Rome Day 4: Pope Blessing, St. Peter's Basilica,

On the fourth day in Rome we wanted to go to the Vatican to get blessed by the Pope and then possibly stay for mass. So again, we got up super early to do that because we knew it would be crowded. We got there and we knew the Pope was supposed to come out of some window but it was unclear which one. There were tons of people and a lot had taken chairs from the mass area so we did that too.

We got chairs and faced the direction of the window we thought he would come out and then we just waited. He is supposed to come out at 1pm and sure enough, right around 12:50pm, the window of the second to last window on the right side of some building had a light turn on. Then a podium was put out and right about 1pm the Pope appeared. I’m not super religious or even catholic but it was still really amazing. It was one of those “I can’t believe I’m actually seeing this” types of moments that have happened a lot to me since I’ve been abroad.

Me in St. Peter's Square

Some of St. Peter's Square

The Pope! Ahh!

After we saw the Pope we decided we didn’t really want to wait for mass. I really wanted to go inside St. Peter’s Basilica because it has Michelangelo’s Pieta, which is the sculpture of Mary holding dead Jesus. It is super famous and the only work Michelangelo ever signed. When La Pieta was first made people thought it was the work of another artist, which outraged Michelangelo so to show the world that it was his, he carved his name into Mary’s sash.

Me with Pieta!

The only signed work of Michaelangelo

The line going into the Basilica was super long, but we kind of cut a lot of it (by accident of course). The Basilica is also free which is nice but everyone has to go through a security detector thing and they only had two open so it still took a while to get in. When we finally did make it in the Basilica was gorgeous and huge. The Pieta was beautiful too but a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Unfortunately I have limited Basilica pictures because this was when my camera started to die. However, cameras could never do the Basilica justice. I did luckily get a picture of Pope John Paul II's tomb in the Basilica which is a big highlight. Roman's still love Pope J.P. and he is on tons of tourist calendars and post cards all over Rome. I think it is safe to say he is even more loved than Benedict.

Inside the Basilica

Tomb of Pope John Paul II

More Vatican City

 After the Vatican we got lunch and then decided we should try and go back to the forum and use our tickets. Unfortunately when we got there the Forum was closed and our tickets were expired. It was ok though because we all felt like we saw enough amazing things during the weekend so far. I figure next time I’m in Rome Il just have something to look forward to seeing.
We still also wanted to see the Spanish Steps so that was our next stop. I have no pictures from there but there were alot of them. We climbed the entire set of them and all of us were dead by the time we reached the top. It was raining too and dark (it gets dark really early in Rome, or at least it did while we were there) and I think we were all worn out form waking up early day after day.
    We found a place for dinner at this super authentic Italian restaurant. It was really nice. It wasn't that hungry though so I just ordered tiramisu. It wasn't that good. I was a little disppointed actually but I felt I had to try it just because who knows when I will be given the change to try real italian food again.
   To end the night we went back to the Trevi fountain one last time to see it lit up at night. We also had our last gelato stop and just sat by the fountain and reminisced about the trip. We all agreed it was our favorite trip so far. All of them were leaving that next morning really early so that had to go to bed but I had another day in Rome without them. I was sad to see them go because they made the trip so fun.