buona pasqua!

sorry it has taken me so long... it's been a busy week!

easter was definitely interesting. we woke up at 5am to get to st. peter's by 630am. we were all exhausted, but powered through it for the pope. st. peter's definitely looks different before the sun rises. in fact, we were dropped off right in front and cydney couldn't find it! we were starring straight ahead at the front of the square, and cydney said, "where do we go? i think we need to go around..." our taxi driver laughed out loud. we were looking at it.

me at st. peter's square

645am

this is what st. peter's looks like before the sun rises

sun rise!

we were so early that we were at the very front of the line waiting to enter the square. we immediately spotted andrew, my roommates boyfriend who is studying in rome, and his friends. they are all apart of the architecture program at auburn so it was a family reunion!

war eagle!!

so after waiting in line for 2 hours, they opened the gates at 830am. and it seriously felt like the harry potter theme park just opened. people were shoving, it was a stampede to get in. i was separated from my group, people were sprinting once they cleared the entrance. it was crazy! i was laughing out loud thinking, isn't this easter? aren't we all christians? is this for real? it was definitely real once you were trampled by a nun.

beautiful decorations

4th row!

but taking out some people was worth it because we got 4th row seats!! we were so close it was awesome. but of course we had to sit and wait for another 2 hours in the freezing cold until the service was going to start. then fortunately the rain started around 5 minutes til. perfect timing. the umbrellas came out so i could no longer see the altar.

america!

da pope

the service was really neat because they had people doing the readings in several different languages. the first reading was in spanish, the second in english, then french, then german. i ended up leaving after an hour and a half though (this mass is seriously forever long) because i was so cold and wet. note to self: the weather channel doesn't apply to europe. it projected 63 degrees and rain. it was more like 40. i wasn't prepared.

the pope had heat lamps!

but i was glad that i saw the majority of the mass. my friends krystle and ali stuck it out to receive eucharist, but they said coming back to ariccia was miserable with the crowds. they estimated that there was around 10,000 people there.

rrraaaiiinnnn

the band

so all in all my easter was great, besides the fact that i was shivering from 630am-1130am when i left. my hands were purple. but i made it home, thawed out, and took a long nap.