Blogs from Vatican City, Europe - page 15

Day 91 Rome, Italy We were off at the crack of dawn for a 12 hour bus ride; sometimes you just have to suffer these things. Civitavecchia, the port out of Roma is about 1 ½ hours away so we opted for a ship tour, because of distance and time constraints; if we were late, the ship would still wait for us. We disembarked at 8:15 to board a slow bus to the city. After much delay, we reached the outer bus depot at 10:30 and had to run to the Vatican in the rain, get in a line up to finally enter by 11:35. We followed the crowd for a while through miles of art, deeked out, skipped some and veered to the Sistine chapel to revel in its beauty. The tour guide had told ... read more

It's early morning and I am back in Roma! Yesterday was a day of standing in line at the Uffizi gallery. Of course you can't go to Florence without seeing all that important artwork, and though I was expecting a line up, 3 hours was not part of my plan! It's a good thing I'd saved my book up until now, cuz I read about half of it in line waiting. So far the worst thing about travelling alone is all the waiting by yourself, especially when the people around you can take turns holding the place in line for pee breaks and what not. Mom, you'd never make it in line at the Uffizi, especially since they make you do a full run of the building to find the washrooms on the otherside (no toilet ... read more

Hey guys, Well we made it safe and sound to Rome, right on the eve of Easter Sunday. We checked into a pretty cosy little hostel called the Colours Hostel, which had a nice little patio and well-equipped kitchen - The owners were also nice enough to give us each a largish easter egg... very yummy! While we couldn't get tickets to the Easter Sunday Mass, we still managed to see the service in the standing area, and also happened to follow the parade into the Vatican, just as it passed the hostel. We were also blessed by the pope, in as many languages as you can think of. The whole scene was incredibly overwhelming; It was an uplifting atmosphere with a superb choir that had the crowd in awe. That afternoon we decided to explore ... read more

alright, i'm a little behind on the blogging-ness.. but i have to get this out before i go on spring break. i saw the pope last wednesday! first of all the audience started at 10:30 in the morning. i got there at 9:15 to get a seat and the whole first section of seats was packed. but i was able to get nice aisle seats in the back section (i had heard that aisles are the best because mr. pope mobiles around through all of them). so we waited over an hour for the thing to start. little known fact 1: swiss guards are pretty good looking. so after endless swiss guard watching, we finally had the main event and seriously had i closed my eyes i probably wouldn't have been able to tell if it ... read more

This morning, after a frightening nightmare (don't ask), I was awake in my bed at 5am. Why did I not just go back to sleep? I think it's because of the luring and attractive Rome outside my windows. Calling me to see her or else guilt would consume me if I did not take advantage of her and its "beauty". There I was walking across the Tiber River towards the Vatican. I've read that you can go to Confession any time of the week/hour at the Vaticano. So hey, why not today? There were several "Confession booths" around on the side of the Church with numerous languages. I, of course, went to the English-speaking priest. He spoke Chinese, Italian, and English. What a combo! He (the priest) also gave me a picture of Pope Benedict and ... read more