Christmas Cheer

I do have some photos of storefront windows decked out in their holiday best, but I'll add a few other merry photos as well. Enjoy!

First, food. This is the window of a Sicilian bakery that's on my walk to my Italian class (yes, I stop for cannoli from time to time - do you blame me?). The chocolate nativity scene I showed in my last post is also from here.

The next two photos are from a specialty chocolate shop in Trastevere. They are most famous for their chocolate Easter eggs (photos on the walls inside the shop showcase their various impressive creations, including one egg that was so large that a child was photographed sitting inside), which I'll definitely go back to see in the Spring. This place has decent cannoli, but not my favorite - although I do like that they make them to-order; you're not buying one that's been sitting around for god-knows-how-long. Note the chocolate creations on the top shelf.

Same shop, but I wanted to point out the "hot chocolate". Do you see it? Yeah, it's that stuff in cups that looks like pudding or mousse. The Italian version of hot chocolate is actually melted chocolate, served with homemade cream (if you like), and topped off with biscotti, a cherry, and a meringue. It's a dessert, not a drink. I did not know this when I ordered one, thinking it would be a semi-chocolately drink as a chaser for my cannoli, and man...I got about halfway through them. And then I spent the rest of the afternoon bouncing off the walls, on a sugar high.

I went on an expedition to take photos of toy store windows, but unfortunately went close to noon, so most of the pictures did not come out very well. You can see my reflection in the one on the left. This is a toy store on the famous Piazza Navona. The one to the right is actually a perfume store, but the display was so charming, that I had to take a picture.

I did some walking about at night, to see the lights, but again, only a few photos are public-worthy. Here's are a couple worth showing. The left one is in Trastevere and the right one is a road that leads to the Pantheon.

And here, my favorite - not a Christmas photo per se, but it's a shot of the moon over the Pantheon on Christmas Eve. 

  

How about some cheerful Christmas color?

And lastly, some shots of Indigo and I riding the carousel at the Christmas Market in Frascati.

 

Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's been a month since my last post. I haven't neglected posting because I have nothing to say or share, but because life's been a little hectic around here. Indigo had a long illness (cough turning to croup turning to pneumonia and an ear infection) that led us to our second ER visit and having to keep her out of school for a couple weeks. And I was sick, and Josh was sick, and then Indigo was sick again, and Josh hurt his back. But now I think - I hope - that's all past us. So onward we go!

And while we were busy being sick, it gradually grew colder and more wintery here in Rome. Yes, Rome does get cold. Not the bone-numbing cold of New England, mind you - but the morning mile-walk to Indigo's school has gotten increasingly colder and is now, some days, done in below-freezing temperatures. It gets a little warmer throughout the day, but some days that just means that it gets up to 45 (although tomorrow it's supposed to be in the high fifties).

Personally, I welcome the cold. It's comforting. A bit of normalcy in a life that is so different from anything that I've known before. December should be cold. Christmas occurs in the winter. That's what I've known, and that's what I want.

Possibly bigger than my head?

So far, this Christmas season has been merry and a little perplexing. Of course, since the Italians don't celebrate our Thanksgiving, there is no kick-off to the Christmas season in November. In some ways, that's really pretty lovely - there's much less commercialism here, and a lot less holiday pressure (and burn-out, I suspect). The first herald of Christmas does begin to arrive in stores in November, but with little-to-no pomp and circumstance. That is Italian panettone, a kind of seasonal sweet bread that I've dubbed "the muffin as big as my head". Seriously. Look at it. Most panettone seem to have fruit and assorted craziness in them, but the one in the picture above was just chocolate chip bread. Delicious.

Our little tree

Some store fronts, especially ones that either specialize in food or are technically a corporation/chain, do decorate beginning in late November. But the vast majority do not. Some begin in early December, but the real start of the Christmas season here in Italy is on December 8th, which is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception. All around the city, Christmas trees and Christmas lights were lit for the first time on that night. Christmas trees are really not available for sale until a few days leading up to the 8th. I tried looking for a tree the week before, and none could be found. When flower vendors did start getting some in stock, I was surprised to see that they had very few for sale, and all of them were potted. That is, you're not buying a cut tree; you're buying a live one. Maybe that's why so few are out being sold? Do people buy a tree and then tend it all year long, year after year, keeping it out on their veranda or in a courtyard to wait for the next Christmas? I've no idea. But I suppose that's what we'll do. We'll leave it on our terrace for the apartment's next occupants.

Lights just before dusk on the 8th

I'm not convinced that the majority of the city's occupants have Christmas trees, anyway (this is an ancient city, and apartments are tiny. Where would they fit them??) But I think most Italian households proudly display presepe - that is, the nativity scene. It is a Catholic city, after all. I'm told that the Vatican has a gorgeous life-sized one that they don't unveil until Christmas Eve. But presepe are all over the city - and as I understand it, in nearly every home. You can even get ones made out of chocolate, like the one in the window of the Sicilian bakery I pass on my walk to my Italian class. But isn't it sort of heretical to want to eat the baby Jesus?  I don't feel all that comfortable with the idea.

Heretical...but delicious

I plan to do a follow-up post to this one in a few days full of pictures of all the gorgeous shop windows, all decked out in their Christmas finery. Stay tuned!

But of course, one more quick thing - the most fun part of this Christmas season, so far, is Indigo's wonder and excitement at the lights, and the idea of "Father Christmas" bringing her a present on Christmas day. She refers to Santa as Father Christmas because that's what UK-created Peppa Pig does - and god, it's super cute and charming to have your not-quite-2-year-old use that quaint old-world name. And all the glitter and dazzle of Christmas decorations are magical when seen through the eyes of a child, and I've found that I'm enjoying this lead-up to the holiday immensely, more than I ever thought that I would. It's lovely.

Things

In my Halloween post, I mentioned that it was not easy to Buy Things in Italy. Let me elaborate.

We take for granted the conveniences we enjoy in the US. There are so many more things in the US - I mean material things. But it is so easy to buy things. All sorts of things. Things you don't even think of as essential things, because it's so easy to obtain them. Here? There's no Target, or similar place where you can go and buy all the various things you need. Instead you must shop in 15 different tiny little shops, and try to talk to the shopkeeps about what you need (because shops are so small, merchandise is stacked up or shoved under tables or in secret drawers or hanging from the ceiling). It is hard to explain what you need when you speak baby-talk Italian. Miming can be helpful, albeit embarrassing.

There's this hardware store near Indigo's school, where I went to look for a fan in September. It's actually two stores, but the store with all the things is locked. And packed, from floor to ceiling, with an endless assortment of things in no order whatsoever. To get something from that store, I had to go next door to an entirely separate space (which is taken up by a huge counter and lots of counter-to-ceiling drawers presumably filled with yet more things), explained to the man behind the counter what I was looking for, then I followed him over to the locked store, which he opened. I followed him through a tiny little path winding through the mounds of things, and he kind of dove into the morass, pulling out a fan, then another. There was no fan "section". He literally reached into a pile in one area, waded deeper into the store, and pulled out another. I chose one, then followed him back to the other store to purchase it.

Not only are things harder to obtain, there's less choice. I think it was Lo who said, when visiting, that product choice was really what the US is famous for the world over: you can basically name your price, and buy nearly anything at the the price point you want. There's less choice here. It often seems like there's a Walmart-quality version, or a designer-version of any given thing, and very little in-between.

 

But it is immensely enjoyable shopping in the outdoor markets. I do shop at the local grocery store for many items, but I get all my fruits and veggies (and sometimes cheese and bread) at the markets. And the flip side to not having convenience here, is that Italy boasts so many gorgeous artisan boutiques - the like of which you'd rarely see in the US. Like this glass lamp shop in the heart of Rome:

Not only does it have a spectacular storefront, it has this huge basement filled with glass wares. It's really like a huge, magical, hidden-treasure grotto down there. I've taken to referring to it as the glass grotto.

Then of course, there are lovely little shops down gorgeous, winding roads that have made-in-Rome wares that you won't find anywhere else. I found a little kids' clothes shop - the woman tailor was inside, sewing away as I entered. Turns out she's Swedish, but has lived and worked in Rome for the last 30 years. Her clothes are bright, cheerful, and utterly adorable.

The paper stores in Florence are exquisite. Here's a tiny sample of what you might see:

Don't they look like textiles?  Amazing.

I've got to get more pictures of the toy shops soon (Christmas is coming, so I'm sure I'll have the opportunity soon). I did go into this one shop in Orvieto that had this wonderful little - mobiles? Models? I'm not really sure what they were. But I want to cover a ceiling of my home in tiny little hot-air balloons, now.

And here, of course, is one of the open-air markets, at Campo de' Fiori:

A Day in the Country, Part 2: Olive Picking

This past weekend we had the opportunity to see some more of the Italian countryside. A friend here at the Academy owns a house in Giove, Umbria, which has roughly 40 olive trees on the land (also a number of grapevines). It's olive harvest time, and so she invited the community up to her house for olive picking, a chance to see the olives pressed, and general food and merriment.

It's an easy trip by train - about an hour. I was pleased to see that about 25 people came, some of whom I don't see that often, outside of mealtimes. A number of children came as well, so I knew that Indigo would have plenty to entertain her if she tired of picking olives.

So, the house. Well. The view was okay. ;)

 Yeah, yeah - I was utterly entranced. Of course. And the smell - the air was both fresh and clean, yet also smelled rich - of earth and heat and olives. Lovely.

I thought that olive picking would be about the same as apple picking, but there are a few differences. For one, olives are a lot smaller, so there's some fear that any that fall from the trees could easily be squashed (and potentially ruined) underfoot. Or lost. So they spread large nets under the trees, then gently use small mini-rakes to comb through the branches, or even a sort of electric rake that agitates the branches. People may also climb the trees to get the olives higher-up. Basically the idea is to unload all the olives into the waiting net below, then gently move/pour the olives from the net into the baskets/crates. The children were especially good at this final task.

Indigo is at that age where she loves to put little things into bigger containers, so she actually really loved finding the olives that had dropped into the nets, and transferring them into the crates. Of course, she loved sitting on mommy and daddy's shoulders and picking olives straight from the trees, too.

After we were done picking olives, we had a lovely lunch together on the porch, overlooking what seemed to be all of Umbria. Some of our company had stopped picking olives earlier and had made some pasta and this wonderful cheese-sauce that was amazing slathered on bread...mmm. The children played, and we all relaxed, and then a number of people went to watch the olives get pressed. Josh and I decided to take Indigo home, as it was growing late, and I had the rare pleasure of holding my sleeping child for the duration of the train ride home. It used to be that I held her every day as she napped, but now that she's so big, it doesn't happen all that often. It was the perfect end to a really amazingly lovely day.

A Day in the Country, Part 1: Orvieto

Last week three dear friends from college came to town, and we were fortunate to spend several days in their company. We've been friends with Iggy, Maggie and Anandamayi for years, but haven't seen them since 2009, or as it's affectionately called in our circle, The Year of Many Weddings (including our own). We met them for dinner a couple nights while they were in town, and we went on a day trip together to Orvieto last weekend.

I didn't really know anything about Orvieto when we set out, except that it's in Umbria, and reportedly beautiful. It's an easy trip from Rome by train - about an hour and ten minutes. It was also Indigo's first train ride, and she was excited to be on a "choo-choo". We ate bread and excellent cheese and salami on the ride, and very soon we were there.

At first I was confused - where was the town? And then my friends told me that we had to take a funicular up the mountainside, because Orvieto was essentially about 52 stories up. I'd never been on a funicular before (it's essentially a tram with two cars that counterbalance one another; while one goes up, the other comes down), and was a little worried about how Indigo would react to the ride, but she was fine.

And then - we were in the town. We decided to first explore the Etruscan ruins. Indigo had a blast running around, and managed to find the one muddy puddle in the whole city - and jumped in. Of course. The view of the countryside from the ruins was breathtaking.

We then walked down the street into the city proper, and it was just gorgeous. I fell in love immediately. It really reminded me of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France, in feel. It was yet another isolated city/fortress built atop a bunch of rocks - Orvieto isn't an island, of course, but it is on top of a mountain, so the feel is very similar. And it has similar narrow, curving streets and tiny shops filled with both artisanal wares and tourist kitsch.

We walked through the town, meandering slowly towards the Duomo, which was "striped" with different colors of stone (I'm told this style is famous in Siena, but there's also a church in Florence that uses the same technique). On the steps of the cathedral, Indigo befriended a small Italian boy, and the two of them ran around together for a while, until I finally coaxed her away with the promise of gelato. Which was quite tasty.

The piazza that surrounds the cathedral is quite large, and happily (mostly) car-free, so Indigo was free to run around quite a bit. Most of the small, winding roads were car-free, actually, so it's a great town for little kids. I could let her run without worrying too much, except when she spied a ceramics store (of which there were many), and then we were in trouble! She kept saying that she wanted "a teapot", and would head into the store to try to grab the first pitcher or bowl that she saw. She gave us a few heart attacks.

After a quick dinner it was sadly, time to leave. I am actually happy that we didn't see everything that we had wanted to, because it means that we have a good excuse to take a trip back to the town some time.  Maybe around Christmastime, or in the Spring.

This is Halloween

A couple of the grad student Fellows here organized a Halloween event at the Academy, which was truly an epic event. I was drafted (willingly!) to be on the decorating committee, but also found myself on the unofficial buying-stuff, including candy, committee. It's not easy to Buy Stuff in Italy, which I should really explain at length in another post. But to be brief: there's no Michael's for crafts or Jo-Ann's for fabric or Home Depot for random building materials. Oh, no - you really have to hit the pavement, walk everywhere, and/or scrounge.

Anyway.

It was really a labor of love, and I think that I can speak for everyone when I say that the party was a rousing success. I helped decorate the courtyard and the main party room - and some of the people I was working with were incredibly talented. Betsy spray-painted a bunch of sticks black and hung them so that they were suspended over the bar. Jackie painted a wonderful pumpkin patch and gravestone area - and there were so many more great touches. I felt really proud of how things looked.

Indigo especially loved the "pumpkin patch" on the wall, and tried to pet the kitties. I guess she thought they were real. ;)

The first part of the party was geared for the kids It was very sweet: it started with a treat-bag-decorating activity, then the kids were invited to trick-or-treat inside the main Academy Building. After trick-or-treating was done, there was a pizza party, then time for the kids to either run around or have their own little dance party in the party room.

After the kids' party was the adults' party, and I think over 275 people showed up, from all the other Academies in town. I didn't attend, since I was tired and home with Indigo, but it sounded like a good time.

Indigo seemed to enjoy her Halloween. She tolerated her outfit (but just barely - I was fortunate to get a few snapshots of her with her witch hat on before she tore it off and never put it back on). She loved running around with the other kids before festivities started, and seemed to have fun decorating her trick-or-treat bag. Sadly, though, she didn't actually do any trick-or-treating. I'm not sure if it was because she was hungry, or tired, or just overwhelmed by the entire event, but she just couldn't deal with the crush of kids piling into the building to go door to door to ask for candy. I think it was confusing to her, and probably too chaotic. So we went back outside, waited for pizza, and watched it get dark. Indigo is, incidentally, fascinated with the dark, and gets so excited when she spots the moon. When she sees it, she'll point, and run towards it saying, "Come here, moon!" Adorable.

Too bad about the trick-or-treating, but I think she had a blast anyway, and probably doesn't know what she missed. And I wouldn't have wanted her to eat candy anyway, so maybe it was all a big win. ;)  Here's one last shot, of our little family.

Happy Halloween!

Something you'd never see in the US

I walk through the heart of Rome twice a week, because my Italian class is just off of Campo de' Fiori, home of the biggest outdoor market in Rome, and central to what is probably the city's biggest tourist area. The walk is actually really fun, mostly because I enjoy the company of the three friends who are taking the class with me, but also because it's good to come down off of our hill now and again to blend into the strange mix of Romans, pilgrims, tourists, and who knows what else.

I'd been to Campo as a tourist prior to the start of my class, so I'd already seen the strange motorcycle outfitted with...machinery?  I hadn't seen its owner, though, until I walked by with my friends the first week of our class. And then, there he was, sitting astride his strange machinery bike, whose machinery was whirring and spinning. I glanced at a a man standing next to him, who was holding a butcher knife, and I suddenly realized - this motorcycle was outfitted with a knife sharpener!

It was so crazy! I mean, this guy sits in the middle of a crowded piazza on a modified motorcycle, and sharpens peoples' knives! How does he do this? Does he ride from piazza to piazza on his bike? Does he have a permit? Do the police even care? Endless questions.

These pictures are actually here courtesy of the lovely Betsy, who was smart and savvy enough to have had her camera on her at the time we saw the man and his bike. ;)

Crazy.

Today was not a very good day

Yesterday before school I saw Indigo limp, briefly. I thought I had put her shoe on incorrectly (sometimes she curls her toes and the shoe doesn't sit right on her foot), so I took it off and put it back on, and that seemed to help. But after school the limp was back, and much more pronounced. In fact, it was not so much a limp as - a strange stiffness to her gait. She was walking with her right leg out at an angle, with the toes pointed in. Concerned, I called Josh and he came home to take a look. She didn't seem to be in any pain, and did not react when I gently pressed along her leg, rotated her ankle, moved her foot up and down, and bent/extended her knee. There was no swelling or marks of any kind. We decided to let her sleep on it and see how she was the following day.

Today the stiffness/limp seemed a little better in the morning, but it was definitely still present. I took her to school as normal, and talked to the teachers there about whether she had fallen or gotten hurt the previous day. They said that she hadn't, and had in fact been wondering about her limp, and meant to ask me about it. She was crying and clingy this morning, which is unusual for her, so I feared that whatever was wrong with her leg was starting to pain her, even though she wasn't able to really tell me that it was.

I talked to some of the other moms here, and they helped me decide to take her to the children's hospital up the hill. They have a walk-in clinic there, as well as an ER. I tried calling the hospital to figure which I should take Indigo to, but the receptionist spoke only broken english, and I barely any italian, so I decided to wing it. I then did the thing that no one - especially a mom - should ever do, and looked up Indigo's symptoms on the internet, to try to figure out what might be wrong. Maybe it was foolish, but it made me feel better prepared for some of the possibilities. I thought that the most likely culprit was toxic synovitis, which is just a fancy name for hip inflammation that follows a viral infection. Indigo's had a cold for several days, and her symptoms seemed to match up.

Josh and I picked up Indigo after school and rode a taxi to the hospital. We went to the clinic and a pediatrician before being directed to the ER, kindly escorted by a volunteer who spoke excellent english. We were at the hospital for nearly four hours. Her walk had deteriorated - to the point that I was fighting tears whenever she would walk. Her leg was sticking out to the right at an alarming angle, and she had become clumsy, and kept falling down. She was terrified by her examination in the ER, and quite clearly felt some pain when the doctor rotated her hip. She was equally terrified by the ultrasound (and also by that time, exhausted and hungry - the snacks I had brought were not nearly enough).

Turns out my internet sleuthing was right on the money. The doctor's english wasn't perfect, but he essentially said that her hip inflammation was due to a virus. He didn't see signs that anything else was wrong (scarier things like meningitis or bone fractures), and told us to give her ibuprofen for the swelling...and to not let her walk for 5 days. At all. I have no idea how we're going to keep our energetic (and otherwise very healthy) child sitting down for the next 5 days. And I need to find her a pediatrician, to have a follow up appointment next week.

So the upside is, she's fine. It's nothing serious. It was just a terrifying, heartbreaking, exhausting day, and the next bunch of days are going to be a challenge. Poor little girl.

Le tre amiche

As I mentioned in my last post, we had two of our friends visit us in our Rome home recently. Rachel and Lo spent just over a week in Italy, spending time with us during both weekends and traveling together to other cities in between. It was so lovely having them here, and Indigo was beyond ecstatic that Auntie Rachel and Cantaloupe (her attempt at saying Auntie Lo) had come to see her.

Lo and Rachel, with the Eternal City stretched out behind them

The day after our adventures at the Vatican, the three of us decided to do one of Rick Steve's (forever altered in my mind now to Stevie Nicks, as he was called by some obnoxious American tourists) walking tours of Rome. We set off down the hill and through Trastevere, crossing the Tiber River into the heart of Rome.

Our first stop was supposed to be Campo de Fiori, home to Rome's largest outdoor market. But the thing about the city is, it's filled with hundreds of tiny, twisting, cobblestone roads that seem more like secret passages than honest-to-goodness roads. So it's quite easy to end up someplace entirely unexpected (although probably delightful).

We ended up, unexpectedly and delightfully, at an excavation site, and peered in. I think it was Rachel that noticed the first cat, then the second and third - and then we realized that there were at least a dozen cats lounging amongst the overgrown grass and broken columns and stairs. We had happened upon a cat sanctuary. There was a little office down inside the site, with instructions to ring the bell if interested in adopting a cat. The Italian government, by the way, pays people to feed the cats in their neighborhoods. It's actually a real job, and it's brilliant. Rome does not have a rat problem; the people take care of the cats, and the cats take care of the rats. Why don't we do that in the States?

Another gem we found was this tiny church seemingly squished amongst the buildings in the piazza. There must be hundreds of these little churches scattered about the neighborhoods of Rome. I find them utterly charming.

We finally made it to Campo de Fiori, and were aggressively propositioned to by several Italian men trying to get us to eat at their restaurants. One sang "Born in the USA" and tried to give us kisses. Another danced for our favor. Rachel, being the most immune to this kind of persuasion, steered us to a little place where no one was pressuring us, and we discovered the eighth wonder of the world: zucchini fritters. Honestly, they're really hush puppies with an almost token amount of green in them, but who cares? They count as vegetables, right? So. Good.

Onward, then, to Piazza Navona, which I immediately fell in love with. Possibly because of the trio of Baroque fountains there. Possibly because of the two amazing toy stores there. Possibly because it is the site of the annual Christmas Market, which I am so excited to take Indigo to. Maybe I just really like this guy to the right. Can you blame me?

We lost ourselves again, but eventually found our way to the Pantheon. I admit to being incredibly naive here, but I had thought, illogically, that it would still house the original pantheon of Roman gods. No, of course it doesn't; it was silly to think that it wouldn't have been converted to Christianity long ago, with the original heathen statues and art destroyed (sob). But I was disappointed nonetheless. The structure is breathtaking, of course - completely unbelievable, really. But disappointingly Christian. Ah, well.

The outside of the Pantheon

We saw the Trevi Fountain, of course. And the Spanish Steps. And a million breathtaking buildings, ruins, obelisks, architectural elements, fountains.



Santa Maria Novella

The age and history of Rome is amazing, but Florence - Florence is simply gorgeous. I took the high-speed train (we really need to get that mode of travel in the US!) there to meet Rachel and Lo, who had been visiting Venice, and the three of us spent the day "swanning" around (as Lo likes to say), looking at art and architecture, and having a lovely time.
There were so many beautiful buildings and artistic touches, everywhere. The Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is covered in stripes, but it's not painted - the builders actually used different white and green stone to achieve that look. I found myself wishing that I knew more about art history, so that I could identify all the things that I was seeing. We also went and toured the Uffizi Gallery, which houses a huge collection of amazing art, but probably most famously Botticelli's Birth of Venus. It was a thoroughly enjoyable museum experience, because the gallery limits the number of guests who can enter at one time, so it does not get overcrowded.

We walked through the city, and personally I loved the smaller, more intimate feel of the place, as compared to Rome. I love Rome as well, but Florence feels so much more manageable. And I felt like I had a good sense of the place, even after just 9 or 10 hours there. I still don't feel as though I have a full grasp of Rome, even after being here a month, but I suppose that's because it seems so vast.

We walked over the Ponte Vecchio, and did some shopping. Florence is famous for its leather, and we found several shops to peruse. One in particular was quite nice, and we had a nice repore with the shopkeep - and I ended up haggling a little bit to get a better price on a leather bag (not for me, sadly). But still! I haggled. Then we had a delicious dinner as night fell, and a beautiful walk back to the train station to catch a train back to Rome.

The Arno River

Then alas, came Lo and Rachel's last day with us in Rome. They went to Ostia for the day, which I regret missing, but Josh and Indigo were both sick at home. I went out for one final dinner with my ladies, and had some of the best pasta I've ever had in my life. (Some day I will write a separate post devoted to the food I've had here in Italy, I promise). A last walk around the heart of downtown, then we caught separate cabs and went our separate ways, me to my new home and they to their old. I look forward to catching up with them again next June.

Arrividerci!

The Holy See

I made two trips to Vatican City in the past week. The first was with Josh; we had a free morning together and decided to stroll up there so that I could have my first look. We weren't planning to see the Vatican Museum or anything; we just wanted to take a brief look around. Despite being a lapsed Catholic, I admit that I felt a curiosity - no, a yearning - to see St. Peter's Basilica for myself.

It's an easy walk from the Academy to the Vatican. It's only about twenty minutes, with some of the loveliest views of Rome along the way. The journey ended with us cutting through a bus station, taking a few escalators down the hill and then...we were in Vatican City.

I was overwhelmed. I felt tears threatening, but I could not say exactly why. The enormity of it all just hit me - I was in the holiest place in the Catholic religion, and my emotions just bubbled over. I don't even know if I believe in God. I certainly don't agree, or particularly like, the Catholic Church. But clearly, obviously, it meant something to me, since all this unresolved stuff rose up from my chest, choking me. I was brought to tears. And this was just from setting foot in the City. I hadn't even looked at St. Peter's yet.

My first view of St. Peter's Basilica

I willingly allowed Josh to lead me to St. Peter's Square, glad to have someone else propelling me along so that I could simply look. A large crowd was amassing in the square, and after consulting our guidebook, we learned that the Pope conducts public masses on Wednesday mornings at 10:30am. We were going to see the Pope! We circled around and got in line to enter, waiting our turn for security guards to check my bag and to run metal detectors along our bodies. Then, we were in. Simple as that.

It was an interesting mix of people, there. It's a huge tourist draw, of course. But I've become accustomed to seeing mostly Italians (since we don't live in a touristy area), so it was neat to see people from all over the world. We had gotten in just minutes before the mass was to start, and we could see the Pope arriving in his Pope Mobile, flanked by guards all around, projected on four large screens around the square. I was surprised when the vehicle began to make its way through the square, rather than just going up to the dais. I suddenly got excited. I was going to get close to the Pope! And indeed, I saw people in front of me begin to run to the right, and Josh and I ran, too. And I saw him, barely lifted above the crowd, scarcely thirty feet away. The Pope.

Needless to say, I cried again. But at least I was not alone; I saw several other people wiping their eyes, too.

The following Saturday, I returned to the Vatican with some special visitors: Rachel and Lo (more comprehensive post about their visit to follow)! We decided to see the Vatican Museum, including the Sistine Chapel, and the inside of St. Peter's.

On the whole, our tour of the museum was amazing, but I have never in my life been in a museum that was so densely packed with people. It was insane. The sheer number of people, including large tour groups full of people that stood around and blocked all available paths, was just staggering. At times I ignored the art and just moved, because I needed to get a little space to breathe. My agoraphobia isn't as bad as it used to be, but I was still pushed to my limit.

Wall-to-wall tourists

I took pictures. Many, many pictures. But at some point I think my brain got a little overstimulated by all the art, and I put the camera away. Here's a random mish-mash of photos I snapped:

I took none in the Sistine Chapel, of course, because it's not allowed (well, no flash photography, anyway). None in St. Peter's Basilica, either. I suppose I felt, in both places, that taking pictures was disrespectful, since they are both holy places. I also felt that no single, or even collection, of photos could do justice to the entirety of what I was seeing and experiencing. I was not in the Sistine Chapel for long, as it was too crowded for me. Rachel, Lo and I sneaked out the tour-only exit, pretending we were with a tour, so that we could bypass the hour-long-wait-line outside for St. Peter's. Ha! Rebels. It was totally worth it, since it was 90 degrees that day, and there's absolutely no shade anywhere in that square. St. Peter's was impressively overwhelming, and I was moved to tears again by the sight of The Pietà.

Afterwards, we had some lunch and gelato.  And friends, if you ever go to the Vatican, you simply must go to the Old Bridge Gelateria. I have no photos to share, alas, since our gelato cones were enormous and there was no way that I could both handle that melting monstrosity in the 90 degree heat and manage to snap a picture of it before it melted all over me, my camera, the sidewalk, and the nun next to me.  Suffice it to say that it was heavenly.