Just another Sunday in Rome......

Sunday, April 24, 2016
Rome, Lazio, Italy
We've seen a million churches, but we decided to save the best - St. Peter's Basilica - for last. On the way there, we passed right by the two churches Myat suggested in her comment on yesterday's post - one was closed because they were having mass, the other is closed for restoration. 

First, we have been SOOOO lucky - weather said rain today. It was partly cloudy, low 60s all day. Now at 10 pm it's finally raining - we have had perfect weather the whole three weeks!!

We crossed the river where the Supreme Court building is. Very impressive.
 


And then walking along the river...
 

































 

 
 
When we started toward St. Peter's, we noticed there were crowds of people and thought maybe we'd made a big mistake - we'd never get in - we should not have picked a Sunday to come. 







 And then I heard singing and music and realized something was happening. And then we heard THE VOICE - Pope Francis was saying mass right there in front of the Basilica!! (maybe you can hear this) - click on this to hear the singing.
 



 We got as close as we could - St. Peter's Square (which is round) was packed and we couldn't get there, but we could hear the Pope and hear the music. Mass was nearly over. Then someone announced that he was handing crosses to young people to inspire them to go out and be missionaries. In the photo below we were standing behind where that red thing is on the right of the obelisk.

View of Rome from the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica, June 2007

We decided to leave because mass was over and we'd never get close to the Basilica, but then turned down another street and got behind the columns on the right in the photo above. There were big TVs in the Square so we could see what the Pope was doing - shaking hands mostly - and then we saw that he got in his Pope mobile and started driving around. 








 He came fairly close, and then he went past practically where we had been standing before, circled around and went the other way. We didn't see him up close but close enough to see him waving at the crowds. According to Google, the Square itself holds about 125,000 people and there were crowds outside - maybe 300,000 people. And when they asked for a moment of silent prayer, it got really quiet - amazing. 



What an unexpected thrill!!! 

We decided to go have lunch and let the crowds clear and maybe then we could visit the Basilica, since a lot of the crowd was leaving. We found a restaurant nearby and while we were sitting there we saw groups of kids - boy scout types, girl scout types, just groups of kids - most with some sort of flag. So we finally found out that this whole weekend was to celebrate the young people, and today was a special jubilee mass for young people on the steps of the Basilica. If you are interested, the Pope's message to the kids is in English on the Vatican's website.
 
   
 
 



 
We went back after lunch, the crowds packing the Square were gone, but now there was a line from here to Paris I think to get into the Basilica, so we decided it wasn't meant to be.

So we walked back to the hotel - another 6 mile hike today. Time to go home, I can't walk another step! But what a way to end the trip!!

A few more photos below:
 
Other Entries

Comments

Romy
2016-04-25

Looks like you've had a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to having you back home. Travel safe.

2025-02-16

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank