La Vita è Bella: The Guy In The Big Hat

First of all, I apologize for the huge delay in updates - I have a plethora of things to post about from the past week or so, so this blog should be pretty lively in the coming days.

Firstly, after two months in Rome, we finally saw the Big Guy himself. Yes, the Pope. About two weeks ago, Natalie and I went to mass in St. Peter's, which, with the exception of one prayer of the faithful in English, completely in Italian and Latin, as is usual here. The Basilica was completely awe-inspiring as usual, and to hear it filled with music was even more impressive. I feel like I have to mention my favorite habit of the Italians here - generally, the people in this country are slow-moving and laid-back, with the exception of two situations: boarding any form of transportation, and receiving communion. I've found that communion in any church in Italy becomes an example of "survival of the fittest", where you have to push your way into the aisle and to the front of the line. No orderly filing by rows here. Instead, the people from the back of the church run as soon as the all-clear is given, and everyone is off. It's really pretty amusing, and I wasn't sure if I would see it in a place as holy and respected and internationally-attended as St. Peter's, but sure enough I was not disappointed.

After mass, the Pope gave his weekly blessing to a packed St. Peter's Square, addressing the crowd in a multitude of languages. I could tell when he was speaking English, but other than that it was a little difficult to hear and understand what he was saying. I almost understood the Italian better. However, it was awesome to see how many people had traveled to see one of the most powerful and influential people in the world speak for ten minutes. I'll be attending Easter Mass at St. Peter's with a ton of other Notre Dame students studying around Europe, and I can only imagine how crazy that will be!