Well my classes are going well, we have about 5 or 6 papers due a week and I am in class Tuesday – Thursday for 3.5 hours at a time. It doesn’t feel like we are in class this long luckily since we go on site visits to museums, churches, and gelaterias almost every day. Who knew that summer classes could be this fun?
On Wednesday, June 15, I saw the Pope! My friends Jacob and Kristin and I got to Vatican City at 6:45 AM and waited in line until around 7:30. We then went through a series of security checks including metal detectors since we would be near the Pope and we were technically leaving the county of Italy. We found a seat in the front of the second section on the far left in the corner so that we could be near Pope Francis when he rode by in his Pope-mobile.
We played a few rousing rounds of I Spy and 20 questions until about 9:00 when people started making announcements. The first announcement was in Italian and I had absolutely no clue what they were saying. This cluelessness continued as they translated the message in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, and Polish and went away when they finally spoke in English. They announced the groups of travelers who were in the audience one by one and they all cheered when they heard their group name called. For English, that process went on for about 5 minutes before they got to the actual announcement: the Pope would be out shortly. It only took 10 more minutes and then we heard organs begin to play and the screaming began, letting us know that Pope Francis had made his appearance.
He came out on the Pope-mobile, lapped us once and waved and smiled at us, and kept going through the crowd. At this point, we saw a baby across the way from us and a guard that was trying to get the other guard’s attention so that they would stop for the baby. When the Mercedes came back around, Pope Francis stopped and kissed the baby’s head. It was such an amazing experience to be so close to him, and you can tell how close I was by the pictures I posted below in this post. After he finished up his lap, he greeted all of the cardinals in attendance and took his seat. He gave a 15 minute homily in Italian and until that moment, I hadn’t realized how expressive he was with his hand motions and his voice when he spoke. Luckily only a summary of the speech was translated in the 5 other languages before they got to English.
After the summary was spoken, they said that Pope Francis had given his blessing to all religious articles that we had with us (which was amazing because I brought the gifts that I bought) and extended a blessing to our family and friends. I also thought of my readers in that so if you are reading this, know that the Papal blessing also applies to you! I got home around noon and took a much needed nap before my 3 PM class.
On Friday, I went to a Methodist church across the river from Castel
San’Angelo (the castle I live by) with a few of my friends to attend a
concert. The quintet played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and it was
spectacular. After the concert, 5 of my friends came back to my place
for dinner and then we went and got gelato for desert around 10:30 PM. I
went to bed around midnight because I knew that I had to get up at 6 AM
to get to the train station in time for our train to Florence.We took the fast train to Florence which only took a little over an hour and was the nicest train that I have ever been on. We arrived at 10:10 AM and immediately hit the ground running. We left our baggage at the hotel and visited a church, a convent, and a museum all in the span of 7 hours.
We saw the David at the last museum we went to and then headed back to the hotel before dinner. Dinner was pretty good and I had a 1/2 kilogram (or 1.1 pound) steak that was a signature dish of Florence. I went to bed early to prepare for the next day.
On Sunday, we visited the Medici Compound, Uffizi Museum, and then my favorite, the Ferragamo Museum. At the Ferragamo museum, there were shoes everywhere, dresses and the art that inspired the fashion, and an amazing graphics room that played a spectacular video on a 15 minute loop. We were there for about an hour before heading back to the hotel and then to dinner.
The next day we went to El Duomo and then to the leather market. I got a bag for myself and then a few other things for people and then we got on a train and headed back to Rome. I am back now and although I had a great time, I think that I have seen enough museums during my time here in Rome to last me a lifetime.
Ciao!
Taylor
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Read more from Taylor at https://taylorsitalianavventura.wordpress.com/
Check out http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecampus for more information on the U of A Rome Center: Summer Campus.
