Easter Sunday at St. Peter's

BECAUSE I'VE SPENT most of my life as a Lutheran, my knowledge of Catholicism is somewhat limited.  If you asked me to recite the "Hail Mary" prayer,  I might start telling you about Doug Flutie's miracle pass in 1984.  If you asked me to give a "Confession," I might start singing the song "Confessions Part II" by R. Kelly.

But that doesn't mean that I wasn't willing to go Easter Mass at St. Peter's with the new pope while I was studying abroad.  It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I was eager and willing to learn about a sect of religion different than my own, and give it all of the respect that it deserves.  

The day of the papal resignation was when the idea of attending Easter Mass first came up.  It was February 11th and one of my friends, Erin, said she'd had an extra ticket to go to the Easter Sunday service.  I jumped at the opportunity and said that I would go.

The acquisition of tickets for Easter Mass at the Vatican is no easy task.  On their website, under the heading "Papal Event Tickets," it reads: "Note: Christmas and Easter Papal Mass Tickets are difficult to obtain." But fortunately, Erin had already taken care of everything on the ticket front (as she'd faxed a letter to the Vatican well in advance) so she went to pick them up and we were ready to go.  Sunday morning began early, around 7:30 so we could leave for the service around 8:15.

Perhaps my expectations were too large going into this.  I figured that we would be able to get a seat somewhere inside the church, and that there would be translator ear pieces that you could set your respective desired language to.  I found out how wrong I was the moment I stepped off the public transportation bus.

We walked up to St. Peter's square and saw a line of about 1,000 people waiting to get through a metal detector.  Erin and I weaseled our way to the front so it wound up not taking as long as expected.  We walked around the square for awhile, seeing if we could get in the church (couldn't as the service was entirely outside) or if we could even find a seat (couldn't, all taken).  At one point, I went up to one of the Swiss Guards and showed him my ticket to see if it would get me any closer.  He took one look at me, smiled, and said no.  I felt like I was getting rejected by a bouncer at a nightclub, particularly because he got to say no to me in front of a large crowd of people who were already gathered in the square (all of whom casually snickered as I was getting rejected, by the way).  Erin and I walked around for another fifteen minutes, and eventually settled on a place in the middle of the square.

There were no seats, so we sat on the cobblestones for about a half an hour until the service started at 10:15.  It was very cool seeing Pope Francis I in person.  However, once again falling short of my expectations, was the fact that we didn't have any way for the service to be translated.  So once it begun, we were there listening to a different language (e.g. Spanish, Latin, and Italian) for about 95 percent of the service (there was one reading in English while I was there).  We didn't even have service pamphlets telling us what was going on.  I felt somewhat clueless.  Even though it was a really nice day outside, Erin and I decided that we didn't want to be there for the whole time and left early.  It was a cool experience, nonetheless, and I was thankful that Erin was able to acquire the tickets for us.

Next update might be next weekend, as I believe I'm going on a weekend trip.

JC

First Haircut in Italy

"NORMALE?!"

If there was ever a Sunday for me to be dressed in "Sunday Best," it is tomorrow.  I'm attending the Easter mass at St. Peter's, the first for Pope Francis I.  Tomorrow is the pantheon of Sunday Bests.

After two and half months in Italy, my hair was starting to get a little shaggy and I needed a haircut.  I asked my buddy if he knew a place, and he said yes, so I followed his directions to get to a place with a sign out front that said "Barbiere."

Although, he said they didn't speak much English there.  I was worried that I would come out with a terrible haircut, which would be disastrous right before Easter Sunday.

I walked in to see two older men busy at work cutting hair, with one guy in the waiting chairs.  No one said anything to me, so I took a seat.  It was setup just like any other barber shop you would see back in the states, but it wasn't exactly touristy, as all of the reading material was in Italian and the radio was broadcasting was an Italian soccer game.  

After the other guy in the waiting room went to get his haircut, it was my turn.  "Prego," the hairdresser said as he pointed at me.  I took a seat while he wrapped the bib around me.

"Normale?" he asked, inquiring about what length I wanted my hair.  I didn't want to reveal I was American, so I didn't say anything and just nodded.   I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen after agreeing to a haircut where the hairdresser said "normale?"

He continued to cut my hair, and it actually came out looking great.  It was only six euros as well.  I'm all set to be dressed in Sunday Best tomorrow.

So now I know what length to get my hair cut in Italy: normale.  So I've got that going for me...

I'll be back tomorrow with a post about Easter Sunday.

JC

Weekend in Prague

IF YOU HAVE NEVER bothered to take the time to look up a word in the Czech language, then consider yourself lucky, because it resembles no form of communication I've ever seen on this planet.

Scott and I wrapped up our Spring Break this weekend with a three day trip to Prague.  We left on Thursday afternoon.  I was nervous about the amount of English they would speak there.  I'd never been to the city and was hoping, that like every other European city I've seen so far, that they spoke at least a small amount.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and took a shuttle service to our hostel.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear Michael Jackson playing on the radio during the ride (gotta love that globalization. can't escape the king!).  Like I'd hoped, just about everyone spoke a little English, so communication was no problem.  But it was still a little weird seeing words in Czech (e.g. if you wanted "tickets" for something, you would be asking for "vstupenky" in Czech).  We went out to dinner, and I had potato dumplings filled with meat, which was pretty good.

Friday was our touring day.  Before our tour, I had a steak dish which was good.  We went around to see the Prague Castle, the Lennon Wall (wall with graffiti that pays tribute to John Lennon), and walked over the Charles Bridge.  I had goulash for dinner, which is a meat dish with sauce and bread dumplings, which was very good.  Saturday we did another quick walk around the city.

Prague is a very cool city.  It was really cold for the whole weekend.  The only day of sunshine we had was on Saturday, which might have brought the temperature up to the mid-30's.  I was relieved to come back to the weather in Rome, which was mid-60's and sunny today.

This week, I get back to classes, starting tomorrow.  Check back for more updates.

JC

Florence and Tuscany

"DUDE, THIS IS AWFUL. LOOK AT THE REVIEWS OF THIS HOTEL!"

It was Sunday evening, and one of my roommates, Scott, and I had gotten back from our respective weekend trips (he in Dublin, and I in Paris).  We were going to knock out Florence and Tuscany for the first two days of Spring Break, going by train leaving on Monday morning and coming back on Wednesday to Rome.  

We were going over the logistics for the trip, printing out train tickets, reading maps, etc.  Then we got to the hotel part of the logistics.  I told Scott that Hotel Cordova was the place that we were staying for two nights.  I'd made the reservation about a month ago, and it seemed like an afterthought until Sunday.

He typed in Hotel Cordova to trip advisor, a travel review website, and it was not a pretty picture.  Here are a sampling of the reviews:

"Don't Stay Unless you have to!"
"Wretchedness"
"Pathetic Hotel!! Would Never Recommend This to Anyone"
"Avoid this Place at all Costs!"
"Worst Hotel Ever!!"
"Hotel Crapova"

Needless to say, we were a bit spooked by the prospect of staying at Hotel Cordova.  So I put in a call to try to cancel the reservation so we could get out of it.  In broken English, they told me that they'd already charged my credit card, so we were out of luck.  We departed Monday morning by train for Florence.

We got to the hotel around 10 AM, and took a deep breath, hoping for the best in our next two nights.  The hotel wasn't on the first floor, so we climbed up three flights of stairs.  We could barely see anything on the way up, as all that illuminated the hallway was a flickering light.

We got to the hotel "lobby" and were greeted by a friendly receptionist who showed us to our room, and it didn't look as bad as we'd read on the Internet.  But we had a big day planned, so we threw our stuff down and went on our bus trip.

We had a guided tour to Tuscany to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It was about an hour bus ride there, and was very cool to see.  We took the cliche tourist photos of ourselves holding the tower up, spent about an hour there and were on our way back.  We got dinner in Florence, where I had Gnochhi with Gorgonzola cheese cream sauce which was amazing.  We then went back to our hotel, and had a great night of sleep, around 13 hours after a long day of walking around.  So far so good in the hotel, very contrary to what we'd read in online reviews.  

The next day was a tour of Florence that I'd planned out.  We started at the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo's statue of David.  We'd waited in line for about an hour and half, and I started to get impatient.  We still had a few large groups in front of us, and I figured I'd give it a shot to see if I could weasel my way in to the exhibit.  I went to talk to one of the museum directors, said I had one friend with me, and she said that we could go around the large groups and right in.

Michelangelo's David was truly remarkable.  It's a 17 foot tall statue, and when you see it, it's hard to believe that someone actually took the time to sculpt it.  Along with Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" painting, it was the most impressive piece of art I've seen.  It was a good thing we got to the front of the line, because when we left the exhibit, we noticed the people behind us in line were still waiting to see David (wound up saving us about an hour!).

We walked around Florence for some more of the day and stopped in to a sandwich shop for lunch (had prosciutto, mozzarella, and tomato sandwich that was quite tasty).  We crossed the Ponte Vecchio bridge to see the Boboli Gardens.  The views of Florence from there were very nice, and we were fortunate enough to have nice weather with sun that day.  We went back to the hotel for a quick nap, then back out to dinner.  I had pizza and ravioli with truffle sauce which was amazing.  Back to the hotel for the night, and once again, no problems whatsoever!

We left the hotel around 9 AM on Wednesday for our train back to Rome.  The hotel wound up being much better than our expectations, and way better that what had been said about it on the trip advisor website.  It was a pleasant surprise.

Tomorrow, Scott and I head to Prague for the weekend.  We return on Sunday, I'll be back then with more pictures on FB and a post here.

JC

Weekend in Paris

FROM THE MOMENT our plane touched down at Orly airport in Paris, Sean and I had about 45 hours before we would be departing the city, going on our separate ways.  We had a relatively early flight from Rome to Paris which got slightly delayed, so we got to our hotel around two in the afternoon.

The previous evening, I'd sketched out a tentative itinerary of our travels for both days we would be there.  In the few hours of daylight that we had left on Friday, we wanted to see the Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louvre, walk down the Champs Elysees to l'Arc de Triomphe, and finish it up with a climb up the Eiffel tower.  We were hoping to go to see Louis XIV's Chateau de Versailles on Saturday.

We walked in to our hotel, and were greeted by a friendly hotel lobby receptionist.  We talked hotel logistics (he even gave us a discounted rate on our room) and how to get to our desired destinations.  I pulled out the folded piece of paper from my back pocket that I had handwritten our itinerary on, and showed it to him.

He gave it one look, and in a soft french accent, said, "No way.  You cannot possibly do all of this in two days."  He gave us a less ambitious itinerary instead.  We said thank you and walked to lunch, griping along the way about how we wouldn't be able to do everything we would want to while in Paris.

Our lunch was a three course meal of crepe de fromage (pancakes with cheese inside, actually quite good!) steak au poivre (steak with pepper sauce, also excellent) and dessert.  It was really good, but we were still a little disappointed that our itinerary had been complicated.

But then Sean and I looked at each other and had one of those rare moments where we both knew exactly what the other was thinking.  We decided to go against the advice of our friendly hotel lobby receptionist, and stick with our ambitious itinerary anyway.

We started at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, took a quick look inside and were on our way to the Louvre.  There was barely any line for tickets so we walked around there for about an hour and a half to two hours (saw the Mona Lisa here).  We then took a long walk down the Champs Elysees (where the final stage of the Tour de France is held) to the l'Arc de Triomphe.  It was getting cold and our feet hurt from all the walking, so we took a break for dinner at a place near the Eiffel Tower.

We had these sandwiches called Croque Monsieurs, essentially a ham and cheese sandwich (mine had an egg on top) which was quite good.  We then walked over to the Eiffel Tower to wait in line for the trip up to the top.

We waited for about an hour in the cold, and finally got on the ride to go up the tower.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us go all the way to the top because it was too windy and cold that night, so we settled for the second floor, which provided some spectacular views nonetheless.  We took the metro home and were both pretty tired, and had no trouble falling asleep that night

We had a later start the next day, as Versailles was the only thing on our itinerary.  It was a long, confusing train ride out there, but we eventually figured it out.  The palace was amazing.  We toured there for just under three hours or so.  I think it would've been better to see it in the spring or summer when all of the flowers would be in full bloom.  Still, very cool to have seen it (hard to believe that someone lived in a place that big!).  We had dinner at a place near our hotel, I had french onion soup, steak au poivre (for the second time, but still really good, probably better than the first night), and tarte aux pommes (apple pie, good in France too!).

So despite the fact that our friendly hotel lobby receptionist cautioned us against our ambitious itinerary, we saw everything we wanted to, just as we'd planned.

We had flights out of separate airports, so we said our goodbyes at the metro stop and we were on our respective ways.  It was a great weekend of site seeing.

Next up, Florence and Tuscany, tomorrow and Tuesday.  I'll be back Wednesday with more pictures on Facebook, and another post here.

JC

Viva Il Papa!

WHAT A DAY!

Today was an historic day in Rome, as the Conclave elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to become Pope Francis I.  But let's start from the beginning of my day.

I had three midterms today, Archaeology, Intro to the European Union, and Italian Language and Culture.  So I was already exhausted from late night studying when my final midterm wrapped up around 6:30.

In my last midterm of the day, Italian Language and Culture, there was a girl in our class who said that she'd had an inside source that said that tonight was going to be the night that the pope was elected.  No one really believed her and everyone brushed it off, but she said her source was from inside the Vatican.

I decided to take her at her word, as I hadn't been down to St. Peter's since the conclave had started anyway.  Worse comes to worse, I see black smoke and hope it happens again the next day.

I went with a buddy from my Italian class, and we were waiting for the 870 bus to get to St. Peter's at a stop near our campus.  After about 10 minutes, I got impatient, and we took a cab ride to St. Peter's, which wound up being much cheaper than expected (and also wound up being a great decision, more on that later).  Sean had been waiting at the square for all of the afternoon voting, so he was already there.

We got there, and there were a few thousand people waiting to see if the pope would be elected.  It was raining steadily, and just about everyone had umbrellas.  They had television screens zoomed in on the chimney to see what color the smoke would be.

I was in the square no more than 15 minutes, when we saw black smoke emerge from the chimney.  A collective sigh went through the crowd.  No more than two seconds later, the smoked changed to gray, then to clear white.  A new pope had been chosen.

Pandemonium ensued, everyone rushed to be closer to St. Peter's with shouts of joy.  "Viva Il Papa!" they yelled, meaning "Long Live the Pope."  The bells of St. Peter's were ringing quite loudly.  Just about everyone in Rome stopped what they were doing to get down to St. Peter's to see it.

A processional began, and it seemed like a long waiting period for the Pope to emerge, the crowd was buzzing as to who they thought it would be.  A nun standing in the square was getting the details on her phone, the new pope was from Argentina.  With every movement of the curtain from where the pope would emerge, the crowd would gasp in anticipation.

Then, with a removal of the red curtain, there he was, Pope Francis I.  He gave a brief speech and blessing and just like that it was over.  I'd witnessed history, it was amazing.

It's pretty unbelievable to think what happened.  Of all the semesters I could study abroad, I choose this one.  Of all the places I could study abroad, I choose Rome.  And for the first time in over 600 years, a sitting Pope resigns.  And the only time I go to St. Peter's during the conclave is the one voting session that the Pope is elected.  And if I hadn't cabbed there,  I wouldn't have been there in time to see the smoke turn white! And the one week that Sean visits, he's here to see it happen!  What are the chances?!  It's pretty unbelievable, but I'm so stoked that it happened.  By far coolest experience here yet.

More updates to come this week.

JC

The Day's Activities

Howdy!

Today, Sean and I got started around 11 A.M., where we went to a tasty kebab place for lunch (a change of pace from the traditional Italian pizza and pasta).  We then toured around downtown, going to the Colosseum, Victor Immanuel building, Piazza Campidoglio, and went to San Pietro in Vincoli to see Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses.

I had class in the afternoon, and tonight we went to dinner at a place across the street from my apartment called New Station which I've been to before and was quite good.

The conclave is getting underway, and Sean and I are hoping that we get to see the new pope elected before Friday morning, as that is when we leave for Paris!  Fingers crossed that we'll be able to see the white smoke come out of the chimney.  More updates to come.

JC

Culture Day

Hey there!

So today, Sean and I spent less time site seeing, and more time immersing ourselves in Italian culture.  Sean had the chance to go on his own this morning as I had class, and was able to get some delicious pizza for lunch.

This afternoon, I took him up to our school's campus and gave him a quick tour, followed by another short walk for a nice overlook of the city.  We then went to basketball, where we played ball with some Italian kids and got to speak Italian to them.  Then we went to my Italian Language and Culture class.

For dinner, we went to a really good pizza place.  On the way to the restaurant on the tram, there was a street performer playing a handheld piano in the tram.  I took Sean and his picture, which I'm sure will be making it to various social media outlets soon.  Today wound up being a full cultural immersion.

Tomorrow, we're doing some site seeing in the morning, and eating out for some delicious dinner.  Updates will be daily this week.

JC

Sean Arrives, Lazio Soccer Game

Ciao friends!

Yesterday Sean made it to Rome!  His flight got in around 11 and I went to pick him up from the airport, where we cabbed it back to my apartment.

Today was a touristy day.  We went to the Vatican (my 3rd time, Sean's 1st) where he got to climb to the top of St. Peter's for the best view in the city, and we toured around the church there for a bit.

This evening, we went out to dinner at Tony's for some penne with vodka sauce which was awesome (they even gave us free dessert)!

Tonight, we immersed ourselves in Italian culture by going to the Lazio vs. Fiorentina soccer match.  The weather was crummy all day, and it looked like it was going to rain for the game.  We were about to tap out and call it a night, but it was only a light rain, so we decided to go anyway (which ended up being a great decision as we were under cover in the stadium, so we didn't even get wet).  We initially tried to get there using public transportation, but after waiting 40 minutes for a bus that never came, we took a cab to Stadio Olimpico.   We arrived just in time for the beginning of the match.

European soccer fans are the most passionate sports fans I've been around.  They'd memorized and sung about 30 different cheers, all screaming at the top of their lungs in unison for every one.  They would wait for the cue from the cheer directors (wearing gray jackets facing the crowd, standing near the field) before they screamed their hearts out for the next cheer.  From the sight of it, 50 percent of Stadio Olimpico was empty, but you couldn't tell by how loud it was in our seats, the Curva Nord section (loudest and most crowded section in the stadium).  This was where the die hard Lazio soccer fans were, and they didn't sit at down at any point during the match (except halftime).  Lazio lost 2-0.  It was a very cool experience.

Tomorrow, Sean and I are playing basketball with Italians, and he's coming to my Italian Language and Culture class.  We leave for Paris on Friday.  I'll keep updating this throughout the week.

JC

Pope Resigns

Hey there,

Here's an update on the past few days.

I spent the weekend in Rome.  Thursday was a big day here.  Sec. of State John Kerry visited Rome that day for discussions on Syria.  I didn't get the chance to see him.  Also Thursday was when the pope officially resigned at 8 P.M.  I actually made a news package on the story for ATV, which I'm passing along to them back at school.

Don't have a whole lot going on this week.  The next big thing happening in Rome is the papal conclave, which could start this week, but no one is sure of the exact date. Next weekend Sean arrives, and I'm excited to see him and show him around Rome!  More updates later this week.

JC