FOUND IT :)

So, I just posted this to the wrong blog... hilarious!! This is the blog I posted from Rome...

pantheon steps
15 minutes. I just excused Joel to go for a walk while I use the next 15 minutes to give you a quick update (we just checked football scores, so he is satisfied).

Obviously if I told you everything we had been up to, you would never finish reading. I can tell you that we have done so much that we were supposed to go to Pompeii today and felt that we couldn't appreciate it. We have seen so much art, so many churches, and many piles of ruins. We decided over one of our best dinners last night (pasta fagoil and rigatoni carbonara sitting outside in a piazza we stumbled upon), that it was time to relax. So today, we're just walking - reminding ourselves that not everyone walks past the Pantheon everyday. There is a part of Rome we haven't explored yet, so we plan to stroll in that direction, but we're going to attempt to leave our map in our bag and just see what we see.

As for the last week - it has been everything we could have hoped for. The concert was great (we were practically sitting on top of the violinist), Cinque Terre was BEAUTIFUL (though it rained the whole time so we only could hike the Via del Amorè), and Rome has charmed Joel in a way that neither of our first places could quite do. I am surprised, but glad.

We have learned to slow down in Rome. We took Florence at a dizzying speed. With so much time in Rome - we have strolled and eaten (gelato, espresso, pasta, pasta, pasta). Joel has discovered that he absolutely loves espresso - I love gelato (as if that was even a question).

And on Sunday - we became quite blessed. We were in the Castel Snt. Angelo. From the top, you can see St. Peter's Square and we noticed chairs set up - so we wandered down. We could see a mass going on inside St. Peter's Basilica and that the pope was inside (it was a mass for Africa, so there was cool music that they were pumping into the square and showing on huge screens). We decided to get in line to go inside (assuming it would be after the mass was over). In front of us, people started to b-line for the chairs set up in front of a golden chair - Joel leaned over to the English speaking girls to our left and found out that the pope was coming out after the mass. So we sat patiently to see African priests, cardinals, and lastly, the Swiss guard parade out before the Pope came out, spoke about reconciliation in Africa and then blessed us all in multiple different languages - including English. It was a pretty cool experience.

1 minute. Gotta go! We'll be home soon!