Wednesday morning (aka our last full day in Rome) began bright and early. We had to go pick up our papal audience tickets from a Church by 8:30. We made it in plenty of time, and then went to grab breakfast (chocolate croissant and cappuccino) from a nearby deli. By the time we’d finished eating (and figuring out that we were supposed to pay before we ordered… oops), it was time to hop on the Metro and head to St. Peter’s square.
I spent a good ten minutes looking for some sort of shawl/scarf device to cover my shoulders, and ended up with an 8 euro scarf. Ahh, well, it’s a souvenir, I suppose. We waited in the long line to enter through the metal detectors, and then found great seats near the front of the rear section. We had about 45 minutes-1 hour to wait, but it ended up being perfect timing, considering the bathroom line was quite long.
As the excitement mounted before the pope’s arrival, I found myself feeling very uplifted and peaceful. It was nice to see people so enthused about a religious figure. When he finally came out on his little scooter and rode by us, I was almost tearful. It was great to be so close! He spoke (in numerous different languages), and welcome all the different groups that were present. He ended with a prayer for everyone present, and all of our loved ones. The entire service lasted over an hour. I think everyone should have the experience… it was perfect. Sunny day, nice breeze, great crowd and wonderful speaker.
After the papal audience event, we were pretty hungry, so we headed over to a restaurant that my co-worker recommended. We got lost at first, though some winding street, but were able to find our way after searching on the BlackBerry (Black-a-berry!). The restaurant was called San Marcos, and it was excellent! I had a pizza with prosciutto and was definitely not disappointed. That was arguably the best pizza I’ve ever eaten. Perfect crust, just the right amount of cheese and sauce, and, well, prosciutto. After we were sufficiently stuffed (we had salad and a glass of wine as well), we headed to this park area nearby.
It turns out that the park was a bit farther than we’d anticipated, and we were losing time. So, after waiting for nearly an hour for a bus that would take us where we wanted to go, we gave up and walked back. Upon entering the area surrounding the Trevi Fountain, I was taken aback. There were people chanting, yelling, drinking and basically acting like drunken soccer fans. Which they were… soccer fans, that is. The Barcelona fans took over the entire area in anticipation of the Roma Finale that evening. And I thought college football fans were crazy; they barely came close!
We took a few videos and photos, then left to find the Pantheon. We found it, but it had just closed for the day. At least we were able to snap a few photos of the inside, through the doorway. We then found our way to the Piazza Novona, with Bernin’s fountain. There was a lonely Smart car parked on the opposite side of the street… so of course we had to take pictures with it. We even left our cameras on the bench, set up the self-timer, and ran across the street to jump in the picture. They came out nicely! I made Whitney take my picture sitting on the ledge of the fountain (best picture of the trip, I think! Or perhaps second only to my yellow dress photo in Florence), then we left to go back to the hostel. It was near 7 at this point.
I was beginning to feel a little melancholy by dinner… the trip seemed too short, and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to return. All the same, we cleaned up a bit and decided to have a nice dinner at a restaurant near the hostel. We didn’t make it in time to go to the grocery store and get wine, so I bought two bottles at this little pizza place. I still haven’t opened the red, so I hope it’s good. The restaurant wasn’t too far away, and it was a nice, authentic place. Hardly anyone in the spoke English, so ordering was a challenge. The restaurant had a fixed price menu for 22 euro, so we just decided to order off of that. After being told there were ten appetizers, I asked where the list was, so I could choose one. The waiter then informed us that the meal actually comes with ten appetizers. Wow. Plate after tiny plate of food began arriving at our table. And this was on top of a half-liter of wine, pasta (I had linguini with pesto) and tiramisu for dessert. I was stuffed. Happy and stuffed.
Instead of going back to the hostel and sleeping in preparation for our early flight, we came downstairs and started playing on the Internet. Our newfound Italian friends offered to pick us up for another night out, but we regretfully declined (we really did have an early flight). We finally made it to bed, full, happy… yet sad at the same time. I knew it would be difficult to leave—it always is—but I think I’d forgotten just how difficult it really is.
Day 5.
We were up early, packed and ready. We grabbed a croissant on the way out, and then headed to the bus that would take us to Termini to board a train to the airport. Turns out the Roman airport is a mess. We were shuffled from check in area to check in area, only to finally arrive at the correct counter and find out that the flight was already boarding. Wonderful. However, it wasn’t supposed to leave for another 45 minutes, so we managed to stop at the duty-free shops and buy Limoncello. We even made it to a little food stand to buy bottles of water before boarding.
It was a bit…well, humorous now, but scary at the time, to find out that a flight to Bulgaria was departing from the same gate. It turns out that we had to take a shuttle to our plane (I know… a shuttle to a huge plane with a movable staircase). That could have been interesting…
I slept nearly the entire way home. I hate how I can always sleep on the way back, but never on the way there, when I really need to be resting. We arrived in New York a little late, but I didn’t mind. I wasn’t anxious to return to normalcy. At all. And of course it was raining. I should have know that it would rain the entire month of June, just by my mood. Ahh, well. I had a crazy cab driver on the way back to Astoria, said hello to the kitties, cleaned up a bit and then mourned Roma, Firenze, Italia, Western Europe, good food, good wine and gelato.
But I’ll be back someday soon…
