While flying Alitalia to Rome last week, I received the most enjoyable safety briefing ever! Why, you ask? Because the male flight attendent giving the briefing had a sexy Italian accent...What is it about spoken Italian that is so sexy? I love it! Everything Italians say seems so passionate! Even when they are speaking English it sounds good! Here was my favorite part of the briefing...I will try to type it in Italian dialect...I hope you get the point...Best if read outloud. ;-)Ifa we experience a suddena loss of cabina pressure, a maska willa dropa from the ceiling. (Wait for it) Pulla the maska to your moutha and breathe deeply...Okay, he really said, "breathe normally," but I was breathing deeply. I practically had to fan myself ...Pull the mask to your mouth??? Who says that? An Italian man mindful of Italians sex symbol status around the world who is willing to make female passengers swoon in order to keep the legend alive...Hasta luego or should I say "Arrivederci!"
"Think of it as a pilgrimage." That's what Sister Christina Marie said to us when we picked up our tickets from Pontifical North American College for Christmas Eve Mass at St Peter's...She suggested we show up four hours before the 10pm service and get in line to ensure we would get seats. We promised Eight that we would spend Christmas in Rome this year since he made his First Holy Communion in June. We wanted to attend midnight mass at the Vatican, so I emailed the US Bishop's office back in October to request tickets for the mass. First, you must request tickets, then you have to show up the morning of the 22nd to pick them up...first come, first servve...I tried to pin down Sister Regina Marie on just what our chances were to actually get tickets...She wrote that we would just have to leave it in the "hands of God," to which I replied, "Amen, Sister!" I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being able to write that to a real Sister! Well, by the grace of God, we were able to pick up tickets. The college received even less than they were expecting and were out of tickets by 9am. It rained ALL day, so we chilled out in the hotel, keeping an eye out for crowds on the live webcam in St Peter's Square. We left the hotel around 5:15pm and took a taxi straight to St Peter's for our three hour wait in the rain. We made friends in line, which helped pass the time until they started security screening and we made our way into the Basilica.
Once inside and seated, we still had over an hour to wait. We amused ourselves by perusing the 70 page program, seeing if we could identify all the different languages printed therein. Then we talked to some nuns-in-training from the States who were seated behind us. Finally, we heard music start to play and Eight realized it was coming from behind us, way up high. St Peter's Basilica is deceptively large. According to our tour guide, the Statue of Liberty could fit inside the dome and still have room to spare. Look at the two photos below to get a feel for the proportion. See the little specks in the center window in the first picture? Those are musicians!! You can see it a little better when I zoomed in for the second pic...The place is just huge...They even have stadium style lighting...
