Rome

Thursday, April 5 was the day that Annie and I arrived in Rome. The best part of our trip was spending Easter Sunday with the Pope in Vatican City on Easter Sunday.

We stayed at a campsite that was on the outskirts of Rome. We quickly learned how to take a public bus, and then the metro, to arrive in the center of the city. Luckily, there was a supermarket right across the street, where we bought all of our food. It was definitely cheaper that way!

Unknowingly, we booked a cabin, rather than a tent, at the Campsite. Honestly, after spending two cold nights sleeping in a tent in Vienna, I wasn’t complaining! We had a stranger roommate for only one night, but after that it made sense that most young people don’t travel alone on Easter weekend.

 

On Good Friday, April 6, our first sight was Vatican City, to visit St. Peter’s Plaza, and St. Peter’s Basilica. Our silly oversight was that we decided to go to the Vatican Museum, which is home to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, another day, but of course what we didn’t realize was that it was closed on the days right before and right after Easter. So, of course, we went to Rome and didn’t get to see the Sistine Chapel. Great. Guess that just means we’ll have to go back!

There were tons of people hanging out in St. Peter’s Square on Good Friday. It was a beautiful day.

  

While we were there, they acted out the Stations of the Cross in the plaza. I was happy to have the chance to see it, but it was hard to watch.

The line to get into the Basilica was out the door and around the plaza. Crazy! Luckily though, it was moving pretty quickly. And besides, the wait was definitely worth it ;)

The next tourist attraction on the map was the Roman Coliseum.

And some other Roman ruins. So ancient!

I’ve always wanted to try fresh coconut…

Lead by the guiding directions of our trusty map, we arrived at the Monument of the Fallen Soldier, which was in front of the Cultural Heritage Center of Italy. We were able to go inside and climb up, to go outside again and look at the skyline of Rome.

 

We planned our route much more effectively on Saturday, April 7. We were off to a slow start… enjoying each other’s company, playing, and planking in our cabin before we left. Haha!

The day was kind of overcast. We first went to a monument called Trenità dei Monte.

After that, we walked across town to the Fontana di Trevi. Impresionante!

Right down the street from Trevi was the Pantheon.

Plaza Navona was where there was the most activity, the most street vendors, and the most ice cream. It was delightful!

Next, we walked across town to my favorite stop, the Castle of Saint Angelo. I thought it was really pretty.

It was there that we bought several kilos of wonderfully sweet dried fruit, to save as a special Easter treat for Sunday. I loved it!

We spent Saturday afternoon just walking around a lot, to see some bridges, an island, some monuments, etc. Nbd.

Walking back through Vatican City on Saturday evening, we actually bumped into a friend from Elon, Lizzy, who is spending this semester studying in Florence. She was visiting Rome with her family for the weekend—what a coincidence!

On Easter Sunday, we were greeted with some candy chocolate eggs, some specialty dried fruit, and a few breakfast items from the Easter Bunny =P

Of course, we had an Easter egg hunt!

We had heard that mass in Vatican City started at 10:00am on Easter Sunday, April 8.

When we arrived around 7:30a, the line was already several kilometers long. Standing in line, was a good friend of mine from church, Meredith, who is studying abroad in Rome.

Meredith asked us if we had tickets. We didn’t. We stood in line somewhere else, slightly confused by the crowd control. There wasn’t any. A nice woman named Susan asked us if we were in line. We were. And she asked us if we had tickets. We still didn’t. She suggested that we hang out with her, because she had two extra tickets. WHAT?! It was a real Easter blessing--How exciting, and thoughtful! Such a God-moment ;)

Susan, from Texas, ended up with two extra tickets to mass because her lodging in Rome was at a monastery with some Franciscan Sisters who had given her tickets for better seats. Her instructions from them were to pay it forward, because “surely” she would find somebody who needed two tickets. Annie and I were the lucky winners of her random act of kindness. I felt so touched, and blessed! It was absolutely wonderful.

Susan had heard that we should walk to the other side of the Basilica, where there would be a second security check-point, with a line not as long. She was certainly right, and we were among the first fourth of people who were let in. We had great seats!

It was a beautiful service. The Holy Spirit was tangible.

We saw the Pope!

The rest of our day on Sunday went really smoothly. After the service, we went back to our cabin, and got ready to check out. Annie and I had a few minutes to relax and call our families… and then I took a 4:00pm shuttle bus to the airport. It was the last shuttle available, before the 7:00am bus the following morning. Annie took the 7:00am bus to catch her 10:00am flight on Monday, April 9, but I had to spend the night at the airport because check-in for my 6:00am flight started at 4:00am. I wasn’t the only student flying on the cheap airline from Rome to Madrid that day, either! Pretty much everyone who was waiting for my flight was sleeping on the floor at the airport. Then I actually ran into a girl I met at UEM named Jennifer, who is originally from Honduras. She was traveling in Rome with her family, so I flew home and talked to them.

Here ends the adventurous tales of Annie’s and Taylor’s Spring Break. It was definitely a fun-filled week of memory-making and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I can’t wait to do it again sometime ;)

Love, ~Taylor