DAY 1
We flew in on Sunday. The flight was painfully long, and I didn’t get any sleep, but I wasn’t very tired. After we got off the plane, we went through passport control before we got our luggage. I saw priests and nuns before we even left the airport, which shows how influential Catholicism is in Rome and the surrounding areas.
We met Josh in the airport, and he led us to the bus that would be taking us to the hotel. On the bus ride over, I saw a lot of graffiti. A surprising amount of tags were English words, which shows how much influence the English-speaking world has on the rest of the world.
After putting our bags in the hotel, we walked around. We went into St. Peter’s square and got to see Papa Francesco give his Sunday address to the people in the square. The square was full of people who had come to hear him speak. I was not aware of how easy it was to actually see the Pope in person. We walked around and saw Castel Sant Angelo, which is where the Popes used to use to hide when the Vatican was under siege, and the Bridge of Angels. After that, we finally checked in to the hotel. We all got a short rest before going to lunch.
In the late afternoon we went to mass. I did not know we were going to the Vatican for mass until we got in line in the square. The Basilica is so huge and so opulent. The beautiful pictures we all took do not even begin to capture the beauty of the church.
We went to dinner at La Vittoria, the restaurant right next to our hotel. Many of the customer service people we have seen are not very friendly, such as the cashier at the supermarket, who seemed annoyed at our very existence. However, the waiters at the restaurant were very friendly and brought us out surprise lemon cake for dessert.
I was very tired by the end of the day, and I was glad when we finally checked in for the night.
DAY 2
Monday morning, we woke up and walked to the Pontificia University for class. We talked about the basics of the International Relations class, and then discussed our religious views, and what we thought of destiny, free will, and many other spiritual and religious topics. We had lunch in the beautiful university cafeteria before going back to the hotel for an afternoon rest.
After our rest, we met Josh, who took us on a trip through the metro. We established our “code word” which is used to convey the message of “We are getting off the metro at the next station.” Our word is “Nero” after the Roman emperor who killed his wife and subsequently married a man who looked like the wife.
Outside of the metro, we met our tour guide for the day, Rachel. Our first stop with Rachel was the Coliseum. It was cool to be standing inside the ruins and to see models of what it was supposed to look like during the height of the Roman Empire. The trap door system used to transport the animals was very interesting, and the fact that a huge part of the Coliseum was underground and involved lifts and pulleys. None of the spectators saw this part of the Coliseum.
On the streets of Rome there are many people looking for money. Some play accordion and other instruments and others just sit and pray or beg for money. On the way from the Coliseum to the Roman Forum I saw two people who looked like Tibetan monks. They were both meditating on the sidewalk, one of them holding a wooden pole which the other one was balancing on. It was interesting seeing this little bit of Buddhist tradition in the middle of a hugely Catholic city.
The Forum was very beautiful. There were so many colorful flowers and trees. One interesting part of being in this area was seeing a summer home that had been built for Mussolini. This building looked very strange sitting surrounded by ancient ruins.
We rode back to the hotel and had a small rest. After that we had dinner, followed by a trek to the market at Castel Sant Angelo. Unfortunately, not many people were selling things, so we went back to the hotel for the night.