Jordan's Rome Adventures: Beginning of my Final Rome Week

Sunday we started off a little later than usual, had a class meeting and then Professor Gentry-Akin took us out to lunch and i got the Half Calzone-Half Pizza again. It was bomb...again. We then assembled at Saint Paul's Basilica again for the prayer service with the Pope. It was really really crowded. There was heavy security for obvious reasons, and people were pushing to get a good spot in line. Even the nuns were pushing people out of the way. It was kind of a funny sight. the prayer service was good, and we had really good seats. Afterwards we decided to get dinner and hang out at the abbey theater.

Yesterday we had a LONG day. The main thing we did was go to Travestere, one of Rome's oldest neighborhoods. We went to a church called Sant' Eigidio, had a short presentation and a prayer in italian. Afterwards we were taken out to dinner at a restaurant, and they kept ordering us hella wine.

Today was very long, but we did see some good things today. We started off early so we could have a private mass at Saint Peter's Basilica in the vatican. We've been to many Basilicas on this whole trip, but Saint Peter's is definitely the best one. It really is as they described "the mother of all basilicas". Which makes sense, because Saint Peter's bones are kept there. It blows your mind to think that we were having mass within the vicinity of Saint Peter's bones, the first pope, the man that walked with Jesus, the man that Jesus designated as The Rock. The basilica itself we learned also houses the bodies of many other popes including John Paul the Second, whose tomb we saw. It really is an amazing experience, if you are ever in Rome, you MUST go into saint peter's basilica. It was desgined by Michaelangelo when he was 70, and it took him 19 years to complete. walking around, you can see why it took so long, but it seems so perfect.

Afterwards we went to the Sistine Chapel, which also houses the famous work of Michaelangelo. The sistine chapel is definitely a must see in Rome. I cannot really explain in words what its like, except maybe that its incredible, or unreal. You catch yourself looking up forever trying to see everything. It is literally impossible to see everything in one day. I wish taking pictures and video were allowed, but sadly, that was not the case.

Were almost done in Rome, and we will be back in about 4 days. I'll have all kinds of stories to tell you and literally hundreds of more pictures. Keep checking, I'll get a couple more blogs out of this hopefully.

pics with the Pope