The next day (Monday--it's near impossible to keep track of the days) we decided to go to the Mercato Centrale, which I'm 99.99% sure means Central Market. (I don't say 100% because I didn't actually look it up on Google Translate or a dictionary or anything like that, I just used my knowledge of Spanish to figure it out. I am pretty darn certain that I got it right, though.) The Mercato Centrale is a short walk away from our apartment, so after a late start in the morning we headed over there just to take a look around. Just so you know, the Mercato Centrale is the market that I described going to in my last post that I said was something like La Boqueria in Barcelona. After walking around a bit we discovered that it had a second floor which was entirely made up of restaurants, all of which smelled DELICIOUS. That took care of lunch. We ended up going up to third floor and eating up there, which was really fun because we got a view of both the floor directly below us with all the other restaurants and the main floor beneath that with the markets. Unfortunately, my brother wasn't feeling well again, so he and my mom headed home while the rest of us went to the Museo Nove Cento, or Museum of the 1900s. (Those of you who are familiar with Romance languages will probably notice that "nove cento" actually translates directly to 900s, not 1900s. This is because as far as we can tell, in Italian when talking about a particular century one mentions solely the century and not the millenium in which it took place. Kind of, I suppose, like how we say the '60s or '70s. We're not entirely sure of this, but we noticed it both here and in Venice with its Museo Settecento.) Anyway, that felt like quite the antidote to the so-so and not at ALL contemporary art of the Lu.C.C.A. museum. I enjoyed the Nove Cento a lot. Eventually we made our way home, only to find that my mom and brother weren't there. We had known that they were going to go across the city to try to get my brother on a baseball team, but we had assumed that they were going to get back before we did. We ended up waiting for a few hours before they returned bearing the news that Nick would be able to play the next day and talk to the president of the team to see if he could stay. Who knew that Florence, Italy had a peewee baseball league? Eventually we headed out for a late dinner and thus ended the one and only Monday, March 16, 2015.
The next day was Pat and Shirley's last day with us in Florence! We stayed home for most of the morning and then went out for lunch, after which we all just went home again and they packed up and left. Fortunately it wasn't such a sad parting because although it was their last day in Florence we were going to see them the next day! Which was going to be a pretty once in a lifetime opportunity, I might add. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing pretty much nothing, and then we all got into the car and started driving to the baseball field for my brother's practice. We ended up being really early (oh well) but we all stuck around to see my brother start off. He was definitely happy to be playing baseball again, that's for sure. After a little while I headed off with my dad to go running (I'm missing track season this year, so I'm being sure to run as often as possible so as not to fall behind for next year, when I intend to kick butt and win another first place in the 100m dash, not to mention long jump), and then we headed back early to see my brother play some more. We were not disappointed. The coaches were having them do some sort of batting practice in which they pitched to them underhand from the side and the kids would try to hit the ball, and my brother was almost batting 1000! Almost. He was probably hitting at least 80% of the pitches, if not more. Eventually when practice ended (half an hour late, I might add) Nick told us that after he finished batting, one of the kids who spoke fluent English came up to him and said, "You're going to bring us to the championships!" I think that totally made Nick's day. ;-)
All right, and now comes the day that you've all been waiting for.... drumroll please... the once in a lifetime opportunity... the day where... WE SAW THE POPE!!!! *echo* *echo* *echo*
First of all, I should say that I'm not actually Catholic. I mean, my paternal grandfather was. In fact he was in seminary school before he decided to become a doctor. No one really knows why (except my grandmother) but he left school and the Church in his 20s, long before my father was born. We think it's because he didn't like the Church's racism. And my mom was Catholic, too. Just long enough to have her Confirmation, in fact, although I don't know how much good it did since she left right afterwards. She was the same age as I am now, give or take a year. But as you can see, aside from celebrating Christmas every year, the religion kind of died out in my family before it could reach me. I don't think there really is an exact word to define my beliefs on religion, although I guess the closest word would be agnostic: I don't identify myself with any particular religion, but I'm also not an atheist; that is, I believe completely in science as an explanation for our existance, but I also feel that there is something more to the human consciousness. This may be explainable in some way, or it may not, and religion may have nothing to do with any of it. I suppose it is a belief less in the possibility of some version of God and more in the complexity of the human spirit, if that makes any sense. Anyway, the main point is that I'm far from being Catholic. But still, I gotta say, Pope Francis is one respectable person. I don't even have to be Catholic to appreciate that. And although I still disagree with many of the Catholic Church's viewpoints, he is definitely taking monumental steps that have never been taken by the Church before. Of course, some of them aren't going as far as I feel that they should go in the future, but it's a start, and a good one at that. Anyway, I was pretty excited to see him speak.
That morning we got up really early, like 6 in the morning. Which never would have been a problem had we been back home, but which was a MAJOR jam in the gears of our getting out of the house that morning. (That was a really bad metaphor, sorry.) Our parents woke us up and turned the lights on, and my brother had his "tired angry face" on, which is basically the biggest scowl you could possibly imagine. The first thing that came out of his mouth was, "I don't wanna see the Pope! I want to go back to bed!" and then he shoved his face into his pillow. It was not an auspicious start.
It took about three or four tries to get Nick out of bed, and even then he would stop whatever he was doing about every five minutes to whine and say, "I don't--wanna--SEE THE--POPE!!!!" Luckily we had prepared ourselves for such roadblocks by leaving our clothes, food, and backpacks out and ready the previous night, so we got out of the house in time and walked to the train station, which was but a few blocks away. We were timed perfectly, because we had just finished buying pastries for me and my brother when the train arrived and we hopped on. We then sat in the train for the next hour and a half and when we arrived to Rome hopped off and headed for the Vatican. I would like to add that the last time I was in Rome I was but 3 years old, so all I have is a few vague memories of the Colosseum and stuff. It wall very exciting. After we got off the train we hopped on the metro, which we took to a stop just a few blocks away from the Vatican. It was pretty crazy because everybody was heading in the exact same direction, towards the Vatican. Anyone who was going somewhere else was like a salmon swimming upstream (now that's a much better metaphor), so I figured we were going in the right direction. Finally we arrived at the gates and got through security to find ourself swept into a sea of humanity.
I like that phrase. "Sea of humanity." Because really there's no other way to describe it. A giant open space filled to the brim with people. After making contact with Pat and Shirley (did I mention that we were meeting up with them?) we discovered that in fact to get to our seats we needed tickets. Except the reservations were in Pat's name, so we needed him to get the tickets. And when he and Shirley had arrived at eight in the morning, they had been told that they didn't need them... basically we had no way to get to out seats, because at that point it seemed that even people with tickets weren't being allowed in and we didn't even have those. In the end we just stood in one of the aisles between the rows and tried to watch from there. It was pretty crazy, especially when the Pope passed by in his car, because everyone around us was standing on their chairs and we couldn't see a thing! Luckily my brother went on my dad's shoulders, though, and he took pictures for the rest of us. After the Pope passed by a bunch of people cleared out so we got to have seats for the rest of the speech. And thank goodness, too! Not only did the Pope speak in Italian, but it was also translated into about eight other languages! Basically it was about the value of children and how we make everyone's lives better ;D and we're symbollic of people's relationships with God, etc. I thought it was very nice.
After the Pope, we met up with Pat and Shirley, walked around Rome and went out to lunch, which was very delicious. Then we said goodbye to Pat and Shirley (FOR A WHOLE FOUR MONTHS! NOOOOOOO!) and headed to the Sistine Chapel! I was very excited because I have in recent weeks become a HUMONGOUS fan of Michelangelo. We got there and the line stretched all the way around the block. It was insane. Thankfully, my mom had gotten us reservations ahead of time, and we got to skip that entire line! We ended up going not only to the Sistine Chapel, but also a few museums and stuff. The Chapel was my favorite part by far, though. It's pretty amazing how far artists went from the Gothic period to the Renaissance. Everything was immensely detailed and realistic.
After the Sistine Chapel we headed towards the train station again to get back home. I must admit I am still very behind on posting (the Vatican was over a week ago) but I think I'm going to end my post here and catch up on another day, because I am extremely brain tired right now because I spent almost all day writing my first ever play. So check in over the next few days, guys, to hear more about our adventures in Florence! (And believe me, you're gonna wanna hear it, 'cause we have some pretty exciting stories which include sandwiches the size of my head, a counterfeit 20 Euro bill, the "Medieval Manhattan," and a flat upside down world in which the Americas don't exist. Enticed any? ;D)
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