When in Rome....You Listen to Rick Steves! ;-)~

One of my best friends from college, Michelle, came to visit me in Italy. She had just finished medical school at USC, and was taking a break before graduation and her residency began. She is great to pal around with, and always up for an adventure! The poor thing was told the wrong directions by some guy on the train to my house, and arrived late - so naturally, I thought the worst until she showed up at my door!!

Her first Italian outing on her first night - a wine tasting with Pasquale at Cantine del Mare. Pasquale is SO into his wine - he makes you eat certain foods with particular wines, smell peppers then drink the wine then smell the peppers again, eat some mozzarella with another (I can hardly complain - bring on the mozz!)...he describes each one as if the wines were his children! (It is pretty fantastic, though, I'd have to say!) This is Michelle, Sondra, me, and Jenna yumming it up!


It was at this wine tasting that Michelle and I decided to attend the Submarine Ball that weekend with several friends. The guy writing the name cards knew me, but didn't know Michelle's last name... well, everyone knew she was there with ME! haha...


Side note - this place is in Naples and has some of the best chocolate and gelato, but has one of the most unfortunate names.
I just had to post this picture- why would anyone wear these pants? No less PAY for them! They look like... well, you know.

And yes, Sir, you're totally right. This IS what COOL looks like. haha, right.
We were able to spend time in Rome for a few days, and she was eager to show me her "Rick Steves' Italy Guide." Eager probably is an understatement. Every time I mentioned something we should see, Michelle would say, "Rick says we should see this first," or "Rick says this about that..." She cracks me up.


So, we're on the metro, heading to the Colisseum. Two feet away I spot an American (yes, they're spottable. Just look at the shoes.) He's holding a...yes, you guessed it.... a RICK STEVES Italy Guide TOO! So, the three of us start chatting, and he becomes our pal for the day! Luke is an airline pilot that only had a day or so in Rome before he had to fly back to the U.S. We had a great day seeing sights, posing with statues, reading Rick Steves' summaries in funny voices, eating some terrible tourist food, drinking wine in a nice bar right off the Piazza Navona - 'twas a great day!


I eventually succombed and read the book too in the Forum...



And the dreaded sign you see everywhere in Italy (if you're even lucky that they even post a sign)... "closed for restoration." Sometimes that's what it means, but usually it's more like, "too cheap to hire someone to guard it and the other guards are too lazy to walk over here to guard it either." But to those for whom a trip to Italy is a once in a lifetime opportunity, the sign really reads, "Hope you weren't waiting your entire life to see this, because it's not going to be open for a couple of years, so don't hold your breath."


The Colisseum...

Guys dress up like Romans so you can take "authentic" pictures with them... of course, they expect you to pay them for the service...


The Pantheon - one of my favorite spots in Rome! Truly absolutely breathtaking! :)


The next day we ventured to the Vatican to see St. Peters & the Vatican Museum... I thought it was only 5 miles of art... nope, just looked it up. It's almost NINE miles (I have way too many pictures, too). And they make you see ALL of the other art before you get to see the Sistine Chapel. They know what you're REALLY looking for! ;)


Standin' like an Egyptian.....


PARMA!



....I would post pictures of the Sistine Chapel, but we only took video! And our videos are too large to upload on here!! :(

When in Rome... You have to see the Pope, right?

One of my friends, Jason, researched how we could get tickets to a mass at the Vatican. We managed to get tickets to the Easter Vigil Mass at 9:00 p.m.



So, Jason (who is sometimes a bit TOO organized) thought we should start standing in line at 3 p.m. Yes. THREE P.M. Despite Easter Vigil Mass being held at St. Peters for probably hundreds of years, the Vatican still manages to fall victim to the chaos of Italy and have almost no plan or organization as to how those attending should line up. We just started filing into a line into a wooden-fenced-off area, kind of like a corral.


Of course, one would think that those individuals who have given their lives to the Lord, i.e. nuns, priests, monks, etc. would be in some sort of Catholic V.I.P. line. Sadly, no. The were thrown into the cattle round-up with the rest of us waiting in the hot sun that afternoon. There did seem to be some sort of a V.I.P. door area, but any members of the clergy that approached the gate guards were quickly shunned and directed to the corral with the rest of us peons.

There was a priest there that looked like he worked for the Priest Secret Service... if there is one. Are priests allowed to wear Oakleys?! ;)


We were surrounded by screaming Spanish kids, quiet adorable American girls reviewing their scripture, frat boys, ...you name the nationality and type, their people were probably there in that line with us. There were several in the group that insisted on chanting as if we were at a soccer match - their voices growing louder as the time for Mass approached.

As time wore on, we had to stand ever closer to each other. There were many line jumpers that hadn't waited in the sun since 3 p.m. and had various members of their groups hold their spots. At one point we were so squished, I'm not quite sure my feet were touching the ground! One would think that having a German pope would put fear in the hearts of those line jumpers!! Apparently, not so much.

Around 7:30 they opened the gates and I saw something I shall probably never see again - THE RUN OF THE NUNS 2009! Everyone was running FULL SPEED over the cobblestones! Everyone sped to the metal detectors, passed through, and then ran full pelt again into St. Peters. Everyone took their seats... a particularly adorable group of nuns rushed to the seats closest to the Pope's path to the altar, giddy with excitement!

The staff handed us each a small candle as we walked in. I BELIEVE the idea was that the pope and bishops light the candles from their candles as they walk towards the altar. Then everyone lights their candles from those, etc. Well, no one really "got this" and they started whipping out their lighters left and right, lighting them all in a random fashion. Then, about a minute later, the Vatican staff just flicked on the floodlights. Totally lost the moment.

Then as the pope passed up the aisle, two things happened. One, totally cute, the other, completely and utterly annoying. The aforementioned nuns were gazing longingly at the pope as he strode past them, just like those 50's movies where all the young girls swoon at Frankie Valli! They were so excited! :) On the other hand, the gaggle of Spanish youths that had nabbed the seats in front of us started STANDING ON THEIR CHAIRS to get a better look. It was like a circus - so upsetting. Mass shouldn't be a spectacle!

The service was nice, albeit long, Of course, I sang along with the hymns, my favorite part. I also particularly enjoyed that they had speakers read different parts of the service in different languages - it really was very unifying.



Hopefully by the end of my tour here I will have seen another Mass at the Vatican... ;)

My Apartment!

Ok, so this is just the view from the terrace of my apartment... I'll eventually post some pictures of the inside of my apartment... stay tuned! :) I look over the Bay of Pozzuoli, where you can see Sorrento to the left, Capri straight ahead, and to the right lie Monte di Procida (and Bacoli, where most of my coworkers live) and Ischia... and when it's really clear you can see Vesuvius on the left as well...looming in the distance!