when skies are grey : Day #37 in Orvieto (Rome weekend)

March 31, 2013 – Sunday

Buona Pasqua! Happy Easter! The time change threw us off a bit this morning so we were a little bit late to leave Heather’s (well, the time change AND we took forever to get ready). Jon, Becky, and I left to go to the train station so we could see the Pope’s blessing at St. Peter’s Basillica at noon. Unfortunately, we just missed the train that we needed to we had to wait for another train to come at 11:56 – 4 minutes before we wanted to be there! So we were a little bit late and it was tricky to get through the crowd to a place where we could even catch a glimpse of the pope. We turned the corner and then saw the pope wave, and then turn around and leave. Becky got a picture of his back, though! We also got to hear his voice over the speaker (or whatever you call that thing) as we were walking into the piazza so I can say that I heard PART of his blessing and I saw him, even if it was right before he left!

The crowds were crazy. I know I was just complaining about the Colosseum crowds yesterday, but those were nothing compared to this crowd. It was actually a little bit scary at times because there were soooo many people and it was difficult to stay together and walk. I was on a mission to find/buy one of the little flags that everyone was wearing. It was a yellow flag with the pope’s face on it and I was determined to find one as a souvenir, but we couldn’t find them! They must have been selling them before the mass/blessing. I’ll have to go back again and buy a postcard with Papa Francesco’s face or something on it. We walked around for a little while but the crowds were too crazy and there weren’t many pizza places open since it was Easter, of course. I was happy we went but once again, I was happy to get out of the crowd. We made our way back to Heather’s, stopping to get some pizza at a place on the way back. It was delicious – just spinach and cheese. Becky and I were still really tired for some reason so we kind of just lounged around forever until dinnertime. DINNER WAS DELICIOUS. Heather made all sorts of wonderful things including roasted pepper bruschetta, some mushroom tart thing, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, sausage, pork, beans, the best salad ever, and a strawberry chocolate thing for dessert. I’m sure all of those have real names but anyways, it was all so delicious and Becky and I were totally stuffed by the end. Soon it was 9pm and we had to call a taxi to get to the train station.

When we arrived at Roma Termini, we stood in front of the departure board for a few frantic minutes because we didn’t see a train leaving for Firenze at 9:50pm – which is what the travel agent said would be running. So we went to the ticket counter where the guy told us “that train doesn’t run on Saturdays.” Which seemed useless to me because it was Sunday, not Saturday. But anyways… we had to buy new tickets for a train that was leaving an hour later and would stop in Orvieto at 12:11am. That was a problem, though, because the last bus from the bottom of Orvieto to the top was at midnight and we didn’t want to walk up at night because we weren’t exactly sure how to get there! We knew how to walk all the walk around Orvieto and get up, but that would’ve taken us like 45 minutes or more, assuming we didn’t get lost in the dark. After buying our new tickets, we tried calling Prof. Doll on my phone but it didn’t seem to work, so we tried to use like 3 different pay phones (neither of us had used a pay phone before and it was a serious struggle – way more difficult than it should’ve been!). We managed to talk to Prof. Doll for like half a minute to tell him when we would arrive in Orvieto but then it cut off and we were out of money! I tried to call Heather but it made some weird beeping noise and then an automated Italian voice came on which made me think that it didn’t work (I was about to chuck my phone on the ground at this point). But THANKFULLY Heather called me back! We asked her if she could call Prof. Doll and ask him if he could pick us up at the station, gave her his number, and then Becky and I got on our train. She called back to say that either Prof. Doll would pick us up or someone we knew would be there (I assumed it would be Alessandro or Hannah). I seriously almost cried, I was so happy. So things were looking up and we took our seats on the train. Unfortunately, we had to sit next to three annoying men on the train ride to Orvieto but thankfully it was only about an hour train ride and we tried to ignore them. Thank God for headphones because we just pretended not to hear them for most of the ride. My go-to phrase, “No parlo italiano” didn’t seem to work!

Soon it was 12:11 and we rushed off the train to see Prof. Doll waiting for us!!!!!!! It was such a relief to see him there! We were beyond grateful to be off that train and in a car, on the way up to the monastery. We told Prof. Doll all about our trip and thanked him a million times for picking us up. We made it to the monastery and the moment we walked onto the floor, our friends came out of their rooms to greet and hug us (whenever we are reunited it feels like a huge reunion – because it’s weird to spend every weekday minute together and then be apart on the weekends. So long story short, it’s a big reunion). I’m pretty sure I hugged little Laura for like 2 minutes straight because I was so happy to see her and we told them about our trip and heard about their weekend. Soon it was past 1am and Becky and I went into our room, where we found notes from our friends that said, “Welcome home! We missed you!” Seriously, they’re so sweet. Becky and I unpacked and we continued to talk about how great the weekend was, how we were happy to be off that train, and how we didn’t want to get up early for class on Monday!