Roma Easter

This morning, we all got up early to go to St. Peter’s Square for Easter mass. We left Hannah’s place around 6:30 in the morning, and arrived at St. Peter’s Square around 7:15 for the privilege of standing in line for the next hour and a half before being allowed into the actual square. It turns out our time was well-spent though; we ended up standing about two hundred feet from the altar, probably about twenty rows back, whereas other people who came later were stuck standing in the square, far away from the action. The service was shorter than I expected; only about an hour and a half. A good portion of it was performed by Pope Benedict himself, in Italian of course. After the service had ended, the Pope went inside St. Peter’s Basilica and came back out on a balcony overlooking the square to deliver a speech (once again in Italian). At the end of the speech though, he said “Christ be with you,” in 63 different languages, including Maori, Swahili and Urdu. It was fun to listen to the different languages and hear people cheer for each one, showing how diverse the crowd at the Vatican was today.

Yesterday, we found out that the open area in between Hannah and Julie’s building and three other buildings is populated by at least two turtles! But now we can’t find them again, and I can’t figure out how to get in there.

After the Easter mass, we came back to the apartment and promptly took a nap. I love vacation. Tonight, with all the other girls in Hannah and Julie’s apartment, and her friend Ali, who is also visiting, we had a huge Easter dinner with pasta, salad, chicken and ham. We had some real trouble figuring out if our Prosciutto Crudo, literally ‘raw ham’ in Italian, was cooked or not. It looked cooked, but that seemed counterintuitive based on its name. My mom solved the problem after I called her. Apparently it is not cooked, but it is cured in such a way that it is safe to eat. So, I just heated it up in the oven with some honey on it, and we were ready to go. It was delicious.

The pictures are of St. Peter's Square and Basilica, the Pope on the balcony above, and of the turtle in the turtle garden.