After the benediction, a few of us ventured to the tomb of the popes. Some of the graves have chiseled bodies atop the coffins. The only grave I couldn’t take pictures of was, of course, John Paul’s. There were a fair amount of people paying their respects to his grave. Since my trip to Graceland, in terms of famous grave I’ve seen, the pope ranks first and Elvis second. We’ll see how Jim Morrison goes.
After lunch we headed to the Coliseum with only an hour and a half left before closing. With that much time left we decided to decline the audio tour in favor of saving time avoiding yet another line. The building is impressive, although the arena floor is gone exposing the maze of hallways beneath. Gladiator helps me fill in the gaps of what the place used to look like. I really want to see Way of the Dragon now for the Lee vs. Norris fight that occurs there. I’m surprised the film Jumper got permission to shoot on the ruins of the floor.
After dinner we walked to the Spanish Steps and the Trinata Dei Monti behind it. It is quite a sight to see. Along the way we saw the four fountains of Via Delle Quatro Fontane where each is on the corner where two streets meet. Rome really is a beautiful city utilizing its ancient buildings with the modern ones. Eva told us of apartments today that are within the ancient buildings. It would be pretty cool to tell people that you live in the Coliseum.
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