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Published: April 13th 2009
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Colosseo
Check out the full moon behind it 14 Stations of the Cross
On Friday night @ 9 pm Laura, Jordan, and I walked down to the Colosseo to see the Pope do the 14 Stations of the Cross from the Ancient Temple of Rome and Venus. There were supposedly 20,000 people there and from the looks of it I believe it. We fought our way through the crowd to a spot where we could at least make out the Pope's face and settled in for a ceremony that seemed extremely long but was probably due to the fact that it was in Italian and only understood every other word with one verse in English for each station. It was easy to get distracted by the Colosseo right behind us as you can see from my pictures. Regardless, it was was cool to feel like we were a part of something bigger and holy. There were many Italians of course, people from around the world, and more nuns, monks, and priests than I could say Hail Marys. They also had a flaming cross behind the Pope that gave an almost scary feeling and a chorus of monks. Overall, the service took about an hour and forty five minutes
and by the time we reached our apartments it was close to 11.
Easter Sunday
This morning Jordan, Laura, and I dressed our best in hopes that we would be allowed into the Vatican without the proper ticket needed. Dressed up in suits and a skirt we easily passed security and were able to secure the front row of the standing section, front and center, and had a better view then most of the seated people. It was absolutely amazing. You would think you were at a parade by the cheering, waving of flags and banners, and cameras being thrusted into the air. After standing for an hr, the service finally began. At some points it was hard to figure out what part of the mass we were at because like usual it was held in Italian and Latin. The one nice thing was that they had English hallelulja songs. We had a blast once again and headed back to our apartments with a smile on our faces with not only "sneaking" into the Vatican but also getting such a good spot.
P.S. All the pictures that are at night are the 14 stations of the cross
and the ones during the day are of Easter Sunday. I also included a picture of the cake we bought to celebrate Easter. yum!
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Ninia
non-member comment
Hello!! Wow!! it very nice to experience holy week in Rome specially in Vatican City, I want to experience like this. Is anybody here that could give me an idea how to acquired reservations of hotel around Vatican next Holy week, a reservation and accommodation offer like hostels in Madrid and Madrid apartments in Spain during holy weeks and summers. Thanks for posting this pictures and this blog.