I wrote a huge blog on the train to
Florence – then somehow lost it so I’m starting over.
I got up and had breakfast. Met a nice Brazilian couple who now live in Canada. Caught a bus to the Vatican to see the Pope. By 8:30 St. Peter’s Square was already packed. I didn’t get a chair but was standing behind a barricade where the PopeMobile would drive right by. After mote than an hour in the scorching hot sun along with 25,000 of his closest friends, the Pope started his drive. And I started
getting sick. Thought I was going to faint or throw up – or both. I pushed my way out of the crush and got to an area with air and not so many people. Now I was feeling better but so upset I had to leave my wonderful vantage point. Then i looked to my left and there was the PopeMobile turning the corner. He passed 5 feet in front of me and looked me right in the eye! We were
both smiling from ear to ear! I have seen every Pope since 1968 except the one who lasted 6 weeks in 1978.
Category Archives: italy 2013
Rome – Day 2
Got up early and had breakfast and cappuccino. I walked to Torre Argentina where Caesar was assassinated (remember, Et Tu , Brute?). This ruin is the home of a famous cat shelter in Rome. I have an ‘adopted’ kitty here at Torre Argentina that I send ‘cat support’ for every month. They do great work here caring for the unwanted cats. I dropped off a heavy bag of cat items I had collected all year from garage sales, etc. One was a big cat shaped dish… I bought for $2 and they sold it that day for 20 Euros – that’s about $28 of US money!!
After dropping off the goodies, I headed over to the Jewish Ghetto for my tradition of buying what have to be the worst baked goods in all of Europe – if not the world…It is a world famous Kosher bakery. Everything looks burned and I usually buy about 6 biscotti – that are harder and dryer than bricks. And one stands in line to buy this mess! Why do I do this year after year? One simple word – Tradition! (Remember Fiddler on the Roof? ).
On the way over to Torre Argentina , near my convent, I noticed 20 brass plates in the cobbles of the street. A sweet man sweeping in front of the shop explained that they were memorials to 20 Jews who were arrested from that building and were shipped to Auschwitz – never to return.
Later, after a wonderful lunch of Jewish fried artichoke and Roman style artichoke and some fish stuffed into fried zucchini flower – I returned to visit with Giacinto, my cat. He slept thru the entire visit.
