Night Lights

From my experience, I feel like cities in Europe can't be truly appreciated until they are experienced at night. The youths of Italians (and when I say youths, I mean anywhere between ages 18-30something) gather nightly in the piazzas (squares) and sit around the fountains and talk and drink and eat gelato. Someone told me, "its like there's a nightly block party in Italy!" And they are so right. Our last night in Rome, a few of us ventured out to experience the sights under the sparkle of night. Parks do not close at night and there aren't open container laws. Not because Italians like to get crunk, but because community is such a vital aspect of their culture. Around the dinner table and the fountains, Italians devote their daily lives to each other. Its definitely one of the things I appreciate most about Italian culture. One of those things that we are unfortunately lacking in America.

So, as a tribute to our last night in Rome and as a general means of kicking off our tour, a few of us ventured towards a nearby square, casually passing the Colliseum along our way. Its silently beautiful resilience gracefully replaced the dusty hot crowds we had witnessed earlier in the day. A warm yellow Italian moon shone brightly above it.

When we arrived at the square, it was fairly intimidating. According to Elizabeth Gilbert, Italians keep the same group of friends from grade school through adulthood. Walking into that square full of happy Italians speaking in Italian separated into their lifelong cliques... well, it felt like walking into a lunchroom as a transfer student in the 7th grade, I'm sure. After getting enough courage to have some discouraging chit chat with some American freshman fratboy smoking a Cuban cigar, we gave up our attempts to be Italian-square-cool, hopped in a taxi and headed toward the Trevi Fountain.

TIP: Trevi Fountain at night is a must see!

Like the Coliseum, it was a beautiful Italian image, all lit up and sparkling at night and was a peaceful comparison to the crazy crowds from earlier. This was the first time I felt truly relaxed on our journey (though I became a semi-pro by the end of the trip). It felt like magic. We had a long and beautiful conversation with an Asian Australian couple about everything from style to theology before we hopped in another cab towards our hotel and said goodbye to Rome.

Buonanotte and I hope you enjoy these slowly pieced together legs of our journey.

When in Rome...

...say "buon giorno" to the Pope!

Wednesday, May 21st

Today, we got up early to hit up the Vatican for the Papal Audience. TIP: They hand out tickets like free candy, but that doesn't mean that you have a spot saved. Get there early, so you can snag a chair by the fence. The Pope will drive by the fence once or twice, smiling and waving and who knows? Maybe it'll be your baby he'll stop to kiss, or your hand he'll high five. Once he makes it to the steps of the church, every pilgrimage group is announced and welcomed in every language represented. This takes about an hour. Then, the Pope will give his address. First, he reads it, then he thanks his peeps. Then it is translated.  Then he thanks his peeps. And the address is translated again and again, language by language. This takes a little over an hour. We left after it was translated in English, to beat the crowds for lunch (always a good choice). However, the ceremony ends with the Our Father in Italian (or Latin? - Obviously, I wasn't there - which now that I think about is kind of sad). For the prior Popes, this service usually took place in an auditorium that seats 2000. However, Pope Francis is so popular, they do it on the steps of the church, to make way for the hundreds of thousands that gather weekly. The crowds were overwhelming. More on that later. The address itself was beautiful. I have included the translation because I can that's why:

Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis on the seven gifts of the "Holy Spirit, we now consider the gift of knowledge. Through this spiritual gift, we are enabled to see every person, and the world around us, in the light of God's loving plan. In a sense, we see the beauty, harmony and goodness of all creation with the eyes of God its maker. As is clear from the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi and so many other saints, the gift of knowledge gives rise to grateful contemplation of the world of nature and joyful praise of the Creator. The perspective given by this spiritual gift leads us to respect God's gift of creation and to exercise wise stewardship of its resources for the benefit of the whole human family. It also prevents us from restricting our vision to the persons and things of this world alone, forgetting that in their order, value and beauty they point beyond themselves to God, their source and ultimate end. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us grow in the knowledge which enables us to perceive the love with which God guides the world, to respond with gratitude and to praise him for his infinite goodness and love."
http://www.news.va/en/news/general-audience-21-may-2014

This was relevant and striking to me because A) hello - I'm in college. Acquiring knowledge is kinda my thing right now. Also, B) in the Vatican Museum, we saw Raphael's Rooms and one in particular related to the sermon. Our tour guide told us that the walls of The Room of the Segnatura, (which had once been a library), were painted (by Raphael) to represent the sides of knowledge. Google tells me its actually the sides of the human spirit. But perhaps they are one and the same. Raphael represents Truth, Good and Beauty through scenes of Philosophy, Theology and Justice. Whatever. I found new understanding of the sermon through them.

At the end of the tour, we stepped inside the Sisteen Chapel. You know, that one that Michealangelo painted as though gravity didn't exist? And I was so excited. And it was so beautiful. And I still can't believe I saw it in person. And that it was one person painted it so so long ago. And I now understand all the hype about lapis lazuli. And I was so looking forward to a moment of silent reverence.

But tourists suck.

And I KNOW I'm a tourist too. So I guess we suck. But still. It is probably more of a societal problem than an individual's problem, because this is how it is everywhere. Nationalities intermix and gather to experience a bit of the world we should all have ownership of as human beings, and instead we just can't respect each other because we get overstimulated and shut everyone out, talking loudly as though we're the only people in the world. When the Pope gave his address in Italian, all of the Americans talked like nothing was going on - just tuned it out and snapped one hundred pictures. When the sermon was in English, the Italians spoke loudly and snapped their own pictures (perhaps to get back at us). And when everyone enters the Sisteen chapel, after ceaseless warnings about having to be quiet and not being allowed to take pictures in there, everyone still pushed and shoved and talked like it was 4th grade recess. And what is this societal obsession with having to take pictures of everything always anyway? No one cares if you got a hundred pictures of the Pope. You were not even looking at the man because you were too busy trying to balance the camera higher than the rest of people shooting their arms up in the air. It is like their lives depend on being one of the hundreds of thousands of people to get to take a picture of him today. I could barely see him for the arms. Like I said - I don't judge the individuals. It is a societal problem. But part of that problem is that people's obsession with documenting experiences end up highly detracting from the experiences of others (if you come to hear the Papal Audience, you should be able to hear and see the Papal Audience). We do all have ownership of this world, but it must be ownership in a way that connects us.

Ok, there is my rant. I just hate crowds (introvert). But I guess that's what I get for visiting a place that is just so unabashedly amazing.

Anyway. There are extreme perks to being a part of a touring choir. Tonight, we sang in literally the MOST BEAUTIFUL church I have ever been in in my life. You may have heard of it. Saint Peter's Basilica? Yeah. That one. Though Pope Francis didn't end up making it to this Mass, we still had an incredible experience. We sat in the choir section, which is near the front of the church and which is also the most beautiful part. General visitors are not allowed that close - and I believe they have to pay to visit. I almost cried at least ten times. And I'm a pretty stoic person when it comes to things like this. That's how beautiful it was. And Saint Peter is literally buried underneath it. How cool is that? The literal rock of the Christian Church. And there's the Pieta of course. Wow. Michelangelo actually did these things. And they are right where I was standing. I'm not much of a materialist most of the time, but seeing these amazing pieces of history... it physically changed me.