Rome Trip: Day 4

If you don't already know how we spent this day go here to find more details. The short of it was that we awoke before dawn after very little sleep, walked miles and waited in the rain to see the Holy Father. This picture shows you where waking up that early and running your heart out will get you. This was us waiting for the Pope with total anticipation that this would be the day I would finally shake his hand.

Look closely or click on the picture to see a bigger image. On the far left, you'll see me(trying to hold back the tears), Mackenzie, Nelson and my brother Kevin. You should see the shot Kevin got of the Pope at this moment! It rivaled many professional photos I've seen.

After the audience, we went to the Vatican Museum. No pictures can do this place justice and in the one place we really wanted to take pictures, the Sistine Chapel, no cameras were allowed. It was beautiful and inspiring in spite of the hundreds of people sharing the room with us.

After that, our faithful seminarian friend, Pablo gave us a great tour of St. Peter's. It's amazing what you can learn from someone who really knows his stuff. For instance, did you know that St. Peter's is so big that you could stand the Statue of Liberty up in the center under the dome and she'd still be enclosed? Also interesting is that St. Peter's is not the Pope's church, his is St. John Lateran. St. Peter's Church is designated for the people.
We ended the night at one of Aaron's favorite places to eat. It was truly Italian. No one spoke English, there were no menus and the owners served the food. We ate outside and at the end of the meal a young man came by playing the guitar and singing. He was terrible. Really, I'm not exaggerating. In fact, we were all laughing discretely when the owner came out to shoo him away. Instead what he saw was sweet Mackenzie dancing her heart out to the musician's unusual sounds. The owner let the guy stay and then he joined Mackenzie in the dance.

It was another very late night with an early morning to follow. Aaron was not with us because he was at the seminary preparing spiritually for the ordination the next day. We could not join him, but we did say a family Rosary when we returned to our apartment. We were all anxiously awaiting the event we had come to Rome to witness.