Easter mass at Vatican

Day 5
April 12, 2009
Rome

One reason why we scheduled to go to Rome during the Easter weekend was to be able to hear mass at the Vatican, even if we were not able to get tickets for it. According to our online research, you have to contact your local Bishop to get mass tickets. I don't even know who our Bishop was. We decided we would go on and listen to the mass from wherever we can.

Come Easter Sunday morning, by the time we left our hotel, the train on the way to Vatican was already jam-packed. The street leading to St. Peter's Square was teeming with people, one of them was a Filipino seminarist named Jerry who approached us and offered us free tickets for the mass!

So, here we were, along with thousands others, yards away from the Pope, who conducted the mass in Latin for around 2 hours.



Mitch then later on pretended to understand Latin and asked us to get the rosaries we bought from the Vatican museum the other day and to hold it high during the Papal blessing. We later were told by Jerry, that the Pope blessed the people and the people only. That would be the reason why no one followed our lead during the mass.

Later on, Jerry offered to show us around Rome as we had few hours left before our scheduled entry to the Colosseum. He brought us to Piazza Navona and Pantheon, both of which were figured prominently in the recent movie (and book) "Angels and Demons".

Piazza Navona features the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers, 1651) by Francesco Borromini and Girolamo Rainaldi...






...as well as 2 additional fountains - and the Fontana del Moro which we missed and Fontana di Nettuno which we saw:



The Pantheon is a magnificent ancient temple in Rome that was later converted into the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres. It is the burial place of Raphael. It is famous also for the round opening on its dome.





By 4:30 pm, we met my kuya, Jenny, and Sam at the Colosseum entrance. It was really surreal to be seeing this ancient structure, the site of gladitorial combat during the Roman Empire.








We later proceeded to the Roman Forum, site of the Roman city ruins.










After a very long day, we finally decided to eat an early dinner, since we have forgotten to eat lunch. We had calamares for appetizers...



...pizza and pasta for the main course...



and Rome's world famous gellato for dessert



I had frutti de mare, officially the best pasta I have ever feasted on.



Later on that night, Kuya, Jenny, and Sam left Rome. It would probably be years before I get to see them again.