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Today was a very exciting day because we were going to attend the Pope's Wednesday audience. Since we had picked up tickets on Monday, we were guaranteed seats, so we got up really early (I set our alarm to 7 am), got ready, we took the subway, and walked from the station to St. Peter's Square.
Unlike Monday, there were lines and security checkpoints at the entrance to the square. Once we got in, we saw the seats and the stage that was setup on Monday in front of St. Peter's Basilica. We got as close to the stage as possible, around 10 rows back from the front row, and grabbed a couple seats. We were in an awesome spot to see Pope Benedict XVI. I also put my telephoto lens on my camera so I could get good close up shots of the Pope.
Since we got to the square so early, we had to wait for around 90 minutes before the audience started. In the meantime, Sophia and I watched the seats and the square slowly fill up. This was truly a multi-national event, because we heard people talking Russian, German, French, English, an lots of other languages. I also took some test photos to make sure my photos would look good in the harsh sunlight.
The Pope's helicopter arrived around 10 am and shortly thereafter, the Pope entered the square on his Pope-mobile. The Pope was standing in the vehicle, which was a Mercedez-Benz jeep-like vehicle and there was no glass casing, so the Pope was exposed. He passed by fairly close to Sophia and I and I was able to get a couple good shots by standing on my chair (Sophia's idea). The Pope continued along around the entire square, working the crowd.
The Pope eventually made it to the front stage where he proceeded to start the audience with the sign of the cross. There were some quick introductions of major groups in attendance in multiple languages, then some readings from the Bible. The Pope then gave a homily in Italian. Even though Sophia and I didn't understand the homily, it was still awesome to hear the Pope's voice.
After the homily, there was a thorough introduction of all the groups in attendance. There were many, many groups, and each introduction was done in the native language of the group. There was Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, and Russian. Amazingly, after each language group was introduced, the Pope gave a shot homily in that language. Pope Benedict XVI is truly a universal Pope who can communicate with everyone. I also loved how he saluted each group after they were called because the groups would usually yell and cheer when they were called. He looked like he was having a good time.
After all the groups were introduced and the Pope gave his shot homilies, he gave us his Papal blessing, which he also extended to all our families and to all who were sick. Then he closed the audience by singing the Our Father in Latin. A line of bishops and cardinals formed in front of the Pope and the crowd in the square started to disperse, so Sophia and I made our way out of the Square.
Our next stop was to visit Sr. Irene at the Newman Center. Sophia's mom wanted us to drop off some music and CD's to her. We had talked t St. Irene earlier in the week and got directions to her place, so we went to the nearest bus stop and hopped a bus. We made it to her place without any incidence. She welcomed us into the Newman Center and we gave her the music she was expecting. She was very friendly and excited to receive all the materials.
We stayed for about 15 minutes and said bye to Sr. Irene and the Newman Center. Sophia and I wanted to go back to the Vatican and see the museum, including the Sistine Chapel, so we stood at the nearest bus stop to catch a bus back. Unfortunately, the bus we wanted didn't stop for some reason, so we decided to just walk back to the Vatican. It took us around a half hour to walk back, but it was really good exercise going up and down Rome's hills.
We got some gelato at a nearby cafeteria, then walked around to the entrance to the museum which was located on the opposite side of where the bus stop was located. The line into the museum wasn't long, surprisingly, and we picked up our tickets and a couple audio guides, which were basically cellphone-like devices. In each room of the museum and at lots of the art pieces, there was a number up to 3 digits big that could be dialed into the audio guide and a narrator would talk about the art piece or room. It was much more convenient than having a tour guide because Sophia and I could take as much time as we wanted at each location.
I can't even begin to describe all of the rooms and works of art we saw in the museum. It was easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of pieces contained in the museum. We skipped a couple sections of the museum that really didn't interest us, like the Egyptian and Etruscan sections. We were here to see the Sistine Chapel and that is what we were going to do.
After going through the Maps room, Tapestry room, and Candelabra rooms, we took a shortcut to the Sistine Chapel. As we walked down a flight of stairs to the Sistine Chapel, some announcements sounded through a PA system. The multi-language announcement stated that no pictures were allowed and that silence should be kept in the chapel. At the bottom of the stairs, we merged into the line entering the chapel.
The Sistine Chapel was very dark inside, but this did not take away from all the breathtaking art. Unfortunately, many people were ignoring the requests made over the PA and there were people taking pictures and lots of people were talking. i people have forgotten that this room is a chapel first and, in fact, there was an altar right below the wall which contained Michelangelo's Last Judgment. The PA announcement sounded again and there were Vatican guards inside telling people not to take pictures and to be silent, but most people were ignoring them, which was a shame.
We stayed inside for what must have been about 15 minutes. I saw all the famous works I had seen or read about over the years: the creation of Adam, the Last Judgment, the creation story, parts of the Moses story, the resurrection, etc. It was almost surreal seeing all these works in person.
Unfortunately, all the talking and photo taking was very distracting and Sophia and I left after getting our fill of people's lack of reverence. There were many other rooms of great art on the way to the exit, but they were definitely not as good as the rooms before the Sistine Chapel. One room I particularly enjoyed, which was also part of the gift shop, was a room which had painting of the various councils of the church.
Sophia bought a rosary and we made our way to the exit. Near the exit was a Vatican post office, so Sophia and I mailed a couple postcards. We were pretty tired by this time, so we decided to walk to the subway and head back to the hotel.
For dinner, we decided to go out to a sit down restaurant because we hadn't done that yet. We also wanted to try more pasta. So we walked around a couple blocks near the Spanish Steps and found a wine bar that was right across from a pizzeria we ate at. We ordered a glass of amarone, Sophia ordered cheese stuffed tortellini, I ordered the spaghetti in duck sauce, and for an appetizer we tried the foccacia bread. Everything was very good, but I think the tortellini was the best dish because the cheese was just outstanding. The amarone was very strong and Sophia and I aren't wine drinkers, so we couldn't judge how good it was objectively, but we thought it was pretty good.
We stopped by a meat shop to pick up some bottles of Fanta and mineral water with peach flavoring, and then headed back to the hotel room to turn in for the night.
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