Those Who Are Holy See

Italy is honestly perfect. It is all the splendor of a city like New York but saturated in fascinating historical sites, monuments, and ruins. There will be a highway breaking straight through ancient buildings. Seeing them adjacent is like a time warp.

But I have truly not been doing this country justice; I decided that when I saw the Pope on Wednesday.

Wait what?!

Not a cloud in the sky; Jesus in the center like a boss.

The rumors are true! I went to see little Benny at the Vatican, just to get a nice blessing.

So we soaked in the rays in which God was definitely shining on us and tried to find where the snipers on the roof were hiding. There are scores of saints, some of which are recognizable and some of which I would have to Wikipedia to figure out, lining the perimeter of the entire Vatican state. The snipers could actually have been any of the white figures; with as many street performance statues I've seen in Italy, I wouldn't be surprised. The audience's attention, however, was blatantly called to the statue of Jesus, the only haloed figure, right at the apex of the open square.

Benny in the PopeMobile

It was a beautiful day to go to the Vatican, my first time, actually! Because it was so nice out, the papal audience took place outside. We arrived and we sat for literally two hours. It was definitely a date; I'm all ready to go and Benny is shitting around in the Vatican somewhere.

But when he rolled out, it was obviously in style. Literally the cutest little old man, and his virginal white attire was practically blinding. The Church really does a great job with presentation.


...Not so much with brevity.

Though it was a beautiful day, it started to get a little hot in the sun after having sat there for three hours waiting and then to hear all the individual shout outs from the Pope... in every language.

It was a nice moment to hear St. John's University announced though. We love stealing the spotlight.

And so, we were blessed, not even realizing it since he was doing it in so many languages that we couldn't keep up, and felt like all of our trip suddenly became a holy pilgrimage, drunk times and all.

Still more to climb.

That is not where my Vatican intrigue stopped! The next day, on an equally sunny Thursday, a small group of us decided to get our bimonthly workout and climb the mama of Roman Churches: St. Peter's Basilica's dome.

I slipped into my leather jacket, regardless of being heeded not to, and sweated the walk to the Basilica. That was even before the 320 steps to the top of the dome.

I use the term steps loosely. It started off with a normal staircase, which then evolved into very flat elongated spiral stairs that gave the illusion that we wee only walking around in a circle and weren't ascending anything. The next stairs assured me we were; each was probably half a foot tall, very strenuous for little legs like me.

We got to a half way point which gave us brief relaxation and a very pretty aerial view of the Basilica itself.

Slanting walls, very trippy.

Then the medley of stairs continued. A thin corridor of steep steps that led to more Parisian style swirls. We knew we were getting close when the walls literally started closing in on us. The last set of stairs was the most condensed spiral staircase imaginable, leaving no room for even a banister; there was a robe strung through the middle for support.

Absolutely exhausting. The people who had made this trek with us were either our age or three times our age. I gave so much credit to them for braving the stairs over the elevator.

So we exited onto the terrace in which the congregation of people was condensed in front of one section, obviously the one which shows the entire Vatican state. Sweaty and stripped of my leather jacket like I was told I would have been, I pushed through into the view. Perfect day and even better than looking from the Eiffel Tower. Really. And much less frightening height-wise. It was the perfect view, and that's not just from one side.

THAT'S what I call getting dome.

Even though all the holy rollers wanted to see the main attraction of the dome of the Vatican, circling around the dome gave absolutely stunning views of Italy. Like I was saying about the history snuggled close to modernity, so goes for the view from the dome. Green grass and villas and fountains alongside phone towers and overpasses.

It doesn't even take from the scenery if you ask me. It is fascinating. Consider how the ancient Romans felt of their architecture and conveniences; though they created what we today consider much more aesthetic, it is most demonstrative of their way of life, as are our cars and towers and freeways. Maybe one day they'll climb the dome and marvel at our developments.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, I'm gonna keep praying that I get oppotunities to see all these beautiful things.