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Palm Sunday mass

This was the most beautiful mass I've ever attended...so many different languages and people of different backgrounds coming together to celebrate Palm Sunday at St. Peter's Square. Amazing.

Woke up WAAAAAY too early for a Sunday to get to the Vatican and stand in line with about 50 other people who were there before us. Some [anal east-coast American] lady and her [equally anal east-coast American] friends kept insisting that we needed tickets to get in, and that there was another line to get in without tickets...but what church requires tickets for mass?! The day I'm required a ticket to sit in mass is the day I lose faith in the Catholic church. Nah, I'm just kidding, but seriously. So Chris walked around to find this supposed non-ticket line...that lady must've stayed up all night or something, because there was no such line. He came back and stood in our place while I went to ask a Vatican police officer...who said we did NOT need tickets to get in (as did his two police homies). Pshhhh...I ran back and said loudly, "You don't need tickets, what the heck!" and made sure those retards in line heard me. =P

The gates opened at 730am (we got there around 6)...and there was this STAMPEDE of people rushing through metal detectors to get into the square and get seats. Nuns were running like marathon runners! Geez...there were about 1000 people in line at 730...with like, 10,000 seats. Chris and I managed to get pretty close seats (close as in, we could actually see the altar and whatnot), three rows behind those people in line. HAHA suckaaaaaas!

Philippine flag representing!

Anywho, we finished writing postcards to kill the time...and then around 9am, I seriously had to pee. I know the line to the women's bathroom is usually long, NEVER had I seen it this long. It took me 45 minutes to get through, causing me to miss the opening procession. Plus the guards wouldn't let all the women (coincidentally, there were about two men) back to their seats; understandable, so we wouldn't disturb the procession. Ah well...I just heard a bunch of random cheering from the crowd and big palm leaves walking down the center aisle.

Finally got back to my seat, where Chris was freaking out because he thought he lost me...at the same time, I was freaking out about the same thing, getting separated in a crowd of a million people. Got back to my seat about 2-3 minutes after mass started, so I wasn't too worried about missing much. Different parts of mass were said in different languages...the First Reading was in English, the Second in German...and then there was this part where people said something in Spanish, Russian, Filipino, Swahili, Portuguese, and French. Cooool! Even the Creed was in Latin, which Chris and I were trying to translate as it was being said. =P

Communion was served to a million people by this army of priests:
There weren't even any lines forming, just blobs of people forming a circle around each priest to receive the Body of Christ. Communion to a million people...that's crazy.

Statue of St. Paul + Pope Benedict on a screen

After mass, a million people just spilled out onto the streets around the Vatican. It was like being in Venice all over again, crashing into people as we walked, exept we were at the Vatican and it was cooler. Don't know if you can tell in this picture, but here are people at mass:
Nuts huh? Supposedly St. Peter's Square can hold up to a million people, and it was pretty full, so there ya go. =P Grabbed lunch and walked back to the hotel...and then knocked out.

And that was the bulk of our day. Going back to Cali tomorrow...it's been fun here, but it's definitely time to go home...

another day at the Vatican

Today was another day invading...oops, I mean visiting the Vatican. Chris and I wanted to climb up the dome to St. Peter's, but the line...OMG. We didn't know where the thing ended, so we started following it, only to find out that it wrapped around somewhere. What the hey?! Blah...ah well, we're near the Vatican anyway, so we just wandered around Rome again. Took the metro and visited San Giovanni in Laterano.

See that chair in the middle? Only the Pope can sit there.

It was suuuper nice in there; according to Rick Steves (our best friend for the rest of this trip), it was the first Christian church in Rome, opened in about A.D. 318. Inside had statues of Jesus' 12 apostles, who looked like they were stepping out of their niches, to symbolize Christianity coming into the modern world. Walked around some more; we attempted to find the Holy Stairs but wasn't successful...or at least I don't think we were. We saw a set, but it was gated, so yeah.


Lunch was at that Korean place (the sign we saw yesterday). It was pretty good; I even started talking to the owner in Korean. HAHAHA...oh man. Mark, I need to talk to you more. Thank God he knew English! =P Afterwards, we went back to the Vatican to finally climb the top of St. Peter's. We started talking to this group in line about airport transfers and other random stuff, all while waiting in a 30-minute line (definitely shorter than the one we saw this morning) to take the elevator and stairs up. After the elevator ride to the roof, we climbed the 323 steps to the top of the dome. The view was...WOW.

See those letters on the gold banner near the top? They're about 7 feet tall.

View of St. Peter's Square from the top of the dome

The lady we met in line took a picture of Chris and me at the top, but we're hella shiny so I'm not posting that one. =P

Much like the climb up the Duomo in Florence, my knees were shaking when we got down. Narrow, spiral staircases are not my friend, man. Chris did better this time! He wasn't freaking out at much, probably because the wind at the top wasn't as strong as the wind at the top of the Duomo.

After climbing down, we chilled on the roof for a few minutes, taking in the view and getting our 7 Euros worth. Took the elevator back down and went inside the church just because. Mass was going on in one part of the church, but since it was in Italian and we're going to Palm Sunday mass tomorrow, we didn't sit in. We saw what I think was a baptism. That's coooool, being baptized at the Vatican! How about getting married at the Vatican? =P

Chris knows I like sun rays and shiny stuff, haha

Stopped by the information office to buy more rosaries (the same lady who sold me about 25 yesterday wasn't a bit surprised to see me...I think she thinks I'm crazy) and find out more information about tomorrow's mass. In a nutshell, we're leaving at 5am to line up, because the gates open at 7:30am for the 9:30am mass. (O_O)

After all that, we just sat in St. Peter's Square to take everything in and people watch. Looked through the Rick Steves guide to find a restaurant for dinner, but since it wouldn't open until 7pm, we just sat there for a while, talking about life and other random stuff. "When life hands you lemons, make limoncello and get drunk and pass out!" says the travel buddy. HAHA what the heck?! We saw a dog try to eat a Coca Cola can...and then we saw firetrucks watering plants...because apparently there's nothing else for them to do.

Palm Sunday mass is tomorrow............and so is our last day in Italy. =( I think I'm ready to go back home, but at the same time, I'm not. Italy's definitely been a fun country, and I can honestly say that this has been one of the best vacations I've been on (tied in first with Hawaii with my parents in 7th grade). I'm surprised Chris and I didn't kill each other [yet], since we've been together for 2 weeks straight. But then again, we still have a day left. Haha, I kid I kid. =P

K, gotta sleep now since we're leaving at 5am tomorrow! Ciao!

P.S. Hate me...I really don't care. =P

Pompeii and back to Rome

And we're back in Rome!

On Wednesday, we left Sorrento to head back to Rome, with a stop to visit the ruins of Pompeii along the way...

I expected to see a lot more presevered, ash-covered bodies, but we only saw two. =( Here's one of them:Our guide showed us a row of ruins which used to be brothels...and then down the street we saw a penis carved into the ground that, ironically, pointed to the row of the brothels. Apparently, if you step on it, you'll get married. But no one ever said anything about sitting on it, as one guy in our group did, haha! =P

View of the ruins with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

When we arrived in Rome, the entire group went out for a walk to see the same sites we saw on our first day, so we just napped...mmm it was so nice to relax, since this tour is draining! Franco was right...on our first day, he said semi-jokingly, "This tour is not relaxing; you're gonna need a one-week holiday after!"

The next day (Thursday), we had the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel tour. Our guide was sorta boring; I was falling asleep standing up. So Chris and I ran off to do Rick Steves' Vatican Museum tour ourselves. We met up with the group at certain points, but I think we saw more than what they saw.

We walked through the Museum, which had SOOO much stuff in it...I had to take pictures without flash, so some came out a bit blurry, but if you wanna see what I took, ask me because there are way too many to put up here.

The Museum connected to the Sistine Chapel. Holy cow, my hair stood on end. The place was PACKED...we could barely move around all the crazy tourists (and the stupid ones taking pictures, with and without flash, even though it wasn't allowed...one person in our tour group actually got kicked out). Simply amazing.

After our erm, "guided tour," we were basically on our own for the rest of the day. Chris and I decided to explore St. Peter's Basilica, thanks to Rick Steves. =)

Michelangelo's Pieta

God's "four-poster bed," made by Bernini

St. Peter's Square

Oh yeah, we actually walked past Swiss guards! We were trying to find the Excavation Office so we could make reservations for a tour of the crypt (and see St. Peter's tomb), so I walked past all the tourists taking pictures of them (Chris was being chicken and didn't wanna ask himself, haha)...and one of them walked up to me as I walked up to him. I seriously had to tilt my head back; apparently these guys have to be at LEAST 5'9". (O_O) I explained what we were trying to do, and he let us through! =D Unfortunately though, we couldn't get reservations; the next available ones were in May. Booooo.

After more walking around and exploring, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for the farewell dinner. AWWWWWWWWW! Everyone looked so nice dressed up and having fun! I'm gonna miss all these people, especially after spending 2 weeks with them...

With Ben and Data

With Franco, our tour manager

With Cornelius, the best bus driver EVER!

Franco dancing to our wakey-wakey song on the disco bus

So this morning, after checking out and saying bye to the people left/leaving, we moved to the our last hotel for this trip to Italy. It was HELLA nice! It's a cute little bed&breakfast about 10 minutes away from the Vatican. And it has internet! I was SO surprised because all the hotels we had throughout the tour either had: a) public computers you had to pay for, or b) no internet at all. After checking in and settling in and whatnot, Chris and I decided to explore Vatican City and Rome again. Our first stop was lunch, where we attempted to order in Italian but failed. HAHA we suuuuck! Next time we come back to Italy, we're gonna be semi-fluent!

The Holy Door...according to Rick Steves, these are only opened during the Jubilee Years, on Christmas Eve every 25 years. On Christmas Eve 1999, Pope John Paul II knocked on it "three times with a silver hammer and the door opens, welcoming pilgrims to pass through." Afterwards, the door is bricked up again to wait another 24 years.

Speaking of Pope John Paul II, we were able to see his tomb underneath St. Peter's.

We bought a LOT of rosaries as pasalubong for people, so instead of carrying them around with us everywhere, we went back to the hotel to drop them off. On the walk back, I spotted a sign for a Korean restaurant (that we'll probably check out tomorrow):
Haha, Korean food in Italy! This should be interesting. =P Chilled at the hotel for about an hour and a half; I uploaded the blogs I'd been writing since the tour started, along with pictures. Finally, we ventured back out into crazy Rome to see sights we hadn't yet seen. We took the metro to the Colosseum...

Check out that graffiti!

Of course, we were walking around with the Rick Steves book, so we decided to take his advice and try one of the restaurants around the Colosseum. We walked into the Caffe dello Studente and the daughter of the owner, Simona, immediately spotted the book and was like, "Rick Steves! I'm in that book!" It was cool, cuz she gave us free cocktails and introduced us to her husband and father. We got delicious sandwiches for really cheap and got to sit at a table for free (restaurants here charge if you wanna sit down). Yay for Rick Steves!

We tried to visit the Roman Forum after dinner, but apparently most major sights close at 7pm, so we sat there thinking of stuff to do since it was still pretty early. And we thought, hey what the heck, let's get gelato near the Pantheon and take a night walk. So we were standing at the bus stop, looking through the Rick Steves book, trying to figure out the best route to the Pantheon...and this lady points out to her friend, "Hey, they're reading Rick Steves!" HAHA oh man...Rick Steves brings people together! We chatted with them for a bit, then finally decided to take the metro to Barberini, then walked to Trevi Fountain, then walked to the Pantheon.


We stopped by McDonald's to use the bathroom and to try out their chicken nuggets (and woohoo, they were dark meat!!!). Looked through the book again to find the "best gelato place in Rome," and on the way up the street, we ran into a couple using a Rick Steves guide to find the same gelato place. It's like a cult! Haha just kidding! =P The four of us found the place and had the best freakin' gelato, tied with Gelateria Romana in Urbino, over a nice conversation in the middle of the street (even gelato places charge for you to sit at a table). We parted ways after about 45 minutes, and Chris and I continued our night walk...

Vittorio Emmanuel monument

We decided to take the metro back to the Colosseum...last night, we drove by at night, but taking pictures without flash in a moving bus was a nightmare. Here's a clearer shot:

Beautiful, no? =) Well...except for that ugly streetlight. "I hate modern-day Rome!" Haha, just kidding. After that, we hopped back on the metro in order to get back to the hotel, but due to construction, at Termini Station, Line A stopped at 9pm and switched to buses. Chris, being a PSYCHO, wanted to take bus #64, aka the Thief Bus. I, being the paranoid one, said, "Hell no!" and we took the #40 bus instead. I'd rather not get robbed, thankyouverymuch.

Since our hotel is very close to the Vatican, we were able to see St. Peter's Square at night. At one point, we tried to use the exit we used earlier in the afternoon, but it was blocked off and we couldn't find a way around it. "Ahhh, we're stuck in Vatican City!"

Night shot of St. Peter's Square

See the three rectangles of light? That's the Pope's private study.

Rome is so beautiful at night...so much better than during the day (probably because, according to Chris, "it hides a lot of things you don't wanna see"). Mmm, Rome...the Eternal City.

down to the south of Italy

Yesterday, we arrived in Sorrento, which is in the south of Italy...

Don't mess with our tour manager. =P

Today, we woke up at the asscrack of dawn to catch a ferry to the Isle of Capri. It’s supposedly the richest island in Italy, and HELLA tourists go there. Thank God it’s not tourist season yet (the island’s economy is practically based off tourism), or else I would’ve gone nuts like I did in Venice. (O_o)

Unfortunately, I got a little seasick on our way there because the boat was rocking so much…initially, we were sitting up on top in the freezing cold, and I fell asleep for most of the ride…then Chris and I went down to the lower level in preparation for getting off, and the boat was moving sooo much. =X Yucky feeling.

We took a guided tour of the island…our tour guide was pretty cool, but after a while, touring a tiny island got boring. Instead of going on the last part, which was a boat tour around the island (didn’t wanna get seasick again), Chris and I just walked around and whatnot. We found an internet café in the attic of this gelateria place, so we were on there checking mail and stuff for about an hour. Had mango gelato (OMG SOOO GOOD!), then we didn’t know what to do after so we just walked around some more, stopped into souvenir shops, and just sat on a wall that overlooked the Mediterranean Sea. Mmm…the weather was super nice once it cleared up from the cloudy, rainy morning. Sunshine and cool breezes all around. =)

Chris being a retard.

We boarded the boat, 8 hours later, for our way back to the mainland. Spent a couple of hours in Sorrento, where Chris and I proceeded to shop to make up for not really buying anything but food yesterday. Let’s see…we bought limoncello and limon cream, balsamic vinegar, limon chocolate, and limon pasta. Apparently the south of Italy is famous for lemon stuff, if you couldn’t tell. =P It’s great though; I love lemon! I’m gonna have a blast experimenting in the kitchen when I get back to the States. Anyone wanna come over and be my guinea pig? ;)

After shopping around and stuff, we went back to the hotel for dinner with the group and now everyone’s just chillin. Another early start tomorrow; wakeup call is at 6:30, then we’re off to Rome with a stop in Pompeii along the way. It’s gonna be kinda freaky seeing bodies perfectly preserved in ash from Mt. Vesuvius, but I’m also curious to see what the ruins are like in person, instead of just learning about them from a book.

I love the Italy. =)