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Yesterday
we arrived in beautiful Roma and as always there was a "suit and
tie" young man at the airport
holding a sign with our name ....and a Benz limo waiting. Miguel said he wanted
to give me the "Imperial" treatment. It was raining bucketful’s.
In town, passing San Giovanni Basilica, the driver told us that this very day the POPE would lead a procession down a long avenue from that basilica to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the Pope-mobile, of course. Something to do with the Domus Cristi Holy Day.
It
was just 11:00 a.m., but there were crowd-control barriers up all along that
avenue...which made us even more interested in what was going to happen later
that day.
We
then came to our "guest house" which Miguel had found on the Internet
in the "Heart of Rome". It's brand new with modern, spacious rooms whose
owners … a flamboyant young couple…. greeted us. Real charmers. This is Rome.
Starving,
we immediately went for lunch which was fantastic: meat, veggies,
pasta...and wine, lots of wine to make up for our self-imposed
Norwegian "drought" where a bottle of wine was 5 to 6 times more
than here. I ordered gnocchi though not quite as good as those my friend M’s
can make back in Atlanta but still yummy.
We slept a great nap....we're in Italy after all...and around 6 in the evening , we went for a walk in bright sunshine. As it happened, we stumbled across Santa Maria Maggiore and got a sidewalk table at a bistro in front of the church, just where the Pope was expected to come by. And ordered our beers, of course.
Our table was up against a crowd-control barrier so nothing could block our view of where Bergolio (the Pope's real name) was to go by....couldn't believe our luck. And soon enough the procession began. After hundreds of priests, nuns, and monks passed by there was our ARGENTINE Pope...NOT in the Pope-mobile but WALKING!
I took a picture of a vehicle carrying the Chalice containing Domus Cristi (the BODY of CHRIST!) with Bergolio (Francis I, to be more correct) just behind in the procession, no more than three meters from where we were. Then my camera went "plin, plin" ..."memory full"... I COULDN'T TAKE ANY MORE PICTURES!
This is the second time we have seen a Pope, but the other time it was the prior Pope in the Pope-mobile (in Vienna) at some distance. This time it was an ARGENTINE Pope, so, obviously, a little more special for us....though Miguel was a little less impressed than I was.
Well, we're off now to stroll around Rome with no particular destination I mind, again with bright sunshine, to see what there is to see. Miguel says he'll look at the guidebooks tomorrow. It makes him feel like an explorer...although we are in a city that is 2,500 years old!
We slept a great nap....we're in Italy after all...and around 6 in the evening , we went for a walk in bright sunshine. As it happened, we stumbled across Santa Maria Maggiore and got a sidewalk table at a bistro in front of the church, just where the Pope was expected to come by. And ordered our beers, of course.
Our table was up against a crowd-control barrier so nothing could block our view of where Bergolio (the Pope's real name) was to go by....couldn't believe our luck. And soon enough the procession began. After hundreds of priests, nuns, and monks passed by there was our ARGENTINE Pope...NOT in the Pope-mobile but WALKING!
I took a picture of a vehicle carrying the Chalice containing Domus Cristi (the BODY of CHRIST!) with Bergolio (Francis I, to be more correct) just behind in the procession, no more than three meters from where we were. Then my camera went "plin, plin" ..."memory full"... I COULDN'T TAKE ANY MORE PICTURES!
This is the second time we have seen a Pope, but the other time it was the prior Pope in the Pope-mobile (in Vienna) at some distance. This time it was an ARGENTINE Pope, so, obviously, a little more special for us....though Miguel was a little less impressed than I was.
Well, we're off now to stroll around Rome with no particular destination I mind, again with bright sunshine, to see what there is to see. Miguel says he'll look at the guidebooks tomorrow. It makes him feel like an explorer...although we are in a city that is 2,500 years old!
May 2013
Link to Photo Album:
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