Christmas Eve 2010.
I found myself wide awake at 2:00 AM this morning, so I took a quick walk around the area, hoping to stroll through the Vatican during the peace and quiet, but, much to my surprise, the Vatican shuts down and--literally--locks its gates at night! Perhaps the "country" was open had I walked around to the other side (what a strange thing to say), but I didn't feel like venturing that far in the cold and drizzle.
One thing that struck me, symbolically, was a single white dove flying over St. Peter's Basilica all by himself; he would soar into the wind, then float back a bit, all the while hovering over the dome of the basilica. In some ways, it felt very much as if the dove was doing the bird equivalent of my human stroll. Unfortunately, he was a bit too far off to photograph with my camera, but it would have been an incredible picture or video if I could have recorded it.
The group met in the morning, and we went through the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Forum and the Colosseum before lunch. Seeing the basilica, in particular, was amazing on Christmas Eve morning, as they were busily putting the finishing touches on it for that night's ceremony; we were there but a scant twelve hours before the show went live.
In the afternoon, we went on a walk to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona (Christmas Market) and the Spanish Steps; unfortunately, it was raining, heavily, the whole time we were walking, so it was hard to take it in and enjoy. I certainly don't want to complain about something as wonderful as walking about Rome, and in fact the prior week the cold had been so severe that the fountains froze over, so in hindsight this was preferable, yet it did seem too bad that the days immediately before, and the days immediately after, were either dry, or worst case carried with them very light rain.
The Christmas market at Piazza Navona was a bit disappointing compared to, say, the markets in Germany. The German markets are more quaint and pleasantly decorated, while the Italian markets were more commercial, selling cheaper toys and trinkets than the German goods. As much as I hate the German Gluewein, I will drink a glass of it as part of the festivities, but there is no corresponding thing in Italy.
Our group dinner was held this evening (Christmas Eve), and I sat with a wonderful Catholic family of five: A husband, a wife, a son just starting college and majoring in Business, another son just starting high school, and a strikingly beautiful and brilliant young woman who was a senior in college, majoring in Math and Theology (along that line I recommended Bernard Haisch's "The Purpose-Guided Universe" to her). I have to ask: Where were these young women when I was in my early 20's? Seriously, it is a different crowd than when I was that age, much more urbane, cerebral and spiritual than what I knew in college and early adulthood.
After dinner, I walked over to the Vatican with a senior woman to watch (on an outside TV screen) the mass from St. Peter's Basilica. It was cool and damp, but the rain had subsided to the point I could easily tolerate it without a jacket or an umbrella, and I stood there for an hour with no discomfort.
This tour is pleasant, though the pace is, perhaps, a bit slow for me, in that I enjoyed the previous tempo of the trip five years prior: The drives were a bit longer, not to mention that in the same number of days we included a trip back down to Pompei, Naples and Capri, something we will not be seeing on this trip. Still, it is far, far better this time without the food poisoning or whatever it was that knocked me down five years ago!
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