Familiar Faces

Throughout these past two weeks we were fortunate enough to see some familiar faces in Rome! 

A couple of weekends ago (March 20-24), our grandparents arrived in Rome to begin their Europe trip visiting some of their favorite cities: Rome, Paris, London, and Edinburgh. For this weekend we returned to our enjoyable "tour guide" roles as we visited Piazza Navona, the Patheon, Trevi Fountain, as well as some churches holding Caravaggio paintings. On Friday, we spent the morning and early afternoon strolling through Villa Borghese and admiring the works in the Borghese gallery, and we followed it up with a walk to Vatican City and St. Peter's Square. While we were away on a school trip on Saturday, they returned to the Colosseum and Roman Forum, where they took a tour to see the top and underground floors. The rain didn't dampen our spirits too much on Sunday, where, after English mass in a church off of Via del Corso, we watched a little of the Rome Marathon before enjoying an exhibit on masterpieces from Paris's Musee d'Orsay. It was a wonderful weekend with our grandparents, and we felt like we were trying to keep up with them as much as they were keeping up with us! We loved spending time with them and hearing all of their stories about previous trips to Europe. We only hope we can be like them when we grow up! 

Piazza del Popolo

Santa Maria del Popolo which is home to some Caravaggio paintings. 

Villa Borghese 

Enjoying our stroll through the gardens.

Galleria Borghese

St. Peter's Square

The Center of the Colonnade!

Visiting the Trevi Fountain!

The Rome Marathon!

On Wednesday, we had another opportunity to catch up with our neighbor, Papa Francesco, at the Papal Audience. We decided to get there about an hour earlier than last semester in hopes of having a better seat, which we accomplished! We were right on the middle aisle, so as he came by we were about five feet from him! Every time we have seen Pope Francis he always has an infectious smile on his face and seems genuinely surprised at all of the people who want to be in his presence. 

All of the people gathering for the Papal Audience.

Look how close we are to the aisle!

A collage of umbrellas.

Wednesday and Thursday Rome was even more chaotic than usual due to the fact that our President was in town to visit Pope Francis and members of the Italian government. Unfortunately, President Obama was forced to decline our request to take him out for our favorite gelato, Fridgidarium, (yes, we actually sent him an email inviting him to gelato) but we still managed to catch a glimpse of him as his huge motorcade drove down our street! We also did our fair share of "presidential watching," for we tried to hang around the Colosseum Thursday afternoon while he was supposedly touring the arena. Sadly, the Italian police closed off the road going to the Colosseum, and for some strange reason our U.S. passports didn't get us past security! While we were disappointed Obama didn't remember we were here, we understand that he probably had many more important things to do, and we still had fun trying to see him around Rome. 

Thursday night we met up with our final visitors, members from our high school's choir. They had been visiting Rome for three days as part of their Italy Spring Break Performance Trip, and we watched them perform during mass in Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the papal basilicas. They sang beautifully, and the walls of the chapel allowed their voices to echo throughout the entire basilica. We were glad to have been able to see them and wish them well on the rest of their trip!