an afternoon with the pope.

even though i'm not a catholic, it didn't matter...watching the pope give his weekly message to the spectator's in st. peter's square was one of the coolest experiences i had while in rome!

the square was covered with a sea of onlookers, some of which i'm sure traveled thousands of miles for these twenty precious minutes. when the pope first got up, he raised his arms high to the crowd, in which we roared with applause. he then spoke to us in latin, mixing it up with a little bit of singing.  and, might i add, he's got some killer pipes!

near the end is when he prayed for all the people. not only in latin, but in italian, english, german, polish, and a slew of other languages. every prayer was preceded by an applause {and occasional drum beating} from the people who spoke that language.

once he was done, it was fun to parade and dance around as crowds sang praises in their native tongue. if you're going to rome, you must attend this. it occurs every wednesday at noon.