End of February in Roma

Well I had a busy week here in Rome. First off – my cell phone was returned to me! I had left it in a taxi, and the driver called one of my friends from the phone, and we got reconnected. I was very lucky! Classes are going well, I have the first round of quizzes coming this week, and I had a presentation to do in my marketing class on Thursday. My presentation went well; it was on Kodak and their sort of downfall since the late 90s. The longer I live here, the more I love Rome. The people are pretty laid back, the city is beautiful, and the food is delicious. I have nothing to complain about!

On Friday, my Art and Culture class had a day-long field trip to the Vatican. We started in the Vatican museum, which houses works by Bernini, Caravaggio, and Rafael. It was much more meaningful to have learned about these pieces before seeing them, it definitely left more of an impact on me. We then saw the infamous Sistine Chapel. My first reaction was the size, I picture it much bigger! While it was still a large chapel, it was not as immense as I had pictured. We studied the ceiling, which of course was painted by Michelangelo, and learned the progression of the works. I was able to sneak a couple of pics! For the finale, we entered St. Peters Basilica. The sheer size left me in awe. It was huge, the largest Catholic church in the world. Around the sides there are a couple of deceased Popes whose bodies have been preserved and put on display. This was really eerie and creepy to see. There are many sculptures and statues. There are no paintings though, everything is made out of a mosaic or sculpture. Everything was gorgeous inside.
Saturday, 5 of my friends and I took a train to Ostia Antica. This was a small town with ancient ruins about a half hour from Rome. It was a sunny, warm day, so it was perfect for walking around. We saw the ruins, and then headed to the beach! While it was not quite bathing suit weather, it was comforting to sit by the water. We went to a local diner for lunch, then headed back to Roma.

Sunday morning, Jackie and I went to mass at St. Peters. Mass was at 10:30. We arrived around 9:45, went through quick security, and were seated in pews by 10am. We were lucky to get there early, there weren’t very many seats left in the pews. When mass started, the procession walked in, lead by incense or some sort of smoke. It immediately filled the church with a heavy scent, kind of like walking into a yankee candle store and being completely overwhelmed. The Pope was surrounded by nearly 30 priests, and several altar boys. The mass began in Latin, continued in Italian, and I heard some French for one of the readings. During the 1st reading, the elderly gentleman sitting next to me fainted. It was quite the ordeal. One of his family members ran to get a medic, then a man in front of us said he was a doctor, and wanted to help. The medic came followed by a dozen men in suits. They tried to pick the man up, who was in and out of consciousness, but in the mean while, he fell on me. Finally, they got him situation lying on a pew. Meanwhile, mass continued, but most were distracted. About 6 pews of people needed to be cleared out, pews moved, and a stretcher brought in, and the man was carried off. It was very scary, and I felt awful for the family, but the Vatican had a good team of people to help him. Mass continued as normal. Communion took a little while, and you could tell there were some tourists who had never been to a Catholic mass before and didn’t know what to do. I was surprised to see that in the communion line, people were taking pictures as they walked up. This made the mass seem a little bit more of a performance than an actual service. When the mass ended, Jackie and I were able to shift over a pew and were very close to the Pope! Got to see him up close and personal. After mass, we enjoyed some pizza from a local stand, then shopped for a little while. It was rainy out, and we figured it was a good day for the movies. Slumdog Millionaire was playing in English with Italian subtitles, so we went to see it. GREAT movie! If you haven’t seen it, definitely go, it deserved all those awards in my opinion!