La Vita Romana: Of Popes and Men

The Colosseum

Yesterday, I was within twenty feet of the leader of one billion Catholics worldwide -- Pope Benedict XVI. "How did this come to be?" you may ask and to be completely honest, I'm not completely sure. The guys from my apartment and myself were walking towards the Pantheon to get some dinner at a restaurant we saw the night before when some other of our classmates called to inform us that the Pope was to be going by on a street by their apartment near the Colosseum in about an hour. We decided to grab some pizza (which was delicious, of course) quickly in lieu of a sit down dinner to walk over to see the Pope. We came to this tree lined street and it was completely blocked off by baricades and there were Vatican Guards everywhere, but hardly any people (which I didn't really expect)! They were all in matching suits with the same tie and pin in the lapel. I'm sure they must have had concealed weapons someplace as well. We staked out a spot right on the barricade and waited. There were loudspeakers in the trees the entire length of the boulevard and we could hear the entire service from the church where the procession was going. Sure enough, down the road in the distance, we began to see people with lit candles. In this procession were many groups of nuns, priests, monks, and normal people as well. Each group was dressed in a different style, but most of them included some sort of cape. Everyone was walking and carrying a candle! I'm not sure what the procession was for though. Finally, the Pope came, riding in the back of a modified GMC pickup. Parallel to the Pope, right next the barricades, were higher up Vatican Guards who seemed to scan the crowd looking for anyone who might run out into the street. There was no bulletproof glass and he sat there with a pensive look on his face looking ahead through the procession. Immediately after him, Vatican Guards linked arms the entire length of the street and walked behind him. Following them were people who joined the procession along the way. The entire procession lasted about 30 minutes. It was quite amazing!

Vatican Guards

Roman Police (With Swords)

Pope Benedict XVI

After the procession, we walked back past the colosseum to Campo de Fiori where we ate a great restaurant and shared a bottle of wine. It was a great evening to just sit out and enjoy the excellent street performers.

Previously that day (23 June), we had been on our first official visit around Rome to sites. We visited Piazza Farnese, which now houses the French Embassy, and Villa Farnesina (the Villa directly across the river from the Piazza where the Farnese family had their "country" escape.) We also visited the first art gallery in the world for the purpose of displaying art -- Galleria Spada. It has remained exactly the same since at least the sixteenth century. As always, Ricardo had much to say about everything but everything was interesting and I enjoyed all four hours of that visit.

Villa Farnese

Today (24 June), we started the day by walking to the Colosseum as a group. There we met an archeologist from Rome. She and Ricardo led us through acres and acres of the Roman Forum and tried to paint a picture of what it must have looked like 2000 years ago. It was quite amazing to see the different excavations happening right now and the many ruins of temples, basilicas, houses, and theatres. It was very cool to walk on the very road that the Roman Senators used 2000 years ago.