I got to see the Pope two days in a row!! On Wednesday we went to the Papal audience. If you saw on the news about the man jumping on the popemobile, I was about 50 feet away! It happened and was over so quickly we didnt think it was a big deal until we saw it on the international news. But the audience was great! We got there 3 hours early, so we were only 10 rows from the front.





Il Papa!













The priest that introduced the English speaking groups present forgot to say our schools name...boo! They had a priest introduce the groups from English, Spanish, German, Russian or Polish? and French countries, then the Pope would wave to them and read his talk to them in that language. It was pretty neat. His accent was so thick it was hard to understand his English.






The Pope leaving in the popemobile.













At this point most of the people left and we moved up to the front, so we were very close to him! He waved to us!!











The Piazza Vittorio Emanuele.













Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.













The inside. It houses the Passion relics found by St. Helena of Constantinople, the mother of Constantine: The panel that hung on the cross, pieces of the cross, a nail, and thorns from the crown. It was pretty interesting.









In the evening on Thursday I went to the Corpus Christi mass and procession from St. John Lateran to St. Maria Maggiore. I had to go by myself because my friends had classes. But it was the most beautiful experience I've had in Rome so far. I peeked at St. Maria Maggiore first and the front was decorated with flowers, like this one of the papal crest.

St. Giovanni Laterno. There were sooo many people filling the whole area in front of the church. I got there 2 hours early so I was right up front!

The Pope using incense at the beginning of mass.

The Holy Father during mass. They passed out Italian mass books so I could follow along.

At the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer. I had communion blessed by the Pope!!

Beginning the procession. The Pope on a popemobile kneeing in front of the Blessed Sacrament. When he passed in front of us I was sooo close! Amazing!

Following the procession. It was probably half a mile to St Maria Maggiore.

Everyone had candles which were soo pretty as we walked. We were all singing hymns in Italian too. I had a book so I could follow along.

At the end (I was pretty far from the Pope at this point...those little old nuns can push right in front of you when it comes to the Pope haha). Everyone held up their candles and shouted "Viva Il Papa!" It was beautiful! You can kinda make out the steeple of the church in the background.

Yesterday we all had a lot of homework, so we didnt do too much. I saw the Mausoleum of Augustus...very cool











The Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo basilica. It was soo pretty!












Sorry the picture is blurry...


















The heart of Saint Charles Borromeo (Patron saint of Catechists!!!) is kept here behind the main altar.












Piazza del Popolo! The obelisk is from Egpyt, made for Rameses II.












The two churches facing the piazza, Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto. They seperate the three roads leading to the piazza (that have really good shopping haha)










The fountain of Neptune on the left side of the piazza.













The fountain and steps on the right side that lead up to the Villa Borghese gardens.
















Today I tagged along with Jen, Jennifer and Steph's class again because they were visiting three really important churches. First is Santa Maria Maggiore. It is one of the five Patriarchal basilicas, which the Pope often uses and is one of the oldest churches in rome dating back to the fourth? century!







The inside of the church! So beautiful! The frescoes on the walls all depicted events in the life of Mary. There was actually Euchatristic Adoration going on! Im surprised they even let people in to look around. But it was awesome spending some time with the Sacrament in such a beautiful setting.







The doors that only the Pope can open. Mary and Jesus' hands stick out to be the handles on the door.

















The back of Santa Maria Maggiore. I think its prettier than the front!












The second church we visited was Saint Peter in Chains (San Pietro in Vincoli). From the fifth century.












The inside was beautiful. So open and peaceful.













the church houses the relics of the chains that bound Peter when he was a prisoner in Jerusalem.












It is also the burial place of Pope Julius II (who began the building of St Peter's basilica). The monument in front of the tomb depicts Moses, carved by Michaelangelo. Moses is depicted with horns coming out of his forehead because the Latin words for "horns" and "beams of light" are similar and you cant carve radiance. So the horns are symbolic for the way Moses glowed with the radiance of the Lord.











The last church was Santa Maria della Vittoria. I couldnt really get a picture from the front because the street was narrow, but heres one from the side.










The inside. It was really small, but so ornate and beautiful!












This church is home to the famous statue "Saint Theresa in Ecstasy". My picture turned out really bad, but my friends got better ones. It was designed by Bernini and depicts on of Saint Theresa of Avila's visions.









The church gets its name (Saint Mary of the victory) because of an icon of Mary that apparently helped Catholics win a battle somewhere? The icon is enshrined in this beautiful gold fram over the altar.

After the class we realized we were close to the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini (Saint Mary of the Conception of the Capuchins) which has a crypt decorated entirely with bones from Capuchin monks!

You werent allowed to take pictures inside, so I put up a picture I got from the internet. It was incredible! Really creepy, but at the same time strangely beautiful because the bones made such beautiful symmetrical patterns. It was really neat.

On our way home we stumbled on the corner of the four fountains. It was an intersection of two roads, and on each corner was a really pretty fountain, and looking down each road from the center was a perfectly centered obelisk! It was really neat!

After Siena we went to Venice! It was beautiful, even in the rain! Just how I imagined it. We stayed on Lido, not on the main island, but it was only a ten minute "water bus" ride away. I put really random pictures up because I took soo many and they're all soo beautiful that I couldnt choose! I'll have to show everyone more when I come home... This is a view some buildings on the grand canal.





The Doge's palace, with the bell tower of Saint Mark in the background. Along the grand canal.












Some more buildings and gondolas on the grand canal.












A really pretty building with mosaics on the grand canal.












Me with our gondolier next to our gondola.













Me and Jen in the Gondola!!!













Mary Kate, Steph and Jennifer in the gondola!













Our gondolier pointed out Cassanova's house to us! so cool!












And this red house was Motzart's!


















Going down a canal with some other gondolas.













Saint Mark's sqaure. Sooo many pigeons!!













They fly down and eat right out of your hand! It tickles lol!













Saint Mark's basicilica. Soo pretty. No pictures allowed inside though. It was completely covered in gold mosaics!! Absolutely fascinating!











A bridge over the grand canal. I put this picture on because on the left you can see the bus station. At one point we just got on a bus and rode it around the whole island!










The Rialto bridge over the grand canal. This was the first bridge built in Venice, and the only one for a long time. It has shops on both sides selling glass works and masks and other souveneirs, and the streets leading to it on both sides are the main shopping streets.










Me and Jennifer showing off our masks! The masks there were incredible! So ornate!












The next day in Venice was beautiful! You could barely tell that it poured the day before. We didnt have much time before our train but we went to the beach on Lido just to see it. It was beautiful. I wish we could have spent the day there. Lido was a really nice area, basically the resort part of Venice. Apparently Nicole Kidman vacations here, I can see why!!