Saturday, July 13, 2013

Rome, Day 3

Day 3 was Sunday, and we didn't do very much touristing. We went back to the Vatican for Mass, of course. We got there over half an hour before Mass started and were late anyway because the security line was so long. The line for the Vatican Museums was over a mile long--apparently it was free museum Sunday.



 So many cardinals at Mass! Let the record show that Mass was over at this point. I do not take photos during Mass and heartily disapprove of this practice. After Mass, we zipped out to the square to see Pope Francis and hear him say the Angelus. Whoever is in charge of reading the Latin responses for the crowd to say needs to sloooowwwww down! I consider myself reasonably good at saying the Hail Mary in Latin and I couldn't keep up. Apparently BXVI's reader was even faster.

 Sadly, since I don't speak Italian, I had to wait to get home to find out what he said.
 Why are these pictures so blurry? Because this is what it looked like without zoom:
 That also gives you an idea of the size of the crowds. Shoulder to shoulder in hot sun with strangers who are all yelling. I got rather stressed out by this, and decided I would rather not climb the cupola than go stand in more lines with more crowds. So we went to a park, and relaxed, napped, did a little bit of birdwatching, and bathed our feet in the cool water of the fountain.


Then we wandered back into the city and had pizza and gelato for dinner.

I am ridiculously pleased with how well we did Rome on a budget! The folder on my computer is optimistically called Rome 2013, so we will see if I ever get back again. I would certainly like to.

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