Happy Easter!
I got to spend Easter weekend in Rome with two of my close friends from UST studying there and two friends staying in Ireland with me!
On Friday, I flew into Milan hoping to see some of the Olympic remnants. Sadly though, I was stuck in an immigration line for two hours and only got about 5 minutes to see anything. I went to Piazza del Duomo where this impressive Duomo Cathedral is and where the Milano Cortina superstore used to be. It was pretty cool for the few minutes I was there!
I then boarded a train for Rome. I really used every sort of transportation possible that day: a plane to Milan, a bus into the city center, a metro ride to Duomo, a train to Rome and an Uber to the UST Bernardi Campus.
I got to stay on UST’s Rome campus called Bernardi with my friends, which was perfect! I caught up with Cece and Ava a little over dinner and then it was an early night for me after my long travel day.
On Saturday, I walked over 28,000 steps seeing all of the sights! We first went to St. Peter’s, then saw some rowers on Tiber River, went to the Spanish stairs, then the Trevi Fountain, then the Colosseum, and finally the MAXXI Museum by an architect I really like. That run on sentence was a bit how the day felt, but in a very fun way! Cece was an amazing tour guide! Everything we saw was so much more impressive in person than in the pictures, especially St. Peter’s Square and the Colosseum.
That evening, I went to a vigil mass at the Pantheon with a big group of Bernardi students. It was very cool to be in the Pantheon, but it also felt sort of wrong because, even though it’s been a Catholic church for a very long time now, the architecture still makes it feel more like a Pagan temple than a church.
We got back from that mass just before midnight and too little hours later my alarm blared. Sylvia, Owen (studying with me in Ireland) and I decided to get up early and arrive at the Vatican right at 7am when the doors opened to get good spots for Easter mass. We ended up getting there a little after 7 because we stopped and waited for delicious freshly baked croissants to come out of the oven. Our early wake up definitely paid off though because we got much better spots than I ever thought we would! And we got seats, which was definitely a blessing because I don’t know that my knees could have made it standing the whole time.
The mass started at 10:15am, so we had a couple hours just sitting in St. Peter’s Square, but it honestly went by really fast and the weather was really nice, so it was actually quite lovely to be soaking in some sun.
It honestly kind of felt like a dream because I’ve seen so many pictures and videos of St. Peter’s never really thinking about getting to be there. I just kept saying to Sylvia and Owen, “this doesn’t feel real,” as we waited.
Then, all of the cardinals started processing out and then there was Pope Leo, like 50 feet away from me 😱 He said the entire mass in Italian, so sadly I didn’t understand much of what he was saying, but I still just couldn’t believe I was hearing his voice in person and not in a a video. It just really did not feel real that I was at a mass being celebrated by the Pope.
Communion was hilarious because there were so, so many priests and so, so many people. Priests just sort of appeared everywhere and you just found the nearest one to receive communion. We ended up doing a bit of zig zag, but it was kind of like a fun little capture the flag game, but mass version 😂
Also, a few of the readings were in English and one the Bernardi students, Maria got to do one of them. It was super cool to see some I knew up there and she did a really good job!
After the mass, Pope Leo went up on the balcony to deliver an Easter message and the Urbi et Orbi blessing. His message was mostly in Italian, but he repeated one part in a bunch of languages, so I briefly got to understand what he was saying and hear his American accent!
After the blessing, he went around in the Popemobile waving to the crowd and blessing babies. Unfortunately, we chose to stand by the one barrier which he did not drive by 🤦🏼♀️
We kept thinking surely he’s going to come back this way, surely he’s going to turn back this way, but sadly that was not the case. So, I only saw him in miniature faraway size, but that was still pretty cool!
After mass, Sylvia and I joined all of the Bernardi students for a four course Italian lunch! (Oh, but first, we got Gatorade on our way because electrolytes just don’t seem to exist in Ireland and we were so happy to see it). The meal included pizza, fish, vegetable, and bread appetizers, lasagna, lamb, and tiramisu. It was quite delicious.
Then, we went back to Bernardi and those who knew how to play instruments and sing player music on the rooftop terrace while the sun was setting. It was very beautiful!
That evening, Ava, Cece and I went to La Romana, the best gelato place around. I got the chocolate cake, pistachio and dulce de leche flavors, all of which were so good, especially the chocolate cake one! And, they put chocolate in the bottom of your cone and a little cookie on top!
I flew out the next morning, but before leaving for the airport, the three of us got a final, while my final, cappuccino.
– From Rome
Leave a Reply