So since we weren’t able to visit St. Peter’s Basilica the day before we got up early Sunday morning and tried again. And I will have to say we decided as a group that we are going to send the country of Sri Lanka a gift basket, while we were upset with them the day before, we now LOVE them! We arrived to the Basilica and after a short intro from Giudi were released to walk around, some of the girls found out that there was a mass starting at 10:30 am, some of the students asked me if I wanted to join them. Heck Yeah! I never thought that this would ever happen but I attended mass in St. Peter’s! Last semester I had expressed interest, but Giudi kinda laughed in my face that it would never happen (I am assuming that she meant there would be too many people?!?!?). But I succeeded, it was so surreal sitting there, I couldn’t contain my excitement and at time tears. I was so thrilled that Nick was able to get some good shots of the processional, as I have never seen so many alter servers, priests, cardinals and bishops in one place.
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| St. Peter’s Basilica |
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| Page, Sarah S, Brianne and I at mass |
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| Nick & I out front of St. Peter’s |
On our bus ride / walk to St. Peter’s it was pouring down rain (thankfully I bought those rain boots in Florence) and we feared that our last day in Roma was going to be blah. But no fear my dear blog readers, someone was looking out for us / upon us! As we exited the basilica, giddy with excitement, as we just attended mass, there were masses of people gathering around St. Peter’s Square. I thought to myself – we made good time! But no these people weren’t waiting to get inside, they were waiting on the man himself, Papa Francesco! Apparently he does a Sunday blessing of the crowd at 12:00 pm, and we were so lucky to have to meet up with Giudi to depart to our next destination at 11:45 am! Could this day get any better? The sun was out, I just attended mass at the Vatican and now I get to see and be blessed by Papa Frank (as Nick so kindly refers to him as)! It was a once in a lifetime experience, and God Bless Sri Lanka 🙂
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| The sun has come out at St. Peters |
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| Papa Frank – I promise he’s up there 🙂 |
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| St. Peter’s from along the river |
I was really looking forward to this day as it was as we were seeing the modern architecture of Roma. While I do enjoy the others, it is often times over my head, however seeing projects of individuals that I have heard of before excites me. Today’s afternoon visits were to projects designed by Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid. We visited these projects last semester as well, but this time around we were able to see more of them and I really enjoyed myself! We had a private tour of the Auditorium where many of Roma’s concerts and shows are held. There are three buildings that comprise the Parco della Musica and both outside and inside they are beautiful. Last semester when we visited they were setting up for Rome’s film festival so we unfortunately didn’t get to see all the spaces, but this time we did and it was amazing. We even were able to watch some performers practicing in the smallest of the auditoriums.
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| The largest “pod” at the Auditorium |
After our tour we stopped for a quick break for lunch, needless to say due to the unannounced visit from Papa Frank our lunch break for today was shifted until afternoon and consisted of a very short 30 minutes – but really who cares – I saw the Pope! We then set off to Rome’s basketball arena, which unfortunately was closed – which I am bummed for the students as I really think that they would have appreciated the inside – but we were running short on time as it was… so off to the Maxxi. The Maxxi is one of Giudi’s favorite buildings, by one of her favorite architects Zaha Hadid – just kidding! Giudi hates this building and is not a big fan of Zaha either, but she restrained herself with her opinion this time around 🙂 I actually really enjoyed the inside space, but the art work to me was not desirable. It was a little too sexual for my taste and the set up within the museum really did not make much sense either, but that’s okay.
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| Maxxi Museum |
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| Maxxi Museum |
After our visit we jetted back to the hotel via taxi as we were running short on time to make it to the train station. Silvia and her husband Mark actually joined us the last day of our trip to Rome, as Silvia had a conference in Rome. Needless to say the students arrived about two minutes after us. What we thought was going to be a quick taxi ride took a lot longer as the two Roma soccer teams had a match and it just had let out, so traffic was crazy. Scooters of course going wherever they pleased, the Italian driving laws still baffle me to this day! We made it to the station with a few minutes to spare, grabbed a sandwich and coke for the road and boarded our train. Our track was what seemed like a mile away and by the time we all boarded and walked from one end of the train to the other to find that our seats were actually back where we came from I was dripping with sweat. For some reason there was mass confusion about the seats and the seat that I thought my husband was saving me, was actually taken by one of the students – but have no fear – with two suitcases, a back pack, purse and shopping bags in hand I made my way back to the other end of the train and grabbed a seat with three of the students. I am so thankful that I did though, as I have not laughed this hard in a long time. While I planned to finish up school work that was due that night on the way home, this did not happen! I ended up getting up the next morning at 5 am and finishing it before the 2 am EST deadline – something I don’t advise doing. But at least I got it finished and got a jump start on laundry before any of the students awoke.
It was such a wonderful, fun, laughter-filled, exhausting 9 days and while I am glad to be back in Genova for a little bit before setting off again this weekend, this is a week that I will remember for the rest of my life! I am thankful for my husband for being a smart, hardworking, dedicated man – as without him I wouldn’t be able to experience any of this and of course to my momma for taking wonderful care of my baby so that we could be here and experience this!
