Rome and the Vatican

Following Kendall's birthday, we went to Rome for a special event -- an opportunity to hear Pope Francis at his weekly general audience!

We stayed with a friend and colleague after taking the evening train from Florence, and started our day at the Dolci Maniera croissant bakery -- open 24 hours and operating from a basement, and wow do they make great croissants:

Treats await downstairs!

We then needed to wait in line to get through the metal detectors and get into Vatican City,

but thanks to our friend's connections, we moved to the front of the audience -- literally!

Aurelie Hagstrom (hi, Aurelie!) had arranged for our family to have special tickets, which put us on the same platform as the Pontiff himself:

Although the forecast was for rain, Aurelie's class jokes that it never rains on His Holiness -- and they were right!  The sun began to break through the clouds as we waited for Pope Francis to arrive.

In drove the Pope-mobile with the Bishop of Rome (as we understand he calls himself).

The pope then proceeded to drive its way through the crowd of people.  You can get a sense of how large the crowds were in all of the photos, but we were truly thankful to be as close as we were.  The picture below is almost like "Where's Waldo?"; can you spot the Pope in the picture?

The Pope then gave his General Address, which was read in Italian initially and then read by aides in other languages, including English.  The Pope spoke on the sacrament of baptism and the forgiveness of sins.

Following the address, Pope Francis received bishops from around the world who were visiting.

He then went down into the crowd, to bless those seeking comfort.  You can see in several earlier photographs that many people in wheelchairs had lined up in front of the larger crowd in order to receive the Pope's blessing.

We decided to avoid the lines of St. Peter's Basilica and, since it was Adam's first trip to Rome, we raced around the city to take in the highlights.

First, Castel St. Angelo -- or Castle of the Holy Angel.  Originally built as the tomb of Hadrian (Roman emperor of the wall in England), it went through multiple uses and rebuilding over the years.  The statue at the top shows the Archangel Michael sheathing his sword, a vision representing the ending of the plague. 

Next came the Pantheon with its remarkable concrete dome,

the ruins of the Roman Forum,

and a quick trip to the Colosseum.  (Wow, it's big.)  Having seen all of this in a whirlwind day, we knew we'd have to come back to Rome -- so the next stop was tossing the obligatory coins in the Trevi Fountain:

The funny part about standing down by the fountain is that you will occasionally get whacked in the head by people with poor aim.  We were pelted by Swiss francs and an American dime -- so will those people not return to Rome?  I wonder...

To end our day, we went back to our friend's neighborhood which was conveniently located near Vatican City -- so we went back to St. Peter's to see the sunset and the basilica:

 

All in all a fantastic day!  Exhausted, we took the evening train back to Florence.

A più tardi!