Domenica della Palme

Originally posted on my Tumblr travel blog, A Roman Spring with IES, in 2008.

Today was Palm Sunday. So I thought the best thing to do was to go to the Vatican! Apparently, the Vatican has an outdoor Palm Sunday mass every year.

Sarah and I left around 830am to make the walk from the Colosseum area over the Vatican. Unfortunately, the trek turned out to be a difficult one due to a city-wide fun run that was taking place that morning. Everything seemed to be fenced off and it was very hard to navigate the streets to get over to St Peter’s.

Fortunately, we got to the square with time to spare and mass started with a procession of palm carriers. And guess who was at the end of the procession! The Pope! Il Papa! I even got a picture to prove it! So that was pretty neat. The rest of the mass was sort of uneventful, since the majority of it was in Italian and there was a portion of the service spent half singing-half saying portions of the Bible. All in all, it was a great experience to be able to witness a 1) Italian service and 2) a catholic mass.

In the afternoon, I was able to meet up with Riley’s roommate in Prague, Diana, and her boyfriend Charlie. They are in Rome for the weekend as the first part of their spring break. It was really great meeting them because I have heard so much about them (well, mostly Diana) from Riley. We went for a short walking tour to the Trevi Fountain and then stopped for gelato at Giolliti (the best gelateria in Rome).

Now, I am putting off homework by writing blog posts. I will also be posting picture of my weekend adventures too. On Wednesday, Riley is coming to Rome!!! So I am getting prepared to take her around all of the great sites that Rome has to offer.

Until next time, Ciao!