On Saturday, March 13th (the first day of Spring), Mom, Tara, Nanny, and Roey came to visit me for the week! Their flight from Newark to Rome was scheduled to arrive at 7:45 AM Italian time, so I woke up at around that time because I wanted to meet them at their hotel. Mom was supposed to call me when they landed but I didn’t end up getting a call until 9:30ish – it took them a while to get through customs.
I ended up getting to their hotel as soon as they were checking in – it was perfect timing. They got settled in and freshened up before we went sightseeing. Our first stop, since the hotel was so close, was the Trevi – one of my favorite spots in Rome. This was only my second time seeing it so I was just as excited. Next, we went to the Pantheon which was nearby, as well.
Our next stop was Piazza Navona, the spot where they has chariot races in Ancient Rome. Now it has restaurants along the perimeter and street vendors selling paintings and other things scattered all throughout. The Bernini Four Rivers Fountain in the middle is still under construction (so upset about that – especially because it’s the fourth Illuminati marker in Angels and Demons) and is blocked off with a few windows you can peak through to see it. Of course, however, it has no running water. We got lunch at one of the many restaurants in the Piazza and relaxed for a while.
We sat and enjoyed the Piazza for about an hour and wanted to go and see more. We were walking out of Piazza Navona when I heard someone speaking English in a very familiar voice. I look and it’s SISTER ALICE from St. E’s. Tara had her for religion class one year and I had her for homeroom freshman year. When I saw her, I was like “Uhhh… Tara. Do you see who that is?!” We both stood there in shock for a few minutes; we were holding each other’s shoulders and laughing while contemplating if we should chase after her to say hi.
When Mom found out what we were laughing at, she told us we obviously had to say hi. Leave it to her to power walk through Piazza Navona screaming “SISTER ALICE!!!”. She turned around and was just as flabbergasted to see us. I had no idea she wasn’t teaching at St. E’s anymore – she is on sabbatical in Rome for a year (ending in May or June, I think). She gave us some helpful advice for showing up to the Papal Address on Wednesday (ie: it isn’t necessary to be an hour and a half early like they tell you to). We chatted for a bit and said ciao!
Anyway, I’m not sure exactly when this was (it might or may not have been on Saturday) but we went into the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone. It’s pretty on the outside but GORGEOUS on the inside. It was designed by Borromini, Bernini’s main rival. One of the statues on Bernini’s Four Rivers Fountain, the one that is facing the church, is turning its head as it is regarding it in horror. Mom told me that it’s rumored to have something to do with the fact that they were artistic rivals, but the fountain was apparently there before Sant’Agnese.
I’m kind of hazy on the details of this Saturday (I guess that’s the price to pay when you wait so long to blog) so hopefully Mom, Tara, Roey, or Nan will be able to help me fill in the gaps! I do remember that at 4ish, I walked back to their hotel with them, because they wanted to nap and I wanted to pick up the stuff I had Mom bring me from home. I walked back to my apartment in Trastevere with Mom’s purple backpack full of a few articles of clothing, shoes, Taco seasoning (so expensive here in Rome), two boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (which I finished, by myself, within three days –OOPS), and a few other things. Steph, Cara, and I decided to have a Mexican food night with the seasoning that traveled all the way from the US. I made the tacos and Steph and Cara made homemade guacamole!
On Sunday morning, March 14th, I worked my way across the river to meet Mom, Tara, Nanny, and Roey. Our first stop was the “antiquities”, as Mom called them. The Roman Forum is near the Colosseum so we walked along the road and checked out the ruins of Ancient Rome. The ruins are below the present day level of Rome because the Tiber once flooded the whole city so they decided to raise the city – crazy that they could do that. We hung out around the Forum for a while near the Victor Emmanuel II monument which is on the building built for the unification of Rome in the 1800s and is referred to as ‘the wedding cake’.
We made it to the Colosseum and hung out outside. I went inside in January, and I don’t think it was really worth it. It costs 12 euro just to get inside. It would have been absurd of me not to go in at all having spent four months in Rome but I told my family to not even waste the time/ money on it. It’s neat inside but all pictures that you’ve ever seen of it inside is exactly what it is and nothing more. We took a lot of pictures and then made moves towards Campo de Fiori.
Campo is a square where there are markets and vendors during the day lined by restaurants and bars. I don’t know the exact history behind it, but apparently it was the site that some monk was persecuted for treason. We ate lunch outside at one of the restaurants in the square. Campo is a big hotspot for night life – bars such as the Drunken Ship and Sloppy Sam’s are popular places for Italian, as well as American, students. This was the first time I was there during the day so it was pretty weird ha ha.
After lunch at Campo, we walked around a little more then dropped off Nan and Tara at the hotel so they could take another nap. Mom, Roey, and I went to explore Rome some more. We stumbled upon the President’s House which I hadn’t seen before. It’s on top of a hill in the city and is a beautiful building, like most in Rome. Mom and Roey wanted to make sure that I got on the tram to Trastevere okay so we walked to Argentina (a section of Rome with ruins that are now a legitimate cat sanctuary) which is the start of the tram line. We found a place to split a margherita pizza and a bottle of white wine; we had a big lunch, and none of us were hungry so it was good for a light dinner. I took the tram back to my apartment to hang out and do homework.
Tara’s birthday, the 15th, was on a Monday. My first class on Mondays and Wednesdays is Italian at 1:45 PM. I’ve never skipped it, because I feel like I would miss too much so I decided to skip my 5:15 PM American Foreign Policy class and meet up with my family after Italian. Mom, Tara, Roey, and Nanny did the Vatican Museum in the morning and I met them in Vatican City after class at 3:30 to go into St. Peter’s Basilica.
This my third time in St. Peter’s and I could literally go back ten more times. This time, mass was going on at the front of the Basilica. We wanted to go down to see the tombs of the dead Popes but it closes at 5 PM (it was 5:15ish at the time that we wanted to go). I didn’t know you could do this, but Roey said last time she was in Rome she saw the tombs. I definitely want to get back to St. Peter’s to see that.
We left St. Peter’s and took a cab to my apartment in Trastevere. I showed Mom, Tara, Nan, and Roey around my place. We then met up with Steph and Sydney for dinner at a restaurant near my school called Margherita’s. Afterwards, we parted ways with Mom, Nan, and Roey, and Tara came home with Sydney, Steph, and I so we could go out. Sydney turned 21 at midnight so we went to the Drunken Ship to celebrate her birthday (as well as Tara’s – it’s weird that she’s legal here!).
On Tuesday, March 16th, I woke up at about 9AM to shower. Tara had to get home to the hotel to meet Mommy, Nanny, and Roey. I REALLY didn’t want to have to walk Tara all the way over there just to come back (too lazy haha) so I gave her a map of Rome and marked the route she needed to take to get back. She had no phone so I wrote down my number and the number of Mom’s rented Italian phone on the map and told her to call in case she got lost in the city, and I sent her on her way. Mom was fine with this because Tara is really good at directions; if it were me, on the other hand, I don’t think she would be as comfortable with letting me trying to navigate my way home in a foreign country with no means of communications. I can’t even completely get around Florham Park without sometimes getting lost EEK.
I had class all day, and I was supposed to meet up with my family for dinner. However, I talked to my mom at 4ish and she said that they just ate lunch so they weren’t hungry and wouldn’t eat for a while. At 7:30, I called Mom and we decided I wouldn’t meet them for dinner because I wouldn’t have time to go all the way across the city, eat, go home, and get ready to go out again for Sydney’s birthday.
Wednesday, March 17th – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I woke up super early, because we had tickets for the papal address at 10:30 AM. I met my family at Vatican City at 10:15 and we got seats. Pope Benedict first came out on his Pope mobile and circled the audience! Tara and I jumped out of our seats when we saw him nearing – we ran back to the barrier behind us and saw him pass. We were literally about ten feet away from him. It was amazing. He blessed the crowd as he went by.
It was awesome actually seeing the Pope in person but the actual papal address was rather boring. He spoke for about 30-40 minutes purely in Italian. Then a member of the clergy would say a prayer in a various language and announce any groups (of that particular language) that were in attendance. The Pope then would say a blessing in the language. Off the top of my head, he addressed the audience in Italian, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and maybe one or two others. It is incredible that he is able to speak all those languages – even if he is reading off a paper, he can still pronounce all of them!
At the end, the audience was instructed to hold up any religious artifacts that they wanted blessed. I got my St. Brigid’s cross, Tiffany’s cross, a cross from Vatican City that Nanny bought for all the granddaughters, and a rosary that I also bought from the Vatican a few days before all blessed.
Afterwards, I headed back to JCU for my 1:45 class. Mom, Roey, Nan, and Tara were leaving for Florence that afternoon, but I had a Political Theory paper due the next day that I needed to get done. So, I decided to take the train and meet them in Florence Thursday morning so I could spend all Wednesday night working on it.
More about Firenze later!
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