Easter Weekend

April 3rd-6th

As you may be aware, Easter is a big deal in Rome. Holy Week started on Monday, March 29th and ended on Saturday, April 4th, with Easter on the 5th. Many "pilgrims" as they're called come home to Rome for Holy Week and Easter Weekend, as well as a larger than normal influx of tourists, as the weather is finally starting to get really nice.

I was already excited to be in Rome for Easter, because my roommates and I managed to reserve four tickets for Easter Mass at the Vatican, to hear the Pope speak. My roommate Hannah is a devout Catholic so she was excited for the service, but the rest of us were more interested in being there and seeing everything.

I was also excited because Jenn flew in on April 3rd, to visit Rome and to go to Mass with us! I got to show her around my home for the past months and show her all the things I've fallen in love with over here.

The street sign for my road

Friday night we went on a walking tour, very similar to the one I went on during my arrivals week. We started by waiting for the bus for about 15 minutes, which Jenn was a little thrown off by, as that doesn't really happen in Berlin. We finally made it to my school, which unfortunately was locked all weekend because of the holiday. We continued walking up to the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola, which has the amazing view of the city center, and I pointed out the buildings that were lit up that I knew the names of.

We walked down through Trastevere, to get to the Ponte Sisto bridge. We stopped about half way across, because that is the first point to be able to see St. Peter's Basilica.

Blurry iPod photos are the best

Selfie on the Ponte Sisto

We continued through Piazza Farnese, Campo di Fiori, and Piazza Navona, and stopped to get pastries at this one really good shop my roommates and I go to visit every month or so, since it's far away. We ate our pastries in Piazza Navona looking at one of the smaller fountains, and continued on the the Pantheon.

My pastry, a raspberry cheesecake thing. It was multo bene.

The Pantheon was closed for the night, because it was around 10pm by the time we got there, so we just sat and looked at it for a while. I told Jenn about how the ground outside the Pantheon isn't the original ground, because as Rome got older, they rebuild over old roads, buildings, and Piazzas. They had started excavating around the Pantheon, which is when they discovered that it used to have steps leading up to the entrance, not one like it currently is. I explained that the construction of Rome's underground is taking so long is because every time they start to dig out a new area for a new line, they come across a road or a building or a vase, and have to experts in to make sure it isn't some long lost artifact before they continue. As a result, Rome only has two subway lines.

The Pantheon is close to Via del Corso, which is a major shopping street in Rome, starting near the Spanish Steps, and ending at Piazza Venezia, where the Altare della Patria or the Altar of the Fatherland is. Piazza Venezia is also where Tram 8 ends and starts up again, and how we were getting back to my apartment.

As we were walking towards the Altar of the Fatherland, I explained some of the controversy around it. It's construction destroyed a large part of the ancient Capoline Hill, as well as being thought of as pompous, conspicuous, and too large. It doesn't look like it belongs with the rest of the buildings that are built there, due to it's color and the architect style. It's also in Piazza Venezia, which is where Mussolini gave many of his speeches, and Tourists call it the "Wedding Cake", because of it's appearance and because it's built from white marble, while Romans call it "the typewriter," "zuppa Inglese" (English soup) or "pisciatoio nazionale" (the national urinal). Despite all this, it's still a magnificent building to look at, especially at night when it's all lit up.

We made it back to my apartment, and planned to get up early to do the same walking tour, to see everything in the daytime. However, college students generally don't get up early unless they absolutely have to, so Jenn and I didn't leave my apartment until about 11:30am. We went back to Fontana dell'Acqua Paola, to properly see Rome from above. Not all the buildings are lit at night, so in the daytime it was easier for me to point out the buildings. We were able to see the Altar of the Fatherland, some of the buildings in the Foro on Capoline Hill, to name a few. There are a lot of Basilicas in this area of Rome, but I don't know the names of most of them, but I was able to identify what was a church or not.

When we got back to Campo di Fiori, the market was still underway, and Jenn was able to get a little touristy shopping done. I helped her haggle a bit, because 1) Jenn doesn't speak any Italian and 2) there was no way I was letting her pay full price for rosary beads and a scarf or two. Jenn told me that in Berlin they don't really haggle, but in Rome you have to, otherwise you would pay 10 euro for something that the seller bought in bulk for 50 cents to a euro each.

We also walked to the Coloseum, which is about a ten minute walk from the Altar of the Fatherland. We didn't tour it but we did take pictures and look at the Foro, which we passed on the way back.

Saturday night Jenn, one of my roommates Hannah (Marie), and I went to dinner at Cesare al Casaletto, which is a very good trattoria right around the corner of my apartment. I had read a review of it on RevealedRome, which highly recommended it. We ordered an antipasti of fried gnocchi in a calcio e pepe sauce, which was sooo delicious. For Primo, I ordered rigatoni in a meat sauce, the Italian name of which is escaping me. Jenn and Hannah both ordered alla Carbonara, but with different pastas. We skipped secondo, as we were pretty full at that point, but we all got dessert. I had Tiramisu, Hannah had Panna Cotta ai frutti di bosco (with mixed berries), and Jenn had Creme Brulee.

The Fried Gnocci in Cacio e Pepe sauce. So. Good.

My Tiramisu

Hannah and Jenn

Sunday we had to get up very early. Our tickets said to arrive at 7:30, to have a good chance of getting seats. I think we got up around 5:30, and we made it to the bus stop by 6:15ish. We met up with Sarah, who is in the ISA program with me, and is also from Ohio, around Cincinnati.  We of course waited forever for the bus to show up. We had checked the weather earlier and it was supposed to pour on Sunday, which it did once we arrived at the Vatican. While in line, we happened to be right behind some fellow New Englanders, who come every year for Easter in Rome. They were from Manchester NH, near UNH. It was just really cool to run into someone who was from the same general area as me.

Selfie when we were waiting in line. We were wearing our Sunday best under our coats

Sarah took an actual photo of Jenn and I after seeing the struggle with the selfie.

Our lovely view from our seats

We did get seats at the service, and ran into another AUR student who one of my roommates and I know pretty well, and she ended up sitting next to us. Sarah and I, after being rained on for an hour, decided to go and find ponchos for our group, as we hadn't bought them earlier before we went through security. We paid way too much money for a ten cent piece of plastic, but we were a bit drier. Finally, the service started at 10:00, and I am a bit embarrassed to admit this, but we all left at around 10:45. We were all cold, miserable, and soaked to the bone, because the ponchos we were wearing eventually weren't helpful anymore, and Jenn didn't have one, because she didn't want one. Even my roommate Hannah Jacobs, who is the very devout Catholic, wanted to leave, because 1) it felt like a touristy thing to her, not a religious service, and 2) she wasn't sure if they would do Communion, which is an important part of a Catholic Mass.

So we all left, Hannah J was able to make it to her church that she's been going to, and the rest of us warmed up. Because of all the rain and how cold it was, Jenn wasn't feeling good at all, and slept for the rest of the day. I felt really terrible, because she got sick in my country, but she kept insisting that she was overdue for a cold. Luckily, she felt a lot better in the morning. Unfortunately, she missed Easter dinner, which all my roommates helped to make. I made roast beef, but the only ones at the Supermercato were about 1.5 lbs, so they cooked way quicker than a regular roast. I had anticipated that, and pulled it after an hour, but it was still too much time in the oven. So they were a little overdone for my taste, but still tasted very good.

Our centerpiece flowers for Easter dinner

It's traditional in Italy to give chocolate eggs in Italy instead of an Easter baskets like at home. My egg is the far right.

Our Easter dinner! Roast beef, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, carrots, and bread (not on the table yet.) The flowers got moved to the end of the table :(

Our traditional Italian Colomba Cake (Dove Cake), which we named Carl. This one was a yellow cake with custard in it, instead of the very traditional one with candied peel and almonds in it. Carl was not very tasty. 

Monday there wasn't enough time to do anything but get Jenn to the airport, as she, like myself, like to be there minimum two hours before our flight takes off, in case there are last minute changes with the terminal or airport security takes forever.

Overall it was a very good weekend, with the rain unfortunately making Sunday less fun. But I'm still glad Jenn was able to come and to see everything, even though she got sick at the end. But again, it was awesome to have a friend visit, and to show Jenn Rome.

*I have more pictures on my actual camera, which I will update this post with later on, when I have more time. Hassle me about it they aren't up in a week please.