"Viva La Papa!!!"

Wednesday, April 3, 2007

So it was Papal Audience Wednesday. Every Wednesday, Pope Benny holds an audience where he blesses the masses at St Peter's and pretty much has a pep rally. And helps out the local religious kitsch tinks in the process. By blessing pretty much anything and everything in the Square, he's also blessing rosaries and stuff, so the tinks outside the gates love Wednesdays because all the wannabe good Catholics go out and buy plastic rosaries that would be valued for two dollars anywhere else and pay somewhere around ten Euro for them.

Anyway, we had to be up early so we got a good seat for the audience, so the day began almost at daybreak. Again.

Now the neatest thing about the Vatican is the army of Swiss Guards. I'm pretty much convinced that these guys are the coolest thing since sliced bread. I mean, look at their outfits!! They were red and yellow and blue costumes with big helmets that have red feathers on top. You really have to be a man's man to pull that one off. Apparently, they were designed by Michelangelo when he was having a spat with one of the Popes. I think Michelangelo got the last laugh in that one, don't you?

The Swiss Guards (henceforth to be referred to as SG's because I have issues spelling "Guards" without a lot of thought) must speak a lot of languages. We were about ten feet from two of them and I heard them speak at least four different languages when people approached them and asked them questions. Because they're so nifty, I'm going to copy/paste some information about them from Wikipedia, which I've refrained from doing for the whole of my Roman holiday.

The Corps of the Pontifical Swiss Guard or Swiss Guard (Ger: Schweizergarde, Ital. Guardia Svizzera Pontificia, Lat. Pontificia Cohors Helvetica, or Cohors Pedestris Helvetiorum a Sacra Custodia Pontificis) as part of the Military of the Vatican City is an exception to the Swiss rulings of 1874 and 1927. It is a small force responsible for the security of the Apostolic Palace, the entrances to the Vatican City and the safety of the Pope. Its official language is German.

The history of the Swiss Guards has its origins in the 15th century. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) already made a previous alliance with the Swiss Confederation and built barracks in Via Pellegrino after foreseeing the possibility of recruiting Swiss mercenaries. The pact was renewed by Innocent VIII (1484-1492) in order to use them against the Duke of Milan. Alexander VI (1492-1503) later actually used the Swiss mercenaries during their alliance with the King of France. During the time of the Borgias, however, the Italian wars began in which the Swiss mercenaries were a fixture in the front lines among the warring factions, sometimes for France and sometimes for the Holy See or the Holy Roman Empire. The mercenaries enlisted when they heard King Charles VIII of France was going to raise a war against Naples. Among the participants in the war against Naples was Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II (1503-1513), who was well acquainted with the Swiss having been Bishop of Lausanne years earlier. The expedition failed in part thanks to new alliances made by Alexander VI against the French. When Cardinal della Rovere became pope, Julius II in 1505 asked the Swiss Diet to provide him with a constant corps of 200 Swiss mercenaries. In September 1505, the first contingent of 150 soldiers started their march towards Rome, under the command of Kaspar von Silenen, and entered the Vatican on January 22, 1506, today given as the official date of the Guard's foundation. "The Swiss see the sad situation of the Church of God, Mother of Christianity, and realize how grave and dangerous it is that any tyrant, avid for wealth, can assault with impunity, the common Mother of Christianity," declared Ulrich Zwingli, a Swiss Catholic who later became a Protestant reformer. Pope Julius II later granted them the title "Defenders of the Church's freedom"^[1].

The force has varied greatly in size over the years and has even been disbanded. Its first, and most significant, hostile engagement was on May 6, 1527 when 147 of the 189 Guards, including their commander, died fighting the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V during the Sack of Rome in order to allow Clement VII to escape through the Passetto di Borgo, escorted by the other 40 guards. The last stand battlefield is located on the left side of St Peter's Basilica, close to the Campo Santo Teutonico (German Graveyard).

The Swiss Guard has served the popes since the 1500s as the papal army. Ceremonially, they shared duties in the Papal household with the Palatine Guard and Noble Guard, both of which were disbanded in 1970 under Paul VI. Today the Papal Swiss Guard have taken over the ceremonial roles of the former Vatican units, serving now as the army of the sovereign state of the Vatican. At the end of 2005, there were 134 members of the Swiss Guard. This number consisted of a Commandant (bearing the rank of "oberst" or Colonel), a chaplain, three officers, one sergeant major ("feldwebel"), 30 NCOs, and 99 "halberdiers", the rank equivalent to private (so called because of their traditional Halberd).

Building on their training in their traditional service in the Swiss military, members wear a long sword (officers a rapier or straight sabre) and receive instruction in the ceremonial use of their halberd on a four-sided pole which is held on their right during marches, drill, and regular formations in their official duties around the Vatican. The halberd includes a loose metal ring just below the halberd blade which adds a loud clink when an individual or formation comes to attention. Other weapons and regalia carried by higher ranking non-halberdiers include: a command baton, a partisan, a flamberge (a wavy two-handed sword), and breastplate with shoulder guards. Headwear is typically a black beret for daily duties, while a black or silver morion helmet with red, white, yellow and black, and purple ostrich feather is worn for ceremonial duties, the former for guard duty or drill; the latter for high ceremonial occasions such as the annual swearing in ceremony or reception of foreign heads of state. The Guard also engages in yearly rifle competition and receives self-defense instruction, as well as basic instruction on defensive bodyguard tactics not dissimilar to those used in the protection of many heads of state. ^[2]

The guards must be Catholic, unmarried males with Swiss citizenship who have completed basic training with the Swiss military and can obtain certificates of good conduct. New recruits must have a professional diploma or high school degree and must be between 19 and 30 years of age and at least 174 cm (5'9") tall^[3].

Qualified candidates must apply to serve. If accepted, new guards are sworn in every May 6 in the San Damaso Courtyard (Italian: Cortile di San Damaso) in the Vatican. (May 6 is the anniversary of the Sack of Rome.) The chaplain of the guard reads aloud the oath in the language of the guard (mostly German, some French, a little Italian):

(German version) "Ich schwöre, treu, redlich und ehrenhaft zu dienen dem regierenden Papst [name] und seinen rechtmäßigen Nachfolgern, und mich mit ganzer Kraft für sie einzusetzen, bereit, wenn es erheischt sein sollte, selbst mein Leben für sie hinzugeben. Ich übernehme dieselbe Verpflichtung gegenüber dem Heiligen Kollegium der Kardinäle während der Sedisvakanz des Apostolischen Stuhls. Ich verspreche überdies dem Herrn Kommandanten und meinen übrigen Vorgesetzten Achtung, Treue und Gehorsam. Ich schwöre, alles das zu beobachten, was die Ehre meines Standes von mir verlangt."

(English translation) "I swear to faithfully, honestly and honorably serve the reigning Pope [name of Pope] and his legitimate successors, and to dedicate myself to them with all my strength, ready to sacrifice, should it become necessary, even my own life for them. I likewise assume this promise toward the members of the Sacred College of Cardinals during the period of the Sede Vacante of the Apostolic See. Furthermore, I pledge to the Commandant and to my other superiors respect, fidelity, and obedience. I swear to abide by all the requirements attendant to the dignity of my rank."

When his name is called, each new guard approaches the Swiss Guard's flag, grasping the banner in his left hand. He raises his right hand with his thumb, index, and middle finger extended along three axes, a gesture that symbolizes the Holy Trinity, and speaks:

"Ich, [Name des Rekruten], schwöre, alles das, was mir soeben vorgelesen wurde, gewissenhaft und treu zu halten, so wahr mir Gott und seine Heiligen helfen."

"I, [name of the new guard], swear to diligently and faithfully abide by all this which has just been read to me; may The Almighty and His Saints be my witnesses."

The term of service is between two and 25 years. The official dress uniform is of blue, red, orange and yellow with a distinctly Renaissance appearance. A repeated historical misconception is that the dress uniform was designed by Michelangelo. In fact, guard commander, Commandant Jules Repond (1910-1921) created the present uniforms in 1914. While the uniforms of the Swiss Guard bearing Pope Julius II on a litter (painted by Raphael) is often cited as inspiration for the Swiss Guard uniform, the actual uniforms worn by those soldiers are of the style which appears by today's standards as a large skirt, a common style in uniforms during the Renaissance. A very clear expression of the modern Swiss Guard uniform can be seen in a 1577 fresco by Jacob Coppi of the Empress Eudoxia conversing with Pope Sixtus III. It is clearly the precursor of today's recognizable three-colored uniform with boot covers, white gloves, a high or ruff collar, and either a black beret or a black morion (silver for high occasions). Sergeants wear a black top with crimson leggings, while other officers wear an all-crimson uniform. The regular duty uniform is more functional, consisting of a simpler solid blue version of the more colorful tri-color grand gala uniform, worn with a simple brown belt, a flat white collar and a black beret. For new recruits and rifle practice, a simple light blue overall with a brown belt may be worn. During cold or inclement weather, a dark blue cape is worn over the regular uniform. The original colors (blue and yellow) were issued by Pope Julius II taking his family (Della Rovere) colors, Pope Leo X added the red to reflect his family's Medici colors.

After the May 13, 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II by Mehmet Ali Agca, a much stronger emphasis has been made on the Swiss Guards' functional, non-ceremonial roles. This has included extended training in unarmed combat and with issue SIG P 75 pistols (a.k.a. P220) and Heckler & Koch submachine-guns.

Alrighty, now that I've had my SG fix, we can continue on with the rest of the Papal Audience. So the Pope got to ride around in his Pope-mobile, and because we got lucky, we were only about ten feet from him. It was kind of cool. Not quite as cool as the SG's, but cool. When Pope Benny got up, he had messages for different groups of people based on their languages. There was a lot of repetition again, but it was pretty awesome to hear all these different languages -- Italian, German, Portugese, Spanish, Swahili, etc. He said hello to IES, a Lutheran Diocese (oh, the irony), and the kids from UNIV. I'm not quite sure what UNIV is, but they had about half a million people in the Square. I think it might have to do with World Youth Day or something, but I'm not sure, and honestly, I'm not interested enough to actually research it. The Audience lasted a good long while, somewhere around two hours or so. That seems to be the norm for this sort of Catholic stuff. One of the most commonly heard phrases during those two hours was "Viva la Papa!!" which was shouted by the Hispanic contingents in the Square. They got really emotional when the Pope was being driven around before the Audience. Either way, I was still convinced I wasn't converting any time soon.

As we were leaving the Square, we walked down the street and noticed a tink picking up his stand and hoofing it down the street. Then we looked around the corner and saw a police car getting ready to turn. It was one of those hilarious instances you probably had to be there to enjoy.

After our stint being Catholic, we went to Piazza dell Popolo where there are two churches that look like they're almost mirror-images. Inside the one were sculptures of feminine virtues. I think I lack them all, but that's ok because Matt likes me anyway. :-)

From Piazza dell Popolo, we found our way to the Spanish Steps, which were kind of disappointing. All week, we had seen paintings and pictures with flowers and a severe lack of people, but when we got there, the situation was reversed. It was crazy crowded and there were absolutely no flowers. But we had mozzarella and tomato sandwiches for a snack (they don't exactly qualify as lunch) and people watched for a bit. In one street leading off of the Piazza Spagna, there is all this posh shopping and there was a ginormous LV bag where a store was being built. We also had a Roman gladiator who was directing traffic while the police stood on the corner and watched. That situation gets an *eyebrow.*

Since we didn't have much to do for the rest of the day, we headed for the Piazza Navona and had a gelato binge. Literally. I got a cone with cinnamon and caramel first. The cinnamon was really pretty amazing. It's high on the list of favorites. Then once we finished that cone, we walked about a hundred feet down the street and got another one. This one was chocolate and coconut. I had that in honor of Mom, who really likes that combination of flavors.

After we had our gelato fill, at least for a few hours, we walked back to the Piazza Navona and shopped the water color paintings. There was one guy that had paintings of window scenes. Now I absolutely fell in love with the windows in Rome. So many of them had flowers around them or curtains fluttering in the breeze. It turns out the man's name is Diago and we had bought gelato from his brother (he was the chocolate/coconut stop). He agreed to give me a deal on three paintings, and I promised to come back the next day after I hit up an ATM.

Then we walked very slowly to the Pantheon for dinner. But we were still there ridiculously early. Most Italians don't eat until after eight or nine, and we were trying to fit in as much as possible. I think we managed to put off eating until seven or so that night, but we ran out of windows to shop, or else we might have manged a bit longer. For dinner that night, I had pizza, bruschetta, and a glass of white wine. Again, it was really good, but I ate the pizza in the "barbaric" American fashion with my hands instead of suffering through cutting bite-sized pieces. It's just not worth the effort.

After dinner, I had another gelato stop -- this one was lemon and strawberry. Again, it was really good, and the guy behind the counter remembered us. You know you eat a lot of gelato when they start to recognize you. I thought it was awesome, but as usual, Meghan thought completely differently.

When we got back to CFab, we had a new roommate. Stephan had moved on and Olaf was staying just for the night. He was a middle-aged German.

"It is now about fifteen years since I had a happy hour"

The quote from the title of this particular post is by Michelangelo in a letter to his father when he was almost done painting the Sistine Chapel.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Tuesday started out very similarly to the other days -- I got up first and took care of everything while Meghan got ready. As we crossed the street to the bus stop, I was reminded of the traffic you see in cartoons -- all the cars are racing through the streets and then there is a red light and the traffic races from the other direction. The majority of Italian cars are either black or silver, there's not a whole lot of other colors to be found. But motorcycles and Vespas abound. They weave in and out of the traffic and sometimes get so close to the cars that they're passing that I wince for them.

Today was going to be our holy day, so we had the Vatican Museums and St Peter's on the itinerary. And by we, I mean me. Meghan was completely happy, or so she said, letting me plan the entire tour by myself because she got to do her religious things. As we were walking toward St Peter's from metro A, we saw a huge line for the Vatican Museums. Since it was only about 10:30, we figured we should get in line since it would only get worse. And I'm sure it did get worse, but we stood in line for two hours. It was just a bit ridiculous. Luckily for me, I had brought my guidebook with me and had something to read. Meghan entertained herself.

Once we got inside, we walked past about a bazillion statues. There was actually a lot of statues of ancient gods and goddesses, which now that I think about it, might be a little weird. Some of them were really pretty and/or well-done, but after a while, it got to be "just another statue." If you go, make sure you look at the floors and the ceiling, pretty much wherever you are in Europe, not just in the Vatican. So many places have intricate art on these often-overlooked places. To get to the Sistine Chapel, you have to wind through the rest of the Vatican Museums, which wouldn't be bad, except that I have a very limited tolerance for museums of any sort -- usually about an hour and a half. So I'm sure I missed seeing some things as I skimmed through everything, but I got the jist. Anyway, we passed through the Hall of Tapestries, and the Hall of Maps, and even an Egyptian exhibit before we got to the apartments. They were kind of cool because the art in them was very elaborate. In one of the apartments, I got to see the "School of Athens" by Raphael, which was super cool because I'd seen it in so many of my textbooks. There were also other interesting paintings and such, but that's the one that sticks out most in my mind. If you want to see pictures of them, they're on my picasa site. Finally, after what felt like walking miles upon miles with sweaty and smelly tourists, I made it to the Sistine Chapel.

There's signs everywhere telling you not to take pictures or video, but when the Chapel is as crowded as it was, there's not much the guards can do. So I walked to the middle of the room and started taking pictures -- sans flash of course. I have to say, I was kind of impressed. The amount of detail that went into each and every painting in the entire room was amazing. Every surface was covered with art, and I can see why Michelangelo spent years and years and years doing this. Which is probably why he had to miss out on happy hour. Poor man.

Once you exit the Sistine Chapel, you get to walk through the Papal Tzchotzki. It's just a collection of useless, and not necessarily pretty, crap that the Church has amassed over a couple thousand years. I wasn't overly impressed by most of it, and I thought a lot of it was extraneous and ridiculous. I know, I'm really showing my Protestant roots right now, aren't I? Anyway, we spent somewhere between two and three hours in the Vatican Museums, which for me is a very long time.

After we regrouped and started heading for Casa Santa Maria, where we needed to go to get the rest of our holy tickets, it was time for a gelato break. This time, I got dark chocolate and amaretto. The dark chocolate was amazing -- it was almost black it was so dark. And the amaretto was good too, once I got past the slightly alcoholic taste. Then we wandered to the Casa Santa Maria and got our tickets from the Sisters there. Luckily, they had the tickets for the rest of the week, so we were good for the events we wanted to see.

Following a short potty break, we had a planning meeting on the steps of Casa Santa Maria. While we were there plotting with our map and guidebook, a friendly American priest sat next to us and gave us some suggestions of where to go. By this point in the week, we had hit up most of the main sights, and were looking for something to do until dinner time. He suggested a walk up to the American chapel, called Santa Susanna, which was near the church that is home to "The Ecstasy of St. Theresa," a somewhat controversial statue that was mentioned in "The Da Vinci Code."

On our way to Santa Susanna, we meandered past the Italian White House, or its equivalent because I can't remember it's actual name, and we saw a VIP arrive in a car with darkened windows. It was kind of cool because all of the guards on duty stopped and saluted. We also found the Four Fountains, an intersection that has a fountain on each corner. Whenever I tried taking a picture of a fountain here, somebody would walk in front of it, or a car would come, or something else would happen so that the picture didn't turn out. I think I must have taken a lot of pictures just to get one that looked decent of each fountain.

We did a quick run-through of Santa Susanna, which was a pretty church, and then visited St Bartholomew's across the street. Finally we found the home of the statue, and I still have no clue what the name of the church is. After a while, they all kind of blend together. At this point in the day, my camera battery was dying and I had to use the flash to get a good picture, which I hate doing, especially in churches.

We started wandering back toward the Pantheon for dinner and found Piazza Benini, which was horribly disappointing. There was a little thing in the middle of this big open area, and it pretty much was boring. But it got a lot more exciting because it started raining. And of course, I didn't have an umbrella or a jacket with me. Oh, well, I didn't melt. But it was hilarious because, just as the priest had predicted, the tinks dropped all their other goods and pulled umbrellas out of hiding places to sell to all of the unprepared people like me. Since I refused to pay for an umbrella because I had one back at CFab, Meghan and I sucked it up and walked over to the Pantheon.

We tried the restaurant across the street that night because we had been so hungry after dinner the night before. This time, we ordered lasagna and bruschetta, and I got a white wine again. It also came with the bread and olive oil. I really enjoyed this meal, and it was so good. Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water. After dinner, I got a cappiccino and my whole bill only came to ten Euro. How cool is that? And on a quick sidenote -- the restaurants all have outside heaters under their umbrellas. They're big gas heaters and they feel wonderful on cool evenings. I think we sat at the restaurant for a good two hours, but nobody tried to hurry us along. What we were really trying to do was wait for the rain to stop so we could get to the metro station with minimal wetness. I think we managed pretty well, but I got to hear my first thunderstorm of the season while we sat under the umbrellas.

I also decided to add that I like Rome right after it rains, pretty much for the same reasons I like it in the evenings -- less people.

"The Contented Person Enjoys the Scenery of a Detour"

Monday, April 2, 2007

Today was our ancient day. I had all these grand plans of seeing the ancient "stuff" that's in Rome, including the Colosseum, the Forum, and Palatine Hill. Since it was going to be a full day, I was up by 8:30 and grabbed a quick shower. To thwart the sun's goal of giving me another red nose, I actually remembered to put on sunscreen today. How cool is that?

Then I got Meghan up and organized my things and made our lunches while she got ready. We ate peanut butter and nutella sandwiches that week in order to save money. I love peanut butter and nutella. It's pretty much amazing. Once Meghan was ready, we ran out to catch the bus to get to town.

Our first stop was the Colosseum. There were tons of people outside waiting to get in and lots of men dressed as gladiators that you could take your picture with if you were willing to pay them. I wasn't, so I didn't. The lines were moving fairly quickly and it seemed like people had a better handle on getting through security here than they did in the Vatican. Once we were inside, we had to purchase tickets, and if you were a student in the EU, you got a discount. Since IES Vienna is in the EU, I presented my card, but they said they couldn't give me the discount, which pretty much sucked. I paid the regular price and got the ticket, which turned out to be a combo for the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill.

Inside the Colosseum was a bit of letdown. I really wasn't very impressed and since then have decided that when I go with Erika and Paul, that we'll just walk around the outside since there's not really much to see inside. There was also an art exhibit in there called "Eros" which had pieces all about love and Cupid/Eros. Once we had walked around the Colosseum -- well, I walked, Meghan kind of lurked behind me -- we went to Palatine Hill.

Palatine Hill is right across the street from the Colosseum, and absolutely gorgeous. It's all green with trees and flowers, and there's a lot of ruins there. We walked for a bit and then found a place to sit and eat our lunch. Then we wandered around a bit more and I took some pictures of the different flowers and the orange trees. I think I liked this place so much because it felt completely seperate from the rest of Rome. It was really quiet and peaceful and the weather was perfect tanktop weather.

From Palatine Hill, we walked through the Forum, which would be a good place to have at least an audioguide. I'll do that with Erika and Paul. It was interesting to see all the ruins, but for the most part, I had no clue what each one was. When we were there, we saw the place where Caesar was cremated and I think it's a little bizarre that people still put flowers and things there today. But whatever makes them happy, I guess. We also found the stone with the flower on it. This ties into a very long story, so if you want to hear about it, ask me and I'll explain it to you. Just suffice it to say that it was a mild obsession to find this particular stone and I was thrilled when I finally saw it.

After all this walking, it was deemed necessary to take a gelato break. Today's flavors were kiwi and passion fruit. The kiwi was amazing, I think it might have been one of my favorites, but the passion fruit was just a little weird.

The next stop on our ancient tour was the Circus Maximus. Now I was expecting something kind of like the Colosseum, which was in pretty good shape. The Circus Maximus is a hole in a field. I mean, it's cool to see all the people hanging out there and such, but there're absolutely no ruins where the Circus Maximus used to be. This incited another round of people watching, and some of the pictures of it can be found on my picture site.

At this point, it was getting close to four o'clock, and I was meeting Barbara at five by Trevi Fountain because she was spending two days in Rome during break. We ambled slowly up to the fountain and found a prime people-watching spot to relax until we found Barbara. It seemed to take forever, but eventually I got a call from her and found her in the crowd. It was a little weird to see her there, just because it's always weird to see people out of context, but very cool at the same time. We waited for a super long time before Wini, Nola, and Lindsay showed up (Barbara was also meeting them because she was traveling with those girls for the rest of break). Then lo and behold, we saw Connor, who is also from IES Vienna and had stopped in Rome for a few days. We invited him to dinner with us and told him where we'd be eating. He decided to walk for a little bit, but he promised to meet up with us later on for dinner.

Once everybody was together, we walked over toward the Pantheon, which is Barbara's favorite building. Meghan and I had had dinner in that area the night before and decided to bring everybody there to eat. Once we got settled and ordered, I got a call from Connor and he joined us. Just about everybody got the fettucini, but I thought I'd branch out a bit with chicken. I was still hungry after I had dinner. The pasta was definitely the better way to go. Dinner was a slightly short event because the girls had to get back to their hostel while public transportation was still running, and they were staying about an hour and a half outside of Rome. I wish I had gotten to see more of them because dinner was a lot of fun, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Since I still had some empty space in my stomach, I decided to make a gelato stop. There's a place near the Pantheon that has really good gelato and really generous scoops. I don't know the name of it, but I'm sure I'd be able to find it again. By the end of the week, the man behind the counter started to recognize us, which I thought was cool, but, of course, Meghan couldn't stand it. Anyway, this time I got strawberry and marscapone. I'm still not quite sure what marscapone is, but it tasted really good. You'll notice in coming posts that I rarely got the same gelato flavor twice because it was one of my missions to try as many flavors as possible, hence the list at the end of my spring break blogs.

It started getting cold, so after we finished our gelato, I asked Meghan to hold my things while I put on my layers again. Some creepy guy came up to me and asked me if I would strip for him. I think I just looked at him incredulously and ignored him. It was so gross! Once I had all my layers on again, we headed for the metro and back to CFab.

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

Roman Holiday, Starring Amanda Hess as Herself

Dear People,

I'm hoping over the next few days to have a major blogfest and get everything posted up until this point, since I've been very busy and I don't want to forget anything. But if I do, please just add a comment, and I'll remember to add it to the final copy when I get home.

Friday March 30, 2007

When I had last left off, I just arrived in Rome. Now let me tell you, Rome is dirty. There is garbage and graffiti everywhere. And pigeons galore. After a couple of days, I got used to it, but it was quite a shock after living in Vienna for a few months because they literally wash the streets here twice a day. As I was walking down the platform, I called Dad because he made me promise I would. Since the train got in a bit later than I thought it would, he had been laying awake between the landline and his cellphone waiting for the call. After I assured him that I had made it to Rome in one piece and I'd survive for a few days on my own, I ventured into the station and bought my week-long bus pass so I'd be able to get between Camping Fabulous and the center of Rome.

And then there I was, all alone in this very big city with just a backpack and a map. It was a bit humbling, especially since I got a little lost right off the bat. But I've heard that that's common, so I'm not too worried about it anymore. Once I got myself headed in the right direction, I made my way to Santa Maria Maggiore. This was where I was going to meet Meghan in a few hours so I spent some time in the church and used their bathroom to freshen up and brush my teeth since the water on the train wasn't potable. It was a really pretty church, and in one of the little alcove things, there was a Mass or something going on. I also thought it was interesting that they had confessionals in English, Italian, French, and Spanish. So I people watched and took some pictures, and then I went outside and sat near the fountain.

The square in front of Santa Maria Maggiore was pretty busy. People were everywhere and there were about a bazillion pigeons. After sitting there for a while, I noticed a strong correlation between the number of pigeons and the number of people present who were eating. It seemed like as the number of sandwiches increased, so did the number of the winged scavengers. So I made sure when I pulled out my food that I guarded it. Of course, there were a few kids present who took after my own heart and chased them away. But then I got to thinking, after seeing people throw crusts and such to the birds, if they fed them to feed them or fed them to watch the riot that ensued. Maybe a bit of both.

A few hours later, I met up with Meghan, who had made it to Rome safe and sound. We decided to go to the hostel right away to put our bags down and relax for a while. Our journey started with a trip back to the Termini to buy Meghan a week pass and took Metro B to EUR Fermi. Rome only has two metros, and they're currently building a third, but because there are so many archeological finds below the surface, its almost impossible to dig. That's why over the past year the Italian government has decided to work together with a team of archeologists who will document the finds as they come across them in the process of digging the metro line. Then once things are documented and the items worth saving have been saved, the construction crew will continue work for all of three feet until the next shard of pottery is found. Metro B is the slightly shadier line in Rome, probably because it avoids the religious section of town, so it's covered in graffiti, some of which is actually pretty good.

After we had reached our stop, it was time to locate the bus that would take us directly to the hostel. This took a bit of time and stamina. Meghan wasn't happy. And that's an understatement. During our quest for Bus 070 or 709, one of the most useful phrase I got to use was "parla ingles?" which translates to "do you know English?" Eventually we stumbled across a stop for the 709 and hopped on. The bus ride lasted about fifteen minutes and we got dropped off right at the entrance for CFab, as I like to call it.

Our reservation was for Chalet C, which was a small cabin with its own bathroom and mini fridge. It had two bunk beds, and for most of our stay there, we had another roommate. Meghan was absolutely horrified about our accomodations, and she made her feelings well-known. But you don't get the Hilton for ten Euro per night, now do you? Had I known that her complaining about our hostel would continue for the rest of the week, I would have just told her to call a hotel right then and there. Her method of dealing with her disappointment was deciding to take a nap, which ended up lasting eighteen hours. That translated into a day in Rome lost and no dinner.

Right now, I just want to warn you all that I've been in Europe long enough to not bother pulling punches anymore. I really admire the Austrians who tell you exactly what they're thinking when they're thinking it, without worrying about being politically correct. And I intend to follow that example, starting in this blog. So if I sound bitter or upset about somethings that happened over my spring break, its because I was, and I don't feel like mincing words any more to try and make people not feel bad about themselves. So, continuing on...

Sometime that evening, we had a boy named Stephan join us. He was from Germany, and mentioned right off the bat that he had a cold and wasn't feeling well. That wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear, but at least we got a bit of warning.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

I was up and moving by 8:30 on Saturday, I mean, I can really take only so much sleeping, and this was really stretching it. It took until ten to get to the front desk because Meghan isn't a morning person, even after almost twenty hours of sleep. The woman at the desk was extremely helpful and gave us a bus schedule and a map of Rome. She also helped us find where the American Catholic contingent to Rome was based, so we could go pick up our tickets for the upcoming religious festivities.

The ride into Rome took about half an hour, and finding the Casa Santa Maria, where the contingent has their offices, seemed to take forever. But we got to walk past some amazing ruins and architecture. We even found Trevi Fountain. It wasn't until a few days later, but it hit me that that was what Rome was all about. You have to get lost and find these amazing places in order to really appreciate the city.

Once we found the Casa Santa Maria, we got our tickets for Palm Sunday Mass and then wandered around looking for a Spar, which is pretty much the European equivalent to Walmart. You can find them everywhere, and they're usually pretty well stocked with anything you'd need for a decent meal. I'm personally a fan of them because they carry nutella and I live across the street from one in Vienna. After we had our peanut butter and nutella on bread lunch, we eventually found our way to St Peter's Cathedral. This took some doing, since it felt like we walked the rest of Rome in order to find it. We were actually really close to it when we had had lunch, but in our wanderings, we ended up south of Vatican City. The area we were in was very interesting and the buildings were so pretty.

Finally, we made our way back to the Tiber River and walked along it to get to St Peter's. At one point, we saw a crowd of people coming toward us carrying sheets with large lumps in them, and as we made our way through them, at the other end of the crowd, there was a single police man. As soon as the cop turned around a walked the other direction, we were overtaken again by the crowd, this time coming back to set up temporary stands with their wares. Mostly men, but a few women too, were selling knock off purses, sunglasses, scarves, and paintings. Meghan called them tinkers, or tinks, and the name stuck. We walked through their little tink town, and sat in St Peter's Square for a while.

Then we took a gelato break -- one of the many to come -- and I got lemon. We ended up near Campo di Fiori to eat our gelato and people watch. I'm personally a fan of doing this. And I love taking pictures of people in their natural environments. You'll hear a lot about my gelato adventures in Rome, and at the end of my spring break blogs, I'll make up a list of all the flavors I tried, and which ones were my favorite.

We commenced wandering Rome again and stumbled across St Ignasius. The church, not the man -- I'm sure he's very dead. I can't particularly remember anything about this church, but I'm sure it was impressive. They all were, and I'm also sure I have pictures of it somewhere in my web albums. Because Matt has absolutely wonderful timing, I got a call from him while we were in the church and ran outside so I could talk to him for just a bit. It was really nice to hear from him, and it made me really happy.

I also can't remember where we ate for dinner that night, apparently it made a real big impression. The only thing I have in my notes about it is "TINY pasta." Yeah, I wasn't impressed.

After dinner, we hopped on the metro and made our way back to CFab and Chalet C, which, upon seeing, Meghan started her complaining again. How nice.

Pre-Spring Break

Alright, here begins the next round of the blog blitz. I'm going to start with the week or so before spring break, move onto my trip to Rome, talk about Mom and Dad's trip to visit me, my weekend in Amsterdam, and my spring break round two. So I hope you all have your reading glasses on, because my fingers are getting a workout! Just keep checking back over the next week, and you should be all caught up before next Friday, when Erika and Paul get here.

I wish IES had posted their midterm schedule much earlier, and I might have been able to add a couple of days to my spring break. As it turned out, I had a German final on a Saturday, and only a term paper for Econ due the Tuesday of midterms week. So I had a lot of free time on my hands. Luckily for us, Barbara's birthday was going to be over break, so Andre organized a surprise party for her a week early so we could all celebrate together. It also set off a series of arts and crafts projects, which I'll get to in just a bit.

On that Sunday, there were about fifteen to twenty people tucked away in Andre and Seth's apartment (they live above Barbara and Adrianne). At the appointed time, Andre called up Barbara and told her that he needed her help with something and she had to come down right away. Luckily for her, she got dressed first and didn't come down in her pj's, or else she might have had a really big surprise. Since they have an entry way, we closed the doors to the living room area, which are never closed. Barbara was a little suspicious and Andre just told her that the doors were broken. As she opened the doors, she saw some of the boys posed together, and when she stepped in the room, we all yelled surprise. Unfortunately for us, Barbara is one of those people who don't really register surprise on their faces, so we didn't get any amazing pictures right then.

The boys had gotten a cake and a hunk of gelato, which had about twelve flavors or so (it was heaven). Some other people brought wine or crackers or such, Mandy and Wini and I brought an IOU. We were a bit behind on our project. But it was a very nice afternoon, and a break from being home in my apartment, which I tend to hole up in on weekends. We ate, drank, and played with balloons. How much better can it get?

Monday and Tuesday were crazy crafting days. Mandy, Wini, and I made Barbara a scrapbook for her birthday, so we went through everybody's pictures, saved the ones we liked, pared down those to a managable level, and had them printed. Then we went shopping for scrapbooking supplies and scissors. Because it was split three ways, we could spend a bit more than we would have otherwise been able to. All day Tuesday was spent with scissors and glue in hand, and we really churned out an amazing scrapbook, if I do say so myself. We tried to organize it according to different places we'd been or things we had seen with Barbara, and each page had about 3-4 pictures on it. I had done most of the cutting, gluing, and such, then Mandy and Wini came in when they were dry enough and wrote captions or filled the blank space with silly stories or poems pertaining to the pictures. I have to say, I was really proud of how well it turned out.

We made a concerted effort to finish on Tuesday because Barbara had gotten some bad news and needed to be cheered up. The book did that. It made her laugh, and I think she really liked it. I'm still so proud of it!!!

That night, we had plans to make French Toast at my apartment, but Barbara was MIA. Mandy and I were a bit worried about her, so we took our supplies, including the toast and the scrambled eggs, and jouneyed to Barbara's apartment. When we got upstairs, we found Barbara -- she had been out on a walk with Andre and left her phone at home, which was why she wasn't answering when we called. Since she was already heating up a pizza, we split the pizza as an appetizer, and then warmed the French Toast and eggs up in the oven for her. Maple syrup here is really hard to come by, and kind of expensive, so getting to use it is really a treat. I love French toast!

For dessert, I had bought strawberries and heavy cream. When I'm at home, Mom will sometimes make homemade whipped cream with heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla. We tried to do the same thing, but a fork and a bowl just weren't working. Andre had a whisk, so we tried using that to no avail. Then I got the bright idea of putting it in a jar and shaking it, like you do when you're in Girl Scouts and you're making butter. This actually worked!! How cool is that??? So dessert turned out really good too :-)

Since Wednesday was the last day we'd all be together before we went our separate ways for break, we decided to have a picnic in one of the gardens near the Hofburg. We ran to Billa to buy the supplies, and made up our sandwiches. Then we laid out the blanket I had snitched from my apartment and had our feast. It was really wonderful, until some random guy decided he needed to go to the bathroom and peed on a tree. That kind of kills the whole perfect mood. I have to say, that's one thing I can't get over here. There's a lot more urine spots on the sidewalks than can possibly be caused by dogs, and it's really gross. I definitely won't miss that when I get home.

That night, the contingent of girls going to Greece left, except for Anna, because she forgot her passport at home, only to find out that she had it on her the entire time. Big oops. But she managed to find a flight for the next day and met up with the girls in Athens.

I spent that night packing and getting things in order to go to Rome for a week. I can't even tell you exactly what I did, probably wasted a lot of time, but it was nice and relaxing. And Thursday continued the same way.

Thursday night around 7:30, I got on my overnight train to Rome. A boy named Philip was in the car with me for a while, but since he didn't have a seat reservation, he got bumped by the people who actually did. Trust me when I say that Philip would have been the better traveling companion. We had a very nice conversation before he had to leave -- he told me about how he is almost done with his service work, which was with the Red Cross here. Every young man has to serve either two years in the Army or in the service sector after they graduate highschool and before they go to college. We talked about where he had traveled and where he was going to travel.

After Philip left, the car I was in got fuller and fuller. Eventually, we had six people in a very small space and we were filled to capacity. It'd be nice to say that it was absolutely wonderful and I slept like a baby, but that just didn't happen. I actually didn't sleep that badly, but the train stopped at every station, and the ride itself lasted about fourteen hours. I'm not a great traveller, so I wasn't feeling all that great (it was probably just nerves), so when we pulled into Rome around 9:30 the next morning, I was quite relieved. Once I got off the train, I made sure I called Dad, so he'd know I was still alive, and he told me that he had been sleeping with the landline phone on one endtable and his cell phone on the other, so when I called, I would definitely get him. In fact, because I had expected to be in Rome a bit earlier, he had been laying awake for about an hour waiting for me to call. I think he was more nervous than I was!

However, I have to get back to the real world of Vienna for a few hours now, which means your reading pleasure stops here. If you're interested, I've posted pictures of my trip to Rome, but right now they don't have captions. They are in either four individual folders on my picasa site, or depending how quickly it finishes uploading, you can see them all together and in chronological order in the big folder. There are also pictures from Mom and Dad's visit. They're not complete because in the confusion of packing everything to go home with them, some pictures ended up on my external harddrive and I don't have access to that anymore. Hopefully, I'll be able to talk Mom through uploading them for me tonight. Some of you may also have noticed my pictures from Amsterdam, which is a very liberal city (and not in the wrong American political perception of liberal, but in the wider sense), have been taken down for the time being. This is because there have been complaints as to some of the content, and the entire folder needed to be deleted since the photos in question could not be deleted easily one by one. In my defense, I would like to state that there was a clear warning in the title of the folder, however, I am sorry to anyone I have offended. If anyone reading this would like to see the album in its unedited version, please let me know and I'll send you the pictures. As soon as I have the time and inclination, I'll repost the non-offensive pictures, but I'm pretty much not promising anything for a while.

Until then,
Amanda