Rome III

Continuing with my Rome blog...

On Sunday morning, we woke up early, and three of us went to Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. This was the first time I had been in the Basilica since being in Italy long ago. It was my first ever Mass; I figured that having Mass at the center of the Catholic world would be a pretty cool experience. We got there very early, and were able to grab seats in the pews, about 7 rows back from the front. Of course the entire service was in a different language, so I didn't exactly get a lot out of the service. But, I had a lot of time to admire the architecture in the front of the Basilica, and enjoyed watching Mass happen. After that, we left the Basilica and entered St. Peter's Square, to watch the Pope give his weekly address, in tons of different languages, to the waiting crowd. I would judge him as one of the more powerful and influential people in the world, and so it was cool to see him in person, and listen to a short address, mostly about the Pope's commitment to the strengthening of the Catholic church in Africa. He stands the house he lives in, in front of a window looking down on the entire square. There were tons of people there!

So, after this, we continued on what I would call "old church day." Besides the Basilica, we visited 4 other churches: the Pantheon, really cool because of its architecture (a circle inside a square), a second church which, because, the neighborhood didn't want a big dome blocking the horizon, has a dome painted on part of the ceiling to simulate a dome, another church which wasn't extremely remarkable, but big and a basilica, and a church in Trastevere which was very nice, but small for Rome standards. Those four churches, and the Spanish steps were our main activities for Sunday during the day. And it was a good day, a lot less walking and a bit more relaxing than our first day in Rome. For dinner, we had pizza at a sit-down restaurant, which was good but not remarkable. Also, I believe the restaurant was not too much of a tourist hit, as it seemed that the Italian people already in the restaurant were staring at us for a good portion of the meal. After this, we ate gelato, and went to a nearby square, where we hung out and eventually ended up on a new lookout of the city, with even better views of the city, and especially St. Peter's Basilica. It seemed a bit like a couple's area; there were 2 couples watching the city when we got there, one guy and girl, and one guy and guy.

Alright this is Sunday: not quite as full as the first day, but still really fun and interesting. Later I will talk about the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel, and walking up in the dome of St. Peter's (which was all our activity for Monday)