Saw Pope and Colosseum

We got up at 6 am, so we could dress, eat breakfast, and take the Metro to St Peter's Square before 8 am. We got there about 7:35 and thought we might be standing for a long time because the crowds were already so big, and they kept streaming in. But when they opened up the square at 8 am to let people in, they opened a spot fairly close to us, and we actually got quite a good seat, more or less in the middle of the seats. There was a Swiss guard at the end of the row, before they opened it up for us, and a lot of people ended up behind us. That photo is of the people behind us - the seating narrows at the cross aisle and ceases at the obelisk.- everyone to the back and side of that was standing.
Mass started about 10:30 (thank goodness we were seated). There was a good order of service for the Mass, with English, Italian and Latin in it, so we could follow along. They managed to serve Communion to everyone, but absolutely refused to put the wafer in people's hands and would only place it on the tongue, so Aidan declined to go up for it. Then Pope Benedict went upstairs to give the Easter blessing. It was all finished about 12:30, then those thousands of people streamed out of St Peter's.

We crossed the Tiber River on the Ponte Angelo, then walked until the crowds had thinned a little, found a pizzeria and stopped for lunch (plus mineral water and pop - we were thirsty!)

Then we found our way to the Piazza Navona. It has 3 big fountains - Fountain of Neptune was the first we saw, then Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, with lots of figures and an obelisk (following photo is of one of the rivers, and the base of the obelisk), and another fountain I don't know the name of. Also a church, and 2 thousand artists - selling original art, prints, doing caricatures or charcoal sketches of people. Surrounded by cafes. It was a fun place to visit.

Next we went to the Pantheon, which although "hands down the most masterful architectural feat of ancient Rome" "almost perfectly preserved" - doesn't photograph well. It is a lovely space to be in (love the ceiling dome, marble floor and walls, open hole in the ceiling). But with thousands of people milling around, and no windows (except that hole in the ceiling) it's tricky to get a good picture. Was enjoyable anyway.

We passed through Piazza della Minerva with it's cool elephant supporting an Egyptian obelisk (Rome has 13 obelisks and we saw at least 3 today - St Peter's, Piazza Navona and Piazza della Minerva.)

On our next little trek, on the busiest and noisiest street in Rome, Aidan's phone rang - her parents were making their Easter call. She asked them to call back in 10 minutes, and we found a quiet spot so she could carry on a conversation. Then we carried on, past the archeological digs, past the forum, etc. to the Colosseum and we finally got to tour it! In order to skip some of the line we went with an audio guide which gave us odd bits of information about the Colosseum. We saw the Colosseum cat (in the middle of the arena first, and chowing down on some high end cat food later). We toured the Colosseum inside and out.

After getting up at 6 am, walking miles and miles from one end of Rome to the other, dealing with thousands and thousands of other tourists, mostly in the same place at the same time as us, and walking up steps in the Colusseum meant for younger and fitter people than me, we found the elevator for disabled and elderly people to get down again. Then we took the Metro the one stop home (I'm glad that's all it was because sardines are more loosely packed). Finding out the restaurant we had planned to go to for dinner was closed on Easter Sunday, we picked up our daily canolli from the bakery, had a sandwich in the hotel bar, and spent a quiet evening in. Tomorrow morning the plan is to do nothing. We're both looking forward to it.