Vatican City at Easter

My first few days in Rome exploring the Vatican and attending Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square

I got it into my head a few months ago to spend Easter seeing Pope Francis in Vatican City. As things often go when I get an idea, I had booked flights and started planning within a week. Maybe too quickly, because I also booked us an unnecessary flight from Rome to Naples that we ended up not taking, but I suppose mistakes happen when you make impulsive travel decisions. Anyway, Lewis was going to be on a break from uni, and it would have been almost two whole months by that time since we'd taken a vacation (!), so I wanted something to look forward to.

I am going to split our time in Rome into two entries, so this one will be about our time in Vatican City and I'll write a separate one about the Rome city sights.

Travel Day

Thursday, March 24th, we were up at 4:45, grabbed our carry-on suitcases (only one each because when you fly Easyjet you get what you pay for), and caught our cab to the airport. In an exciting change of pace, we were able to get flights in and out of Inverness! It was my first time at our tiny airport, and since our flight wasn't until around 6:40 in the morning, we had some time to sit around. It was a very long day of travel ahead of us, because when it comes to booking flights, we have more time to waste than money.

We got the flight to London Gatwick which is kind of a shithole. Parts of it just looked like a warehouse. We found a big, grey, empty concrete room that was very chilly and sat in an empty departure area to take naps. I actually found it a little funny because a block of wall in the middle of the room had a pretty tree painted on it, and it was just so out of place in the garage-like atmosphere.

After my nap, I got some food and a coffee and studied a little Italian on Rosetta Stone... way too little, too late. My range of vocabulary is mainly limited to primary colors, "eat", "drink", gender terms, and basic greetings. I did notice that some words were identical to their Spanish counterparts, so at times I just tried speaking Spanish to people in the hopes that it would translate and often got blank stares in return. Do you know how embarrassing it is to hand someone your Italian passport and then not be able to speak to them in the language of your supposed nationality? I got a lot of judgmental looks. Sometimes, if there was no chance of being caught out, I just smiled and nodded as if I understood. To make things worse, Lewis kept telling people to try talking to me instead since I know "some Italian", which I totally do not.

Our next flight was at 1:10 to Milan, which was a small airport. We had to go outside to reach the departures hall when we arrived, and it was so warm. If you haven't lived in Scotland, you don't know how magical it is to feel the sun. It's like a mythical creature that you are surprised to find out exists.

Our last flight was to Rome and we landed at 7:20. We'd had to check our bags (for free) because the flight was too full, so we then had to wait for our luggage as well. I had booked us a taxi because I was having some communication issues with Fabrizio, the owner of our first B&B. By communication issues, I mean he was being a bit of a dick. He had told us he'd wait for us until 8:30 to check-in and that we could get there in time with a cab from the airport. We didn't want to take a cab because it was 42 euro as opposed to 6 each on a bus. I kept trying to ask him what would happen if there was traffic, holdups at the airport, or any number of other issues that could cause us to be later than 8:30, but I could not get a straight answer out of him other than "With a taxi you will arrive on time." In fact, every time I emailed him his responses just got shorter and shorter until there was no conversation left to be had. That annoyed me and it was too late to cancel our first night because the whole thing was prepaid, so I just booked us a cab on a site called Zip Transfers. That meant it was all paid for already and there was a driver waiting in the lobby with my name on his sign- which admittedly was kind of cool. He was quite friendly although barely spoke English, and he took us right up to the stairs leading to the B&B. Luckily we arrived by 8:20, within our kindly allotted time.

The B&B is called Relais Clivo Vaticano, about 10 minutes from the Vatican Museums. It's up some stairs hidden in a back road. It was a pretty area though, the stairs had trees and houses on either side. A girl was waiting there to check us in (I was kind of glad it wasn't Fabrizio), and I was immediately blown away by the B&B. It was gorgeous! The building is enclosed by a gate, it's cute and yellow with a garden in front of it. There are leafy trees, a bench, wind chimes, and a hot tub (although it looked dirty so we didn't use it).

The lobby and breakfast room is small and cozy with glass walls to look out over the garden and little tables with nice chairs.

Then we went into our room and it was amazing! They had upgraded us to a junior suite, maybe to make up for our issues via email. It was so spacious and classy looking. Wooden floors, white decor, filmy curtains, a huge bathroom with glass paned barriers and a tub. We also had a balcony with a table and chairs looking out over the steps. There was a welcome note and candies on the bed. We were very happy!

We each took sort of showers in the tub- there was no curtain or real shower head, just a detachable piece so we had to sit down in the tub to wash off, then we went to bed.

Day 1

St Peter's Basilica & Good Friday at the Colosseum

Friday we were up early for breakfast at 8:00. It was so nice. We took a table next to the window and had pastries, hard-boiled eggs, toast, and kiwis. The maid was always around the little breakfast room as well and didn't speak much English, but she'd ask us first thing, "Cappuccino?" before disappearing downstairs with our cups and returning with awesome coffee.

Afterwards, we headed over to St. Peter's Square. Let me quickly talk about the process of getting tickets for Easter mass. I absolutely hate attempting to communicate with any kind of Italian authorities. I could write pages on the frustrations of getting my citizenship and passport. Anyway, tickets to any mass at the Vatican are free, but you do need to fax in a form to them ahead of time with your information and how many tickets you need. They are then meant to send you a letter back telling you to pick them up at the Bronze Doors when you are in Italy. Sounds easy enough. Well, I had faxed in the form three times starting in January to get my tickets to Easter mass, but I had never gotten a letter back. The main reason we had picked the end of March to go to Rome was for Easter, so this was stressing me out. At this point, I thought it was a long shot, but I decided to just go to the Bronze Doors where you pick up your tickets and make one last ditch effort at getting them.

Well, we came into the square, which is stunning. There are fountains, an obelisk in the middle, and a semi-circle of columned walls around the plaza with St. Peter's Basilica in the middle.

There was a massive line there to get into the basilica, which we weren't intending on seeing that day, but I could not figure out where the Bronze Doors were or how to get there. I ended up leaving the square, finding a Swiss Guard, and asking him. He told us to tell a police officer that we were there to get tickets and that we wouldn't have to wait in line. So we went back in, found a police officer, told him I was there to pick up tickets, and he told us to wait in line.

After spending a half hour in the queue to go through security anyway, we decided we might as well see the basilica, but I stopped at the Bronze Doors first. They would only let one of us up, so obviously that was me, and there were guards at the top helping people. I gave one of them my ID and told him I had faxed my form but never heard back, and he went inside over to some tables covered in files, looked through a couple boxes, then came back over with an envelope with my name on it!! I was so excited! It was such a great surprise, I really didn't expect them to have my tickets!

That put me in a spectacular mood, and we headed into the basilica through the Holy Door.

It was massive!! I kept thinking we had almost seen it all and then there were more sections. There was marble everywhere, columns, statues, gold paneling, painted domes, reds, whites, and greys, alcoves, paintings... just so much to look at. The level of detail was really incredible.

There was a golden chapel with black gates that we went in to see.

Then there was a large empty area for confession, and there was a man stopping people and only letting them in if they were going for confession. I decided it would be very cool to do that at the Vatican, so we went through, and it was like being invited into a whole private section of the basilica without tourists. Being a Catholic has its perks! Thanks, parents!

All of the confessionals had signs on them with the languages spoken by the priest inside. There were all sorts of combinations- Polish, Slovakian, French, Spanish, Russian, just about everything. There was one labeled Italian and English, so I sat with some others there. The woman inside confessing was giving the priest her life story though, so Lewis went off to wander and came back to say that there was another English speaking priest around the corner. I went over there, and he was from somewhere in the Middle East I believe- at any rate, I think his languages were Italian, English, and Arabic. The confessional was cool, it was like the old-fashioned ones you see in movies. It was wooden and you kneel on one side while the priest sits in the middle and you talk through a screen.

I went back afterwards, and Lewis had decided to try confession as well, I think just for the sake of doing it in the Vatican, even though he said he had nothing to confess. Obviously, being brought up Catholic where so much as the thought of lying to your boss about being sick wracks your conscience with guilt, I found that hard to believe. I pointed out that he hadn't been to confession his entire life, therefore he could confess anything from the time he was born. He nodded. I asked in total disbelief if he didn't feel guilty about anything from the moment he came into this world. He said no. I asked him again because- what?! He insisted he had nothing to confess, so ok. I am dating a flawless human I guess.

Anyway, he still decided to go in. And he managed to get kicked out of confession, in St. Peter's Basilica, within ten seconds. He reappeared moments after he'd gone in and was like, "Let's go." Well, it took me a minute to get out of him how in the world he had managed to screw up confession so badly as to get kicked out. From what he's described, it went something like this:

Priest (in Italian): In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Lewis: *silence*

Priest, repeating: In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Lewis: I've never done this before.

Priest: Are you a Catholic?

Lewis: No.

Priest: This is for Catholics.

Boom. Kicked out of confession.

He was like, "I asked you what I was supposed to do!" and I told him, "Yeah, but I didn't expect you to mess up the sign of the cross!" I mean, really, if you're speaking to a priest and are in doubt, just say "amen." You can't go wrong.

On the other hand, I actually had no idea that you had to be Catholic to confess. Is that really a thing? I thought it was open to anyone! I mean, murderers go to confession. Maybe the fact that his priest was old and Italian had something to do with it. And I felt so bad for Lewis! He actually had been pretty nervous to go in, and then the priest unceremoniously kicked him out. I kept trying to cheer him up but he seemed a little put off by it for awhile.

We saw the main altar next which was awesome.

Really, the whole basilica was just impressive. We left and took photos outside, then we came out onto the street in front of the square with a view of the basilica, and we explored that area a little.

Square prepared for Easter.

We walked to the Castel Sant'Angelo nearby which was very cool.

It's the old fort where the pope could take shelter and it has a hidden passage in a bridge connecting it to the Vatican.

As you may remember from Angels & Demons, there is an angel on top pointing down at it, and the bridge in front of it leading to the door is called the Bridge of Angels, lined, obviously, with angels. It's very pretty.

After that, we walked back towards the B&B and stopped in one more church, San Giovanni Battista. That was a bit simpler than the basilica of course, but still nice.

We went back to the B&B to chill out a little bit afterwards, then later on took the metro to the Flaminio station and went to see the Piazza del Popolo. There was another big obelisk in the middle with hieroglyphics on it, a building to the left surrounded by gardens, and two churches at the back of the square.

We looked at those, then we went to find a place to eat. We ended up inside one just down a side street where I got handmade pasta with pesto which came in this baked cheese shell, and we each had a glass of wine.

We walked to see the Triton Fountain next, it was dark by now, and that was cool. A big merman drinking water from a shell.

The plan for the night was to see the Stations of the Cross led by the pope at the Colosseum. The Colosseo metro station was closed though, so we went to the nearest one, the Cavour station, and walked the rest of the way. Well, it was packed, and it was dark out, and we weren't sure where we were supposed to go. We could see the candlelit cross on Palatine Hill, and I thought we were meant to be over there, but we were up on a hill across from it and didn't know how to get over.

Also, have I mentioned my intense issues with paranoia and anxiety? Well, they were in overdrive considering that there had been a terrorist attack in Brussels earlier that week. I had been checking security bulletins on the US site, Italian site, British site, basically all the sites, and a common phrase seemed to be "exercise caution if attending large religious celebrations." Ok, well seeing the pope on Easter weekend is just about as large a religious celebration as you can attend! As a result, I did not feel comfortable standing in the crowd, especially after a news reporter behind us starting interviewing some teens asking them how they felt about there being a worldwide travel alert out and if their parents felt ok about them being over here. There were police everywhere too, not that it would help if someone was intending to blow themselves up. My panic mode switched on and I wanted to move, so we went to a less populated section, but then there were trees blocking the view.

In the end, we ended up on a hill behind a rope line that was further away but had an unimpeded view of the hill and very few people around. Well, the Good Friday thing was not at all what I expected. I had pictured everyone being given candles and small torches and walking around ancient Rome while Pope Francis narrated the Stations of the Cross.

Instead, the pope came out, we could mostly tell by the cheers, and just sat on the hill. He was so far away that we could just make out a white figure sitting under a red tent. And that's where he stayed. We stood for about an hour and nothing happened except for him and a woman speaking in Italian. We eventually got bored and walked over to the hill next to the Colosseum.

There was an American next to me and I asked him what was going on. He said his wife was down in the large crowd beneath Palatine Hill (the one that we couldn't reach because the stairs had been blocked off before we arrived), and he thought that the pope was just going to come down at some point and walk through the middle of that crowd to the Colosseum. I didn't really feel like standing there another hour just to watch the pope take a short walk through a crowd that I wasn't standing in, so Lewis and I headed out and went back to the B&B for the night. On the bright side, we had just seen the Colosseum for the first time and it was unreal! It's one of those sights that is a million times more gigantic and mind-blowing in person. More on that in my next entry.

Day 2

Vatican Museums

Saturday morning after our second scenic breakfast in the cozy B&B, we walked over to the Vatican Museums. I had bought our tickets in advance, so we got to skip the massive line all the way around the wall and just enter a very quick line in. Once inside, we started out front above the gardens. It was a warm, sunny day, and we had a nice view of St. Peter's dome above the trees. The outdoor areas of the museum were so pretty and peaceful.

Afterwards, we walked through a bunch of rooms with religious art and paintings, including a dark room of gigantic tapestries hanging up. One was of the Last Supper.

We also saw both Lewis's and my new favorite painting ever. It's called Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden by Wenzel Peter. It's a gorgeous forest with Adam and Eve surrounded by all sorts of animals. He drew lions, jaguars, monkeys, camels, all sorts of birds, horses, cats, dogs, crocodiles back in the water, and more. It was so detailed and so pretty. Plus, anything with animals always wins top spot in my book.

We went down to the cafe after that and got lattes and calzones which we had at a table outside with a view of St. Peter's in the background.

I swear St. Peter's is in that overexposed empty space to the left of my head.

We took a little walk around the garden afterwards.

Then we went down some steps outside to a room dedicated to the pope's transport over the years. There were all of the old cars used by the popes as well as very old chariots, some of them totally gorgeous. My favorite one was in the center and it was all golden with red detail and statues of angels. I could definitely get behind being transported around in a horse-drawn chariot. I think if I was the pope, I would bring that back.

There was also quite an interesting video about the assassination attempt in the 80s on John Paul II. They had it playing behind the vehicle he was in at the time.

We went back inside the main building and continued exploring.

There was an area with a bunch of Egyptian art, sarcophaguses, and a mummy, a long hallway of sculptures...

...and another outdoor courtyard with the museum walls on three sides and what looked like a temple or something with columns on the fourth.

There were paths through the grass to the center from all four sides leading to a large copper ball in the middle that had jagged sections cut out exposing a sort of zipper looking interior. I don't know what it was supposed to be but I liked it.

We went inside and upstairs where there was another small courtyard in the middle of the building with a fountain and covered corridors along the outside with alcoves holding statues and tombs and ancient bathtubs.

Continuing on inside, we went around the Sala Rotunda, a tall domed red room with large statues around the perimeter including a bronze one of Hercules.

Then we went down a long, pastel hallway of tapestries...

...followed by an even longer hallway with an incredibly detailed paneled ceiling and blue maps of Italy along the walls. We were getting into the huge crowds now all headed towards the Sistine Chapel.

We turned left at the end and went through the Raphael rooms...

...then through a contemporary art section...

...and then finally into the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately we had been so saturated with art in hours before this that I felt a bit desensitized to it, so it didn't have the impact it might of if we'd gone in first. Not to say that it wasn't ridiculously detailed and impressive, because it was. It was also small and packed full, but luckily that meant I was able to hide in the middle of the crowd and snap a few photos even though the guards kept shouting on repeat every few minutes to be silent and not take photos.

Lewis had found a bench near the back, so I sat with him there for about a half hour and we listened to my audio guide which really helped make sense of all of the paintings around us. The ceiling, the most famous part, has nine panels showing the creation of the world. There's the most well-known one, The Creation of Adam, then there are ones of God separating light and dark, land and water, etc. There are also a few of Noah, Adam and Eve, and so on. Around the ceiling towards the edges are prophets.

Behind the altar is a massive painting of the Last Judgment, done later in life by Michelangelo. Jesus is in the middle with the sinners and saints separated on each side. Angels are pulling the righteous to the sky while Charon ferries away the damned souls. Interestingly, our audio guide said that Michelangelo painted himself as a melted figure on the sinner side.

When our audio guide was over, we left and went to the gift shop. We each got postcards to mail home, and there was a post office right there so we were able to officially send them from Vatican City. Then I bought a couple of gifts for my parents and got a poster of the Garden of Eden painting for myself- the only souvenir I bought in Rome. It is something I no longer have in my possession, but that is a tale of annoyance for another time.

It had actually been a long day!! Took us 3-4 hours to see the museum. It actually reminded me a bit of the Louvre with the fancy interiors and size and the insane amount of art everywhere.

Anyway, we felt we'd done enough for the day, so we just had dinner near our B&B at this place called La Fornace that the girl who checked us in had recommended. It was a very traditional looking place. In fact, it reminded me SO much of the town in Pittsburgh where my grandparents lived, Bloomfield. That area was full of Italian immigrants, and this restaurant was just like the ones we would go to in Bloomfield when we'd go out with my grandma. It was mostly empty except for a group of old men who clearly worked there or just hung out with the ones who worked there, all sitting around speaking Italian. There were checked tablecloths and lots of random knick-knacks on the walls including tons of photos (some in black and white) of the owner with loads of various people. So Italian.

It was our last night in our beautiful B&B, so we just went back to our room and had a bottle of wine. We sat on the balcony with a glass until the sun went down. I had my next glass in the bathtub- trying to take full advantage of our suite! It was a good day.

Day 3

Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square

Sunday we were up at 5:45 for Easter, and of course it happened to be the night the clocks went forward an hour, so we lost additional sleep. I had seen Fabrizio two days before and had asked him if we could store our luggage until after the mass, and he had said we couldn't because reception is closed on Sundays and the maid wouldn't want to stay late. Plus it was Easter. Well, ok, right, that makes sense, but surely we could have left our luggage inside the garden gate (which is locks automatically on the way out) and then just left the keys somewhere in there for him? I don't know. I feel their customer service wasn't the greatest. I wasn't in the mood for confrontation though and we were both being extra friendly to each other probably since we had argued through email, so I just told him we'd figure something out.

Well, as a result, we were up super early. We were going to have been up early anyway because apparently people start lining up at the Vatican around 6:30 in the morning, but now we had this extra hassle to deal with. I got ready and wore a pretty new dress for Easter. Luckily, it was a very warm and sunny day.

We handed our keys in to the maid who broke my heart by asking, "Cappuccino?" I knew we had to turn down that beautiful offer and rush off, and we actually ended up not eating until about 12:30 that day. We had to drag our stuff to the metro, go all the way to the Colosseo station- it was already 8:30 by the time we arrived there and I was upset because we should have been in line at the Vatican an hour beforehand- found our new apartments, stored our luggage there (they were a much more helpful staff), and then took the metro back to the Vatican. We didn't arrive until 9. Lewis had offered when we were at the Vatican metro to take the luggage himself and let me go since the mass was much more important to me, which was really such a nice offer from him, but I knew we would never find each other and didn't want to leave him with all the bags.

When we finally got up to the Vatican, there was a very large queue to get in. There were security guards stopping the line at intersections and holding us up for 10 minutes at a time before letting more through. By the time we got to the front, it was about 9:45 or 10. There were security checks stationed all around the plaza, and we were directed to the right. This actually was a blessing. We went to one all the way around the side, and as a result, we came out the other side closer to the basilica.

The whole square was partitioned off with wooden barriers, keeping people sectioned and also creating passages in between the crowds that were left empty. The rest of it was packed. Looking out over the square, there were just wall to wall people.

The middle section was where the seating was, and we had come too late for that. Nobody even checked our tickets, and I'm guessing that's because we ended up in a standing only section (although I really wish someone would have checked after going through the trouble of getting them).

We had come out just one section further away from the closest we could get on the side, and there was a bunch of empty space in the section in front of us, so I was debating jumping the barrier. I saw someone else do it, and despite the fact that there were guards right there, I went up, waited until they were looking away, and then hopped over myself. Well, they must have seen me- I was pretty slow because of my dress, and as soon as I got over another older woman came and tried to do the same. The guards came right over and stopped her, and she protested that others had done the same while I was standing right next to them clearly guilty, and they told her to stay on that side while blatantly ignoring me. Score!

Lewis was still stuck on the other side but told me to go up, so I made my way into the crowd, just looking back at him once in awhile, and about five minutes later he appeared next to me as well. So we were all set, and the mass was just starting at 10:15. Unfortunately, people were pressed up against the barrier, and although we were probably only five or six people from the gate, it was very hard to see over them. Most of my views were of people's backs or, if standing on my tip toes, a small fleeting glimpse of the altar over somebody's shoulder.

There was a gigantic TV screen to the side broadcasting the mass, and some people were sitting on the ground in front of that, but I wanted to see it in real life. The mass was in Italian anyway, so I couldn't follow, and I dedicated the first hour to trying to move my way towards the front and thinking that people who are ten feet tall are very rude for taking front row standing spots. A couple of times someone would shift to the side or people left the crowd (I almost cheered when this giant of a man holding a child at the very front finally walked out), and I was able to get closer. I was making sure to hardly drink any water because having to leave for the bathroom (if there even were any open in the square, which I doubt) would have been game over.

By the second hour, I was actually just one or two people away from the front and finally could relax and see most of what was going on.

I realized it was the peace be with you when people starting shaking hands, and shortly after that, a long line of priests came down the empty roads between the crowds with communion.

That was anarchy. People would just yell and raise their hands, and the priests would come up to the barriers while people shoved their way to the front. There was no holding the communion either, they just distributed it straight into your mouth. I felt we probably looked like piranhas crowded together at feeding time.

He looks mildly terrified.

Some annoying people also used their opportunity at getting close for communion to steal themselves a nearer spot that they did not earn. You do your time like the rest of us!!

Anyway, eventually I think everyone got their Eucharist, and the mass wrapped up. It had been almost two hours long. I knew there was the Urbi et Orbi address to the world coming at noon and thought we'd wait for that, and I had figured some people might clear out since mass was over, but that wasn't the case.

Well, I was in for a huge surprise, because Pope Francis came out on his white pope mobile!! I mean the actual pope!! Right in front of us! And I love this pope! He's a Jesuit and he's awesome and kind and I would like to sit and chat with him about life because he's amazing. It was surrounded by security, but he was just standing up in the middle out in the open while they drove the sections between the crowds and he waved at everyone. He came by us and was about five feet away!!

I was actually beside myself with excitement, I couldn't believe we got to see the pope up close. He came back through the other way as well, but as soon as he started approaching everyone screamed and put their cameras straight in the air, plus there was this tall guy with rosaries around his neck who grew about three feet when the pope came around and started pushing forward yelling "Argentina!!" at the top of his lungs, so I didn't get as good a view the second time until he went past. That was the highlight of the morning. The pope, you guys!! In real life!

He came out on the balcony of St. Peter's at noon then and delivered his address. That was about 15 minutes long and also in Italian.

When it was over, the square cleared out fairly quickly. We took a few more photos and then left as well, making our way into the city.

A better idea of how close we were for mass.

Happy days. Look at my dress.

Attending Easter mass at the Vatican does require some effort and investment of time, but I would say that it's worthwhile. It's such an experience being in a massive crowd like that, and did I mention you get to see the pope? You get to see the pope.

More to come on Rome in my next entry!