Day 10 and 11: Rome (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)

Day 10: Today was Vatican, Vatican, and More Vatican.

We had an early morning tour of the Vatican (which was mostly the museums and not St. Peter's Basilica. For those planning a trip to Rome, it was through a group called What a Life Tours; I highly recommend them. Anyway, we were out the door by 6:20am to commute across town. The Vatican lets some of these tour groups in an hour before the general public, and our group of 6 was immediately hustled to the Sistine Chapel, as were most of the groups. It bears repeating: before going to Florence or Rome, I highly recommend reading The Agony and the Ecstasy, which really brings it all to life, even if you aren't a big art or art history person. The chapel was not as large as I expected; I'm guessing it feels very full when the conclave of cardinals meets to pick a new pope. The artwork was amazing. After that we saw various aspects of the Vatican museum, which is beyond vast. For those who have been there, my favorite part was the hall of maps (after the Sistine, of course). We saw the Raphael rooms, ancient statues, etc. We zipped through a few parts I would have liked to see more, so I may make another trip on my own. We made a second trip to the Sistine about midway through the nearly 4 hour tour, and by that time, the public was allowed in. The crowds were INSANE, and the tour guide said it was busy, but summer was twice as bad. We literally shuffled our way to the Sistine for about 10 minutes; you could barely move through the rooms en route.

Sidenote: Mark told me growing up everyone thought he was Italian. I catch myself staring at men on the metro because they have such a strong resemblance to him The eye color, the facial bones, the nose….the resemblance is striking. Maybe even more than him, I see women that look like Mark's sister, Cindy. We were the first to arrive for the tour, and the other four people were together and were really late, so we had time to talk to our tour guide before they arrived. I told her how much she looked like Cindy, which led to her asking where our husbands were. Explanations ensue, along with Susan asking if she knew any single Italian men. The tour guide invited us to a New Year's Eve party at her house!!! I was waiting for Susan to suggest we change our flight (we leave on the 30th), but she didn't. It was pretty funny.

So the tour goes on for over 4 hours. It was great, but exhausting The tour ended in St. Peter's Basilica, which was being set up for Midnight Mass, so I had a chance to scope out the layout. It made me nervous….It just didn't look like that many seats, given the significance of the event. We headed back to the apartment and crashed for a couple hours.

Back story: to get tickets for Midnight Mass, you fax a form found on the Vatican's website to the Vatican, with the recommendation to do it at least 2 months in advance. The Vatican then mails you a letter saying you received the tickets (if you did) and that you can pick them up at the Bronze Door of the Vatican up to two days prior to the Mass. That's it…….the only way you can request is by fax. The pickup instructions do not tell you what times you can come, or any other instructions. The letter did tell that the tickets do not come with a guaranteed inside seat. If the inside seats filled, we could end up outside watching on the Jumbotrons. The Vatican gives no guidelines as to how early one should line up for Mass, etc. I'm pretty savvy at finding information on online travel forums, and there just wasn't much out there about how to plan the Midnight Mass visit. What I did find said show up about 3 hours prior to the start of Mass. I have a friend whose uncle is a priest in Rome, and he did some digging and also came back with the 3 hours prior recommendation.

The weather was perfect, and after seeing the seating in the Vatican, I became nervous that 3 hours might not be enough time. We ended up arriving at 5:45, for doors opening at 7:30 and Mass beginning at 9:30. Again, the tickets have absolutely no information on where to go when you arrive, but I wasn't concerned, as I figured I'd just follow the crowd. As we are approaching the Vatican, we see a large group of people queued up, probably well over 1,000. It wasn't a straight line, but people were about 20 across. Hell. We get in the back, and it just feels chaotic. Some people have tickets, some done. Everyone is asking, "Is there where we should be?" There is absolutely no signage, no Vatican officials. There are cops EVERYWHERE, but they don't know what is going one. We decide to take a quick look around, but we don't see any other lines, so we get back in line. After a couple minutes, Susan decided she's going to find out what is going on. She comes back and says there is another line for people with tickets. I was hesitant, but I went with her. For those of you who have been to the Vatican, the mass of people was on the side (outside the Column) where the security lines are set up. The line Susan takes me to starts at the end where you enter the piazza and are facing St. Peter's. (The entire Piazza is inaccessible at this time.) The line she takes me to looks much more civilized…it is closer to single file, and everyone has a ticket. I walk the entire line and feel really good about out position; however, I realize there isn't a single barrier separating the line from the street, so people are going to cut the line.

We stand in this line for the next couple years…I mean, hours….but we have fun people in front of us. A mother and her 3 adult children from Mexico and a couple from the San Fran bay area kept us entertained. All this time, rumors continue that the other line is the correct line, blah, blah, blah. We decide we are committed to our spot. At 7:30 the gates are opened for people to approach security, and as I expected, the line becomes insignificant; people cut en masse. I watched hundreds, maybe over a thousand, cut in line. And I had no clue what was happening at the original line. I was sure we were going to be watching from outside. It takes us about 45 minutes to push our way to security, but we eventually get inside the piazza and hustle into the church. The center aisle was shut off, and you could only access seats on the center nave; barriers stopped you from trying to get to the sides. There was a group of nuns with a few empty seats as we entered the very back, an we moved our way forward. Again, we're in a pack of people all trying to push there way up a narrow aisle. An usher starts pushing us all to the back of the church saying all seats are taken. I grab Susan and push her against the barrier so we aren't pushed back outside. I was going to stand the entire Mass inside, it they didn't kick us at. At that moment, they move the barrier out from behind us, allowing us to access the seating to the side of the alter. People start running to the seats. Bedlam. When we reach the side, the first 20 rows are off limits, and then there is a walkway with about 30ish rows. We end up in the second row of this section, and I'm thrilled. At this time it is about 8:45. A little after 9, the rosary is recited. Once the rosary is done, the ushers let the people in the row in front of us move us to unfilled seats in the reserved section, so we moved up to the first row. Then the ushers offered us seats in the reserved section, and we ended up about 12 rows off the alter! The seats were amazing. Right before Mass starts, they announce that we should not applaud when the Pope processes. We couldn't see any of the procession; everyone has their camera/cell phone raised in the air to take it. However, when the Pope went up to kiss the alter and bless with incense, I had a great view and took a couple pictures. I then put the camera away and decided to just enjoy the experience. We received a really nice booklet that had the entire mass is Italian, English and Spanish. Once Mass started, people settled down and weren't too bad, although some still took pictures are wildly inappropriate times. Mass lasted about 90 minutes. It was a great, once-in-a-lifetime type experience. I'm glad I did it (especially with the current Pope), not sure I need to or would want to do it again.

After Mass, all transit was closed for Christmas, so we hiked across the city to our apartment. It took an hour, 20 minutes, but that included a stop for some take out slices of pizza (outstanding) and some pictures of ruins en route. At midnight, the city's church bells went off for probably 5-10 minutes, which was really cool. It was almost 1am before we made it to our apartment, and Susan said I can never tell her mother she walked across Rome after midnight. J

Day 11: Today was a much, much needed R&R day. I found the first season of Desperate Housewives IN ENGLISH on TV this morning and watched a few episodes and did some laundry. I went out for a few hours midday and saw a couple churches and did a little shopping at the train station (where all shops were open). The weather continues to be gorgous and should stay that way this week. We cooked dinner in tonight. Tomorrow is an organized tour of the Colosseum and self guided tours of the "old stuff" part of the city. Once we get past the Coloseum tour, I expect Susan and I will do our own things for the rest of the trip. She wants to spend most of her remaining time of the ancient sites, and I don't know what I want to do. I'm out of steam….I don't know that I need to see much more old stuff, churches or anything else. I really, really do not need any more crowds. There are a couple WWII museums I may check out, and I think I may head to the Jewish section of the city, just for something different.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Ciao.