Blogs from Vatican City, Europe - page 11

Buona sera (Good evening)! Our first full day in Italy was really busy, but extremely memorable! Our day was spent at the Vatican, home of the Roman Catholic Church and its leader - Pope Benedict XVI. We had to get up very early (6:00 am) so we could arrive in St. Peter's Square by 8:00 to get good seats for the pope's weekly General Audience, which is open to the public. I couldn't believe what good seats we got! We were in the front section, and had a very good view of the proceedings. When the pope was driven around the square at the beginning of the program (after we waited in the open square for about 2 hours!), he came very close by where we were sitting. I couldn't have been more than 20 ... read more

Today was a lot of walking. I got up early and went to St. Peter's Basilica, a short walk from the hostel. I had to wait in line for security screenings, but it was worth it. From there I headed to Castel Sant' Angelo, which I got into for free. Next, I went to the Plazza del Popolo, where the 155th Anniversary of the founding of the Roman police was occuring. I then tried to head back to the hostel for a short break, as I was really exhausted from the walking and not having been around 80 degree temps for quite some time. Unfortunately the hostel was closed for cleaning, so I took the metro line to to Plazza Barberini. There I took pictures of the Fountana del Tritone. I then walked to the ... read more

02 May 2007: Spent the entire day in and around the Vatican. Wednesday is the Pope's mid-week audience, so the entire square in front of St. Peter's ringed by the Bernini colonnade was setting up for Benedict XVI's 1000 audience. We decided to visit the Vatican Museum first. Lines everywhere make Disneyland on a holiday seem totally rationale and doable. 1 hour 50 minutes of standing in line in the drizzle later, we got in. Of course the drizzle turned to complete downpour the minute we got inside, so good fortune at a minimum was on our side. The downpour lasted only 15 minutes but left some great contrasts in the sky, Highlights of the immense collection were of course Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel), which I'd never seen but Mom had seen pre-cleaning, as well ... read more

Buono Pasque! It’s a little hard to believe it’s Easter. We went to mass this morning at St. Peter’s, which is still a little hard to believe. It was incredible! There were so many people there. It was interesting how they did it service, it was a little in a few different languages. It was nice, I may not have understood all of it, but it was nice to go to church on Easter. Actually I take that back, it was amazing to see the pope on Easter. From St. Peter’s we somehow managed to find our way back to the hotel, via 2 buses and a 10 minutes walk. We relaxed for awhile there and decided what to do for dinner. We had sort of planned on having a relatively big dinner, and having a ... read more

Today we had the tour of the Vatican and St. Peter’s. All I have to say is that the tour was totally worth it for the sole reason of being able to cut the lines. It was also nice to actually learn something about some of the stuff there too. Hardly anything is labeled, and I think if we were alone - there were so many people that we probably would have just gotten shuffled through and not been able to enjoy anything. We also picked up our tickets for Easter Mass tomorrow morning. We had to sit around and wait for the office to open for awhile, but that’s okay. Hopefully it will be worth it! I have a feeling it will be… From St. Peters, I took my family to Largo Argentina, and headed ... read more