St. Peters has my heart

       Day 2 and Rome and we were off to a running start. This trip we had breakfast and dinner provided for us by the hotel... this means very happy travelers :) :) So after a quick breakfast (bacon included) we were off to a different nation entirely, The Vatican. We got off the bus stop and walked through the underground tunnel and through the columns and wow... it is so regal and grand looking. I immediately loved it. We walked across St. Peter's Square, the large dome calling our names and went through security. We didn't even go into the Basilica first. We started by climbing about 500 stairs to the top of the dome. My first view of the inside of the Basilica was from the inside of the dome looking down. The people looked like ants!! And from the top we saw all of Rome, and all of the Vatican. For a city that contains SO MUCH, it's actually pretty small.

       Coming back down we got ready for Mass, thinking it would be in English celebrated by our priest. However, what we didn't know was that they had scrapped our Mass because they had 5,000 people from all over Italy joining together to sing in a choir which only performs once every three years for Mass at St. Peters. Let me tell you, it was PHENOMENAL. It sounded like heaven. So we had a very very long Mass in Italian, and then we scurried out in the square to say the angelus with.... THE POPE! He poked his his head out of his apartment window and prayed very quickly in Italian. We cheered, and prayed, it was great.
After the Angelus we went to grab lunch, which for me consisted of a protein bar and a gluten free pastry filled with nutella i found in a store!
    Then we met up with a bunch of seminarians from the Pontifical North American College who gave us a tour of the Basilica. It BLEW MY MIND. I love St. Peters. A lot. It is HUGE and there are so many hidden treasures. Too many to include in the blog, just go visit.

   Then we had free time, and we were going to meet up with a Deacon who was going to bring us to see an exhibition on the Shroud of Turin... unfortunately he never showed.. So sad and wet from the rain we went back to the hotel and enjoyed another amazing three course meal.
GLUTEN FREE EVERYTHING. I was a happy camper.
   Since this is a pilgrimage trip, every night we have adoration. And the chapel in Rome was RIGHT next to our hotel. So after scoffing down our desserts we made our way to sit with Jesus. It was a perfect way to decompress from busy Rome and reflect on everything you saw.