When in Rome...: Exploring Roma (3): Weekend in a Catholic City

Well, after a crazy weekend this past weekend, I'm finally posting about what actually happened. Forgive me for leaving you all in the dark...It's been a great week, busy with travel planning and school and exploring.

Friday and Saturday nights were my first two nights out in Rome. And they were absolutely insane. The clubs here are larger than life. The music is a mix of European techno and American pop songs. It's amazing--the Italians know all the words to the English songs and everyone sings/shouts along. I highly doubt they know what any of the words mean though; the only spoken English I heard was limited to "Ciao, Bella" and "Bellisima" and "Di dove sei? Bella bella bella bellaaaa", accompanied with the typical stare-downs any "Americana" would expect in a foreign club... Needless to say, the Italian boys are both aggressive and cocky. Two traits that make them seem like the biggest creepers a girl can picture. It was all good fun. My roommates and I were out till 4 both nights. Everyone is remarkably sober when they walk out at 4am...the beauty of late-night clubs and fantastic music I guess.

Sunday was a fantastic day. I got myself out of bed for mass at 10:30 with two of my roommates downstairs at Basilica Santa Maria in Trastevere, a beautiful church ten minutes from my apartment that made the top ten churches of Rome in my handy-dandy Frommer's guidebook! The Catholic church has 22 recycled Roman columns lining the nave, and incredibly detailed mosaics along the apse. Mass was in Italian, but I actually caught a few words here and there of the homily! Albeit, those words were "Jesus", "Amen", "Christo", and a few other obvious ones... Haha! It was a great experience. The church is massive, and just being there and seeing everyone was pretty cool. The music was done by a men's choir (I'm assuming clergymen of some kind as they were all in robes....Mom....Nat... any thoughts?) and they were all amazing. When mass was let out, the whole square outside the church was filled with people and incense could be smelled for a good block and a half on our way home.

Basilica Santa Maria in Trastevere

After mass, Andrea, Becca, and I walked to the Vatican. Took me a week and a half, but I finally made the trek. And let me tell you how incredible that place is. Words don't describe it. The walk there was filled with "Wow" and "Are you seeing this?" and the like. We didn't have tickets to actually go in St. Peter's Basilica or the museums, but simply being in Piazza San Pietro was inspiring. It is huge. The Baroque square was designed by Bernini in the 1630s to mimic a human embrace. The curved colonnade is the gateway to St. Peter's Basilica, the biggest church in the world. All along the top of the "arms" of the square are sculptures of the Patron Saints. Me and my pathetic eyes couldn't see all the details of these sculptures, but I'm sure they are absolutely unfathomable anyway so I didn't feel overly disappointed I couldn't see them clearly. In the middle of the square, there's a MASSIVE Egyptian obelisk where St. Peter was martyred in AD 64. Below the obelisk, the Vatican Nativity Scene was still up, but I actually thought it was slightly overrated. It seemed a little out of place, but this could have been due to my lack of perception from simply being surrounded by the overwhelming beauty of the square itself. The last Sunday of every month, students can get into the museums of the Vatican for free, so I will be taking a full day to embrace the inside of this incredible place later on in the semester. The Vatican really was the highlight of Rome for me so far, and I haven't even been inside to see Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, the bronze gold and marble plating of St. Peter's Basilica, or Bernini's remarkably detailed statues. I will be sure to dedicate an entire post to whenever that visit comes up. I feel like I'll have to mentally prep for that day -- my artistic imagination skills were overwhelmed just being in the square. I can't imagine how being inside will compare.