...My Easter Rome trip!
Notre Dame's Campus Ministry had a set itinerary for us in Rome, which was really nice. A lot of my friends studying abroad in various places in Europe all converged upon the Eternal City (hey, all roads lead to Rome, right?), and it was great catching up with everyone.
We arrived late Thursday night. Good Friday consisted of walking around Rome and seeing the sights in the morning
going on a Holy Sites Tour with the ND crew (including going up the Holy Stairs, which was a really moving experience).
and going to the Stations of the Cross with Le Pap himself outside the Colosseum!
We had to arrive about 2 or 3 hours early to get good spots. Luckily the ND flag was waved proudly as a way to find everyone. Night fell on the Forum, and the crowd continued to grow. After the long wait, several helicoptors started flying around, and the pope's entourage rolled on in.
The Stations were quite long, and all in Italian with some Latin mixed in for good measure. But the audience was a mixture of every possible nationality, young and old. I shared my program with a German couple next to me (it was funny hearing the differences in our pronunciation of the Latin), and it was just a really striking example of the universality of the Catholic Church. Did I understand a lot of it? No. Did I appreciate it? Yes.
The Stations ended and a few of us went to Campo di Fiori for a bit of nightlife, and then back to our hostel.
We woke up early on Holy Saturday for a tour of the Vatican Museums. We waited in line for what seemed like forever, then we had a tour guide lead us through the thousands of paintings, sculptures, the Sistine Chapel, and finally, St. Peter's Basilica. It was super crowded, but I appreciated it so much more than when my mom, Megan, Beth, and I went through by ourselves almost eight years(!!!) ago.
The rest of the day included eating, walking, eating, walking, and eating (gelato! pizza! lactose intolerance! I mean, what?). 50 of us got a free lunch at one of the best pizza places in Rome (or so says MTV Europe ha!) after the Vatican tour. Mom and Dad, your tuition money was completely worth the pizza lunch at Le Montecarlo. It was heaven in a pizza margherita.
We then went on a saints and relics tour with the Notre Dame group, leading us through several Roman churches.
That evening, we went to the Trastevere neighborhood, which was much more quaint and much less touristy than many other parts of Rome. My roommate Hilary met up with some friends from her major at Notre Dame (PLS, or Program of Liberal Studies, it's a great books course and it's kind of like a cult; rituals include excessive talking about literature and philosophy related topics, discussing their seminars and ND profs while leaving all non-PLS people present completely in the dark), and all of us went to dinner at Dar Poeta, a cute little place in a small alley. We waited about and hour and a half to get in, and it was completely worth it.
And I was also introduced to the most fabulous invention in the city of Rome: OLD BRIDGE GELATERIA. It's right by the Vatican, and you get THREE (I repeat: THREE!)heaping scoops of gelato PLUS whipped cream for 1.50 euro. It's homemade, delicious, and there's no better deal in Roma. We would go there twice a day.
Easter Sunday!
Upsides:
1) Jesus is Risen! Woo-hoo!
2) Easter Sunday at the Vatican. Can you get closer to Heaven that that? Methinks no.
3) Getting to see 80 year old nuns practically fighting to the death jockeying for a better position.
4) Discovering that the Vatican has official state umbrellas (yellow and white, naturally)
... and that Swiss Guards have special rain ponchos. 
5) Getting to see my cousin Luke in Rome!
Downsides:
1) Pouring.Rain.All.Day.
2) No.Umbrella.
3) Standing for 6 hours at the Vatican
4) Being locked out of our hostel from 11-4.
5) Discovering the hard way that my consumption of long island iced tea should be limited to one.
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and then commenced the WORST 24 HOURS OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. I'm not exaggerating in any way, shape, or form. After a long trip from Italy to Paris, we arrived too late to take a train home to Angers. Instead of shelling out 30 euros for a hostel for about 7 hours (we arrived in Paris at 11 and our train left the next morning at 6:30 am), we made the STUPID decision of spending the night on the streets of Paris. Bad, bad, bad idea. I had looked up in advance a few all-night places in Paris, which are an extreme rarity because French labor laws prohibit businesses from opening more than a certain number of hours per week. Paris is definitely not a city that never sleeps. I wish I had know that in advance. Alas.
We headed to the Champs Elysees for a few late-night places, which ended up being a Quick (France's version of a McDonalds), where two of my friends ordered meals and ate them painstakingly slowly, so as to buy more sitting-down-and-staying-warm time. It was cold that night in Paris, maybe 25 degrees plus wind, and I was still in my Rome sundress. After we could no longer stay in the Quick, we decided to try to sleep in Gare Montparnasse, the train station. But the realities that the metro closed a few minutes earlier and that the Champs Elysees and Gare Montparnasse are on opposite sides of Paris quickly set in. My three friends and I, already exhausted from little to no sleep and too much walking in Rome and jetlag from our day's journey, began the longgggggggg walk to Gare Montparnasse. The streets were deserted. We could even cross the Champs Elysees, one of the biggest streets in Paris, easily and without the use of crosswalks or traffic lights. The four of us were frozen, ready to collapse, and in sour moods as we arrived at the train station at 2 or 3 am.
The train station isn't truly indoors, and it's only a few degrees warmer there. We walked around looking for a good (read:safe and somewhat warm)place to sleep for a few precious hours. Whoever designed the benches in the station made the unfortunate decision to have the little arm rests in between the chairs rather than a completely flat model, making it impossibly for us to lay down. We tried to pull together some chairs in a nearby cafe for a makeshift bed, but eventually settling on some chairs in an area that was a tad warmer. None of us could really sleep more than a few minutes at a time, and it was torture watching the minute hand tick by. I've never, ever felt time go slower than those few hours. I was absolutely kicking myself for thinking that 30 euro for a hostel for a few hours wasn't worth it. We eventually made it home, but I was so tired I slept the entire day, and two days later I left for Austria for spring break!
I STILL heart Roma!
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Switzerland is absolutely beautiful! This volcanic ash business is crazy though. If you had told me two weeks ago that a volcanic ash cloud from ICELAND was going to completely change my spring break plans, I would have looked at you like you were crazy.
Bisous,
Claire
how was Luke?
ReplyDeleteRead your blog just before heading off to bed. Makes me appreciate a warm, safe place to sleep more than on a usual night. ZZZZ xo Aunt Marg
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