Sunday in Roma

After a small breakfast (the typical breakfast here is a roll with jam; our guest house also offers Nutella and a soft cheese) we set out down the hill toward St Peter's Square. Along with thousands of other people. The next hour gave us a new understanding of the phrase "packed in like sardines." Body against body on two to four sides at all times, shuffling up toward the security check points.

At last, we made it through the funnel and into the square. The seats had long ago filled up, so we stood for the next 3 hours as well but were very near one of the giant television screens and speakers. Later in the day we ran into several students from the CSB/SJU Ireland study abroad group who managed to get seats in the 7th row. It would have been amazing to be that close to the steps and altar, but we may have had an even better view and got a couple extra hours of much-needed sleep. We had a great perspective of the square. It was literally packed to overflowing. We've heard that the square will hold 65,000 people.

We did manage to receive communion, thanks to a priest in front of us who took the gold dish containing the blessed hosts and worked his way back through the pressing crowd.  It does seem like we're still a greedy, fearful lot with all the pushing that went on that day. Or perhaps fervent better gets at the underlying motivation. I'm not sure.

Ellen saw that people were still receiving communion after the end of mass. Well over a hundred priests who had seats up on the "platform" near the altar set out down the gated-off aisles in their green vestments to distribute it, but it takes a long time to get to 65,000 people. We moved ourselves closer to an exit area for the close of mass, including the papal blessing. Ellen held out a little glass bottle of water for a friend and a magnet of Pope Francis for herself, so they are blessed as well.

It was also powerful to hear the prayers of the faithful in several different languages. We were a little surprised to learn that the whole assembled crowd says the rosary together to prepare for mass, so we read along in our booklets for the Italian words (of course very similar to Latin).

The pope's homily was all in Italian, but the little part Steph could catch went something like this:
The family that says these three things will survive:
Please
Thank you
I'm sorry.

The chronology got slightly out of order here, but after mass and the papal blessing we left and found a free toilet next to the bus stop (amazing!). By the time we got bus tickets and worked up the courage to board one of the unbelievably full busses we finally started to see the throngs of people exiting the square. Apparently Pope Francis did make a loop in the popemobile, but we're okay with the experience we had.

The rest of our day:

Piazza Navona, with lunch right on the square for a little people-watching

Gelato at the Pantheon, one of Steph's absolute-musts of the trip. After the gelato was consumed we went inside. Standing under the circular opening in the roof of this ancient circular building is a powerful experience on an energetic level, even when surrounded by hundreds of tourists milling about.

An accidental visit to a group of cats who live at one of the excavated sites (someone said up to 360 of them, though we only saw 8). They live entirely on charity, but apparently may be better taken care of than many of the people who beg for money around town. The cats turned up their noses at the breadstick Ellen broke up for them; they seem to prefer the little tins of actual cat food that some people bring.

About 3 hours resting our feet at a cafe after all of the standing we did earlier in the day.  And Steph troubleshooting her wi-fi/data connection.

Trevi Fountain just after dark when the lights come on. This is the fountain into which one throws a coin in order to return to Rome. Christina, my coin went in "for" you, if things can work that way.

A slice of pizza to go, the requisite second serving of gelato for the day, then the bus home.

In lieu of photos from mass, here's one of Ellen from the previous day just after she picked up our entry tickets, and one from the Trevi Fountain.