Here Come the Catholics

Sunday, April 1, 2007 (Palm Sunday)

So April Fool's Day is Palm Sunday. I think that's ironic.

So because we had to do the crazy Catholic thing and get to St. Peter's at an ungodly hour in order to get a decent seat for Palm Sunday, I was up at 6:00. I don't think the shindig started until ten or ten-thirty, but I'm not a hundred percent certain on that. We had a long ride into the Vatican (taking the bus, to metro B, to metro A, and then walking a few blocks to stand in line) and then had to wait a long time before they opened the gates. Unlike the day before, today there was security to get into St Peter's Square. I think I'm getting good at it -- you know, taking all the change out of my pockets, putting everything in my purse, etc. You'd think that since September 11th and all of the other terrorist attacks and attempts, people would be used to going through security and it wouldn't take them ten minutes to empty their pockets and then still get buzzed going through the gate. A lot of those people tend to be over the age of 45. Later in the week, we just queued up behind young people or nuns (they don't have anywhere to hide stuff, and I assume they're just honest people). It saved a lot of time and aggravation.

Once we made it through security, it was a mad dash to the next gate where they were checking tickets and handing out olive branches. I'm pretty sure that this particular "they" doesn't refer to the Swiss Guards, but I'm not entirely certain. Again, there was a mad dash to get a good seat. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. And just when we thought we couldn't wait any longer, we waited. I didn't mind overly much because it was a nice day and there were a lot of people to watch. And by "a lot," I mean thousands. The Square was almost entirely full of people, and there was a lot of yelling and chanting going on -- usually something along the lines of "Viva la Papa!"

So then things got off with a bang when we had all these cardinal guys and church VIP's parade through St. Peter's Square with their palms and olive branches. Then came the man himself -- Pope Benedict XVI. He was in his Pope-mobile and came pretty close to us, which was kind of cool. I think there were a lot more people there who were a lot more excited than I was. Don't get me wrong, it was cool to see a Pope, but after all, he is just a man -- a very religiously powerful man, but a man nonetheless.

The mass itself was held in many different languages including English, Latin, Italian, French, Portugese, German, Swahili, and maybe a few others that I'm forgetting. Mostly it was Latin or Italian, but different prayers or readings were in the other languages. And then we got to open a rather large can of worms and start communion.

Now I was always raised to believe that I could recieve Communion anywhere because we're all God's children, and if we've been baptized and confirmed, then its all good. So naturally, I went up to recieve Communion. I should mention at this point that I'm Lutheran, and this fact will play a bigger role as the week wears on. After we got our lovely little wafers, Meghan and I returned to our seats, and as I glanced over, I saw her face blanche. When I asked her what was wrong, she said that I shouldn't have recieved Communion because I wasn't Catholic and that she was "deeply offended." At this point, I just ignored her Catholic BS and didn't let it bother me because, as far as I was concerned, she was wrong. So I moved on with life.

After the mass, Pope Benny disappeared into St Peter's and people started to leave. As we were getting to the gates, a cry went up and we looked where all the people were pointing. There was Pope Benny in his window waving at us. Or maybe he was blessing us. He was really far away, and when he's that tiny, it's hard to tell the difference. But I got a picture of it. Which was cool.

After all of the hullabaloo calmed down, we walked through Tink-Town to kill time until it was late enough to eat lunch. Meghan and I found a restaurant near the Vatican for a meal, and I ordered Risotto with Seafood. It was pretty decent, and I have to say, it kept me full for most of the day, so it gets props for that. However, the waitress brought bread to out table, and since we ate some, we had to pay for the basket. Something to keep in mind. The food was decent, but the bill was slightly outrageous. Not as outrageous as later in the week, but you'll hear about that later. Another thing to keep in mind -- don't eat near the Vatican.

From here, we revisited Tink-Town and I bought a Louis Vuitton messenger bag knockoff. After looking at it since then, I think it might just be a second, which is just fine with me. I paid more for it than I've ever paid for a bag before, but I've used it a lot since then.

After my splurge, we stumbled across Piazza Navona, which was going to become one of my favorite places in Rome. I had a tiramisu and mixed berry gelato and changed things over from my crappy little wannabe backpack to my new bag. We did a lot of people watching because Piazza Navona is pretty much amazing. There are three fountains there, and lots of street vendors and artists. You also have cafes set up around the outside of the Piazza, so there's a lot of activity. For a while, we heard a band playing music near one of the cafes -- I thought it was amusing that they were playing "Blueberry Hill."

Then Meghan convinced me to get on a bus tour. I have to say that this was one of my least favorite experiences of my entire time in Rome. My headphones weren't working, and because it was a hop-on, hop-off tour, there was no actual guide. We were pretty much driven around Rome for a little over an hour and had to pay thirteen Euro for the priviledge. I absolutely hated it because thirteen Euro was almost seven gelatos or a really nice meal with dessert. That was a lot of money to waste on something as kitschy as this tour was. For anybody else going, I'd advise you to just get a map and walk -- there's certainly enough to see and do on your own and it's free.

After we got off that wretched bus, we walked over to Trevi Fountain. I find Trevi Fountain to be too busy and too touristy to really appreciate. It kind of drove me nuts. There are people everywhere taking pictures and pushing, and really annoying vendors with noise-makers running around. I got really good at telling people to leave me alone or glaring at them until they got the message. But the big thing you're supposed to do at Trevi Fountain is to throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain. If you throw one, it means you come back to Rome someday. If you throw another, you get to make a wish. Now some people got really into this whole coin throwing thing and were tossing back one and two euro coins. I went absolutely minimalist and plunked in a two-cent-er. Why waste money, especially since I had already thrown away thirteen Euro that day. Around this area, I found a man with watercolors and bought one from him of a scene looking down an alley. It was really quite pretty.

We then wandered back toward Piazza Navona, and managed to find the St. Matthew paintings by Botticelli on the way. It was pretty cool, even though I really didn't know what I was looking at. I wish Barbara had been there then, because she's a veritable encyclopedia of art history (that's her major at Penn State). So we took some pictures -- without flash -- and continued on.

Back in Piazza Navona, we did more people watching and took some pictures. I love taking pictures of people in their natural habitats, and especially of wannabe professional photographers. I just think its funny that they tell people how to sit and pose and think. It's pretty much ridiculous.

Even though neither of us was starving, we knew it'd be a good idea to get some dinner so we wouldn't be hungry back at CFab. So we made our way to the Pantheon, I think by accident, and found some tourist menus there. A tourist menu usually consists of something to drink, maybe an appetizer, and a main course for about nine or ten Euro. That night we got fettucini alfredo, amazing bruschetta, and I had white wine. We also had a basket of bread with olive oil that we drizzled onto our plates, and I had a cappiccino. The whole thing was about thirteen Euro. While we were eating, street performers were walking around either singing or playing an instrument. There was an older man who was playing an accordian, and instead of playing some sort of appropriate song, he played "Roll Out the Barrel," which I found to be very funny. You'd have thought that I would have left the Germanic culture back in Vienna, but apparently not.

After dinner, we headed back to the metro station, and on the way passed a bunch of shops that we decided we should revisit when they were going to be open again. Just before we crossed an intersection, we ran into two girls from Galway who were in the same study abroad program Meghan was. So we stood and chatted for about ten or fifteen minutes, but it started to get late and we needed to get home before the buses stopped running.

At the end of this outline entry in my notebook, I have some observations about Rome. I'll just post them here, hopefully without going on forever about them.

My nose had a sunburn. On one side. It kind of reminded me of going to football games freshman year because I would only get sun on one side of my body and then look silly for the next three or four days.

I've also decided that I want to get a dress for when I go home. Unfortunately, I didn't find one in Rome, but I did find one in Vienna, and I pretty much love it. And it looks good.

The temperature varied a lot throughout the day in Rome. Layers were definitely a good thing, but like usual, I packed a bit too light. I was convinced I wouldn't be cold, but somedays I was very glad I had brought my scarf with me.

There seemed to be an abnormally large amount of couples walking around. Usually holding hands. I might have been more sensitive to this because I was missing Matt, but I think that, even if I had been single when I went, that I would have had the same impression.

People watching is the thing to do in Rome. Grab a gelato and park youself on a bench near a fountain somewhere and you've got good entertainment for at least a couple of hours. Because I spent the entire break in Rome, there was no need to rush around to see everything, so we had a lot of time to just relax and people watch. I think it was one of my favorite parts of being there.

At this point in the trip, I was starting to get my bearings, and I had a better idea of where things were in relation to each other. That doesn't mean that I never pulled out my map, quite the contrary, but I was more comfortable with the city.

I also noticed that I had a habit of wanting to speak German to people to get my point across. It's the weirdest sensation to hear a language like Italian, realize it's not English, and want to switch to German. I'm also very used to using German phrases like "tschuldigung" to say "excuse me" and hadn't quite gotten used to saying "scuzzi" instead. I've also decided that language barriers have to be the most frustrating thing in the world. It makes me want to keep learning new languages so I never have that problem.

I've also decided that I like Rome a lot more in the evenings. For some reason, right around seven or so, all of the tourists just disappear. I don't know if that's because they're so tired that they go back to their hotels, or if they get sucked into restaurants, but the city is a lot emptier. It also got a bit cooler and much, much calmer, which suited me just fine.

Since this post is getting a bit long, I'll cut it off here and start the next one with April second.

Ciao,
Amanda