Viva Il Papa!!!

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Geo: 41.8894, 12.4947

Walking our feet off in Rome is becoming a common theme!

We started off at 9.30am (Steven and I had gone out earlier (unsuccessfully) to buy another SD card for the camera), and caught the tram to the Aventine hill. We enjoyed the wonderful views over Rome from the Parco Savello - also known as the Giardino degli Aranci (Garden of the Orange Trees), which were heavily ladened with fruit. We ducked into the Santa Sabina, where we saw the grafted orange tree planted by St Domenic - the original only died a little time ago. We passed the church of San Alessio, where the stairs that St Alessio lived under for 17 years are displayed - St Alessio returned to his family after some years, and when they didn't recognise him he lived as their faithful servant for 17 years (G asked how this made him a saint!) and then onto view the keyhole view.....it is apparently the only place that you can view one country, by standing in another and looking thorough a third - you stand in Italy, and view the Vatican, by looking through land held by the sovereign state of the Knights of the Malta. Unfortunately, some clutz has erected a tent blocking the view, which took away some of the relevance for the kids....but here is a photo of how it SHOULD look.

We then caught the tram to the Vatican - joining the crowds as soon as we approached St. Peter's, for the midday blessing of the Pope. And sure enough, exactly at midday, Pope Francis appeared at his window, telling us that he had baptised some babies today as it was the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus - and how much he loves baptising little babies, as well as thanking all parents for bringing their children to Jesus in baptism. He gave us his Papal blessing, on us, and on our families and loved ones in distant countries, and blessed all the souvenirs etc that we had brought with us. As most people were holding iPhones at the time, I presume that those smart phones have also now been blessed. It was lovely - he seemed so nice, and responsive to the crowd - when he announced some new cardinals, including a Brazilian one, and the Brazilian part of the crowd cheered, he laughed and said it was good to see the Brazilians in the crowd! And I loved it when he ended by wishing us "A tutti auguro una buona domenica e buon pranzo. Arrivederci!" - have a good Sunday and a good lunch!

We took the Pope at his word, and headed out of the Colonnades to a small cafe, where we had pizza and lasagna (for G!), then onto Castel San Angelo. This is a unique building in Rome, as it was built as the mausoleum of Hadrian, then later used by the popes from the 14th century as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. The Castel was once the tallest building in Rome, and is connected by a fortified passage to the papal apartments, allowing the popes to flee to its relative safety (as they did in the sacking of Rome in the 1500s). It is called Castel S' Angelo for the Archangel Michael - legend holds that the Archangel Michael appeared atop the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name.

There were some wonderful rooms - the Pauline Hall was just sumptuous, even with its foot high words by Pope Paul III in the 1500s"All that within this castle was once decayed, defaced and inaccessible, now through the merits of the pontiff Paul III, one sees restored, set in order and decorated to meet the needs of solidy, comfortable utility and fine elegance." Such humility! He also had the walls painted with allegorical picture of himself as Alexander the Great, Hadrian, St. Michael . . .Georgia asked why a pope and priest would want all those pictures of frolicking naked Greek nymphs....not sure how to answer that one! The boys loved all the old weapons and cannons and cannonballs...and plenty of room for them to walk around.

From Castel Sant Angelo, we returned back to St Peters. This is a stupendous place - it never fails to take my breath away. As there were Masses, we couldn't visit the Baldicchino, but saw the new resting place of Pope JP2, and saw Saint John 23rd. Bit of a thrill when Mass started with 24 cardinals in the procession, but it wasn't the Pope saying Mass....and I took about 100 photos, inside and out of the Basilica, as it's beauty swept me away.

Home on the bus, then out to dinner with Cathy and Ian - wonderful fiore de zucca (stuffed zucchini flowers) and Steven tried Coda alla Vaccinara - oxtail sauce for pasta. Great food, great company.

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