Today I woke up at 4.45am, all ready for our day at the Vatican. Many emails later to family, friends and Vodafone (I was trying to get my phone to work in Rome!) We headed off for our first full day in Italy. Our breakfast which comes free with our rome in Arena House, is served at a Bar on Via Celimontana.. it is cappachino and pastry! The cappachino was simply lovely - I really loved it. I chose a flat-shaped pasty, which tasted of orange, and had little bits of chocolate in it, and it was covered in a glace icing. Clare had a donut, and Celine a custard filled flat pasty with icing sugar sprinkled on top. After that not so filling breakfast (remember, we didn't have any dinner the night before!) we came back to our room quickly and ate some bread - the bread in Rome is nice and sweet! yummy :)
We decided that we wern't going to walk to the Vatican, so we brought a 1£ ticket for the bus - now you all probably know that the roads and traffic in Rome are crazy - well I think it is acutally more dangerous to be a pedestrain - crossing roads is like playing a game of 'chicken' with cars.. it is terrifying. So we caught our first bus in Rome. It is so rough going along the cobblestone street! these buses must have great suspension. I didn't look at the road, instead focusing on the gigantic architechtual masterpieces all along the streets.
Within about 20 minutes we arrived at Piazza Risorginento, and a short walk later were in Piazza Di San Pietro - St. Peter's Square. We noticed that every one in the crowd had an orange ticket, so after a little bit of searching we found a Swiss Guard and Clare got 3 tickets - we couldn't believe it - we were going to see Pope Benedict!! I was so excited I skipped all the way into the square.
Clare & Celine in St. Peter's Square
We got a seat in the square about 7 rows back from the front. It was 8.30am and we had to wait for the Pope to arrive at 10.30am. We were sitting next to an Indian family of 4 who were also very excited about seeing the Pope.
I'm so excited! I can't wait to see Il Papa..!
It was pretty hot in the sun waiting, but luckily I had packed my umbrella incase it rained - it was the perfect sun shade. We had a parish from Germany sitting in front of us and they were practicing a song that ended in 'Halleluzjah' (German pronunciation!) to sing for Pope Benedict. They were enthusiastic and managed to get the Indian family and an Italian group sitting 2 rows in front of us to all join in too! A big group of sailors from the American Navy were also in attendance, and the crowd enthusiastically cheered them.
We were all wearing pretty dresses and skirts today - and so many fellow tourists thought we were Italians - saying 'Grazie' and 'Prego' to us :) ! Even Italians think we are Italian! :)
At 10.40am we got our first glimpse of Pope Benedict! it was pretty exciting. They then proceeded to have a reading in Italian, English, German, French and Polish (it took a while) and then the Pope gave a 20 or so minute speech in Italian. After that they announced all the different groups to the Pope and he gave the crowd his blessings. At about 12pm it all ended and we proceeded to try and find some water! we were so exhausted.... but we had to some how make our way through a crushing crowd - for the first time in my life I felt like I was going to be trampled! The secret to getting out quicker was to follow someone from the American Navy, as people seemed to let them through!
Clare filling our drinks at a Roman fountain.
We found some water at an Italian fountain - (watch out the splash!) and then wandered around the streets trying to find something to eat! We bravely resisted all the tourist-y restaurants and found a lovely little Italian bakery/supermarket which sold slabs of fresh Pizza. The man behind the desk was very friendly - but all in Italian! between us and him we managed to buy 4 large slices of pizza for £5.50.
Our first ever proper Italian pizza.. sitting on a column in St. Peter's
We wandered back to St. Peters to eat our pizza - we sat on the base of the columns and watched the kilometers-long line of people trying to get into the Basilica... The pizza was very plain and covered with fresh tomatoes and a little bit of mozarella.. but it tasted divine! It was almost surreal gazing into St Peters and watching everything happen - Rome has just been like a dream so far!
After lunch we decided we had enough energy to brave the lines to enter the Basilica. We managed to get in after just 15 minutes. The Basilica was awe-inspiring. Words can't even begin to describe how overwhelmed and amazed were were.. even the pictures or videos you see just don't do it justice. When we first entered we just stood quietly by the side of a column and stared for a good 5 minutes. We looked around the Basilica for around 1 1/2 hours.. and even then we still couldn't really digest what we had seen. Thousands upon thousands of awesome monuments to Popes, Saints, and beautiful paintings.. I think this is one of the most amazing places that anyone could ever see.. We prayed in the beautiful divine mercy chapel and then kept on looking around the Basilica
In the Basilica. In my opinion the most amazing place in the entire world - I don't think I'll ever see anything that can top this.
We were feeling very tired after that but checked out the Basilica's bookstore. I found some lovely postcards of the Vatican and Rome, and a present for Guy. Then I wrote out some postcards and sent them from the Vatican, while Clare & Celine went looking for some food or drink - they wandered around and decided not to get anything. Now we were all feeling faint and really wanted to collapse and go home - but we had a look at a shop called 'Rosari' and found a few things.. (Mummy, Daddy, Pete and Guy.. we'll show you what we got when we get home! you guys have to wait ;) ) We then brought some more tickets for the bus home.... 20 minutes later we were back at Via Claudia and about a 500m walk home.. EXCEPT.. we wanted to find an ATM!! we thought there would be one near where we lived so walked up 4 streets - no ATM! so then we walked back to the Metro near the Colleseum (about 2km) and there wasn't one there either! so we were hobbling along slowly by now utterly exhuasted and decided to go straight home.. luckily we did find that we are quite near a supermarket so we are going to go there tomorrow morning to get some food (Note to home: WE HAVE BEEN STARVING!! why don't people give us the advice 'remember to eat and drink' instead of 'remember to be safe!' )
We then collapsed at home at 6.30pm.. phew what a day! 11 1/2 hours around Rome! We are now relaxing drinking some coffee and eating a sponge finger - deciding what (and if) we are going to have dinner tonight.. we all feel so tired and don't want to find anywhere, but then again maybe we'll feel better if we eat something! :)
Ciao Ciao from Roma..
- Mary
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