Let the title of this post be a testament to the importance of correct comma placement.
Our first day in Rome was Holy Thursday. I met up once again with Mike Carter (the magnificent etc) and we grabbed some pizza and gelato for lunch before heading out to meet the ND group for Mass. We also passed by/through the Pantheon, the Forum, and the Colosseum on the way there. No big deal.
We found Courtney and Maria outside of St. John Lateran - you know, the Cathedral of the Church of Rome, seat of the Bishop of Rome, and principle mother church of the Catholic faith. Again, no big deal. Also not a big deal was the fact that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was celebrating Mass that evening. While uncomfortable at the time due to the fact that I was standing on a marble floor for two hours with little to no view of the action, it was still pretty awesome.
Yes, I took a picture during Mass. Don't judge. Jesus wouldn't judge. Plus, everyone else was doing it too. It was a circus in there. Not very solemn.
After Mass we went out to an Italian restaurant called Tony's. I would make a joke here, but I feel like it would be superfluous.
Getting back to the villa that night was an adventure because, despite his claims to the contrary, Mike had no idea how the bus system in Rome worked. I think maybe part of the reason for his confusion was that the Roman public transit system doesn't really "work" at all. Mike does know how Italian works, though, and was able to ask some Italian construction workers and a police officer how to find the correct bus stop. None of these people had any idea either. We found the correct stop eventually, and to be fair, the bus did take me pretty much straight to the villa. I hope that this section doesn't offend Mike, but if it does, it means he's been reading my blog, so I win either way.
Good Friday was as its name implies. I met up with Mike in the morning and we saw some obelisks and a few churches. We also walked by the famous Trevi Fountain, which may have been nice if it hadn't been swarming with tourists. The same was true of the Spanish steps.
The highlight of Good Friday was the complete absence of a line outside of the entrance to the Vatican Museum when Courtney, Lizzie, Mike and I got there at 16:00. Instead of waking up the following morning to join the 90-person Notre Dame herd on their scheduled guided tour, we decided to pay a little bit less, skip the wait, skip getting up at 6:00 AM, and just go on our own. The museum itself is incredible. One could easily spend an entire day there. We only spent about two hours, but we got to see most of the major stuff, including the Sistine Chapel, inside which I took an illegal picture that I'm not going to publish on the internet for fear of divine or papal retribution.
On Friday night we went to Stations of the Cross outside of the Colosseum. Once again, the Pope was in charge. Most of the ceremony was in Italian, but the Our Father was said in Latin, so I was actually able to use something that I learned in high school for once. There was a rather loud group of Germans near us in the crowd, and I reveled in being able to understand a lot of what they were saying. I didn't speak to them in German, though, because that would have destroyed my ability to conduct linguistic espionage.
Note the Austrian flag in the lower right corner. Represent.
Saturday was another beautiful day, and we took advantage of the weather by cutting lines in the Vatican and climbing to the top of the Cupola. Pictures will almost do it justice:
St. Peter's
Taken with my own camera
With Courtney & Lizzie
After fighting our way back through the herd of Catholic pilgrims and Asian tourists ("Take a picture with me in front of the cute Jesus thingy!" *flashes peace sign*) we made our way to the Circus Maximus, where I challenged Mike to a race, which I won with ease. Yes, that is correct: I have won a race in the Circus Maximus.
After forgetting to feed Mike to the lions, we made our way to the Forum. Once again, pictures will suffice:
Part of Augustus' House
That night we went out to dinner for the second time at Tony's. Excellent once again.
Easter Sunday rolled along and the rain rolled in. Despite the fact that we all had SEATS during Easter Sunday Mass with the Pope in the Vatican, we were nonetheless rather cold and wet and miserable throughout. It was still really cool to be there, and now I can check it off of my list of things to do before I die. My favorite part of the Mass was when the Pope tried to bless everyone with holy water as it was pouring rain outside.
BENEDICTVS
We went inside the Colosseum later that day. In an attempt to salvage what was left of his honor, Mike tried to best me in gladiatorial combat. After an early mistake that gave Mike a 1-0 advantage, I was distracted by having to apologize to a passing tourist for accidentally striking her with my umbrella, which allowed Mike to land the death blow.
That night we went out to a nice restaurant for an Easter dinner. The food was great, the wine was above average, and our waiter was totally hammered. He kept spilling drinks on the table and flirting with Courtney, and after we were done he swung a chair up and rambled at us for a couple minutes about some other restaurant that he works at and about how much he likes Radiohead. It was amazing.
We were supposed to leave at 13:30 on Monday, but Blu-Express went ahead and moved the flight to 19:30 again. I checked this time, though, so I was able to use the extra time to see a little bit more of Rome. Lizzie, Mike and I went to a castle, which was pretty cool. I may have done some other stuff too, but at this point I'm getting pretty tired of writing about what happened in Rome, so I'm just going to bring this post to an end.
Ciao!
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