On Saturday I decided to climb the Aventine Hill where there are a number of churches. It almost seemed like I was in a small Tuscan town on top of that hill, it was very quiet and beautiful. I stopped and sat in an orange tree garden that had a great view of St. Peter's and the rest of the city. Then I stepped into a couple of the churches. Anyways, I don't know too much about the hill or the churches, but the emptiness of it was really refreshing.
walkway up to the Aventine Hill- surprisingly EMPTY
Orange tree in the orange garden
St. Peter's is in the background- it was hazy outside so it is hard to see
square surrounded by churches
After this I walked over the to Protestant Cemetery- meant for the English who died in Rome or those of the non-Catholic faith (there were some Jewish graves). The cemetery is beautiful, the gravestones are extremely elaborate and there are some famous people buried there- John Keats, PB Shelley, the son of Goethe, and a few others. The cemetery was also very empty- which could've made it creepy, but having lived next to one my entire life I'm ok with cemeteries. Walking through it was also very relaxing.
The cemetery and some of its elaborate graves
Left is John Keats' grave, the right is his friend Severn, and the middle is Severn's baby son
I just took this picture because I recognized the symbol (chi ro) as a Christian one used by Constantine, otherwise I don't know much about it
This morning I walked up to the Vatican. I was going to try and avoid the holiday crowds, but after thinking about how many crowded important events I've been to- Inauguration and the Inaugural concert, and the Rally to Restore Sanity- I figured I could handle thousands of Catholics on Easter Sunday- as intimidating as that sounds. I am very glad I went, I stayed towards the back so it wasn't very crowded around me. I was only going to stay a couple minutes just to check out the crowd but I stayed for 45 minutes instead because I figured a lot of people I know probably wished they were there. I did leave before the Pope's speech though (which I wish I knew he did because I would've stayed) because it was mostly in Italian/latin and I had no idea what was going on. They also had large screens set up, I started out watching the wrong one that was just clips of Pope John Paul II in preparation for his beatification next week (sadly I will miss it), but I finally realized my mistake. Then, some old Italian man tried to point out who the Pope was on the video screen to me- as if I don't know what the Pope looks like. I wonder if he saw the Jewish star around my neck and figured I didn't know anything. Anyways, I'm glad I can say I've been to Easter mass at the Vatican now.
An extremely zoomed in creeper pic of the Pope
The crowd at Easter mass- it was really hard to tell how many people were there in this picture
The pope on the big screen
Hope my Grandma's proud of me!
No comments:
Post a Comment