What up! It’s your favorite (and only) Electrical Engineer of the group, Charles Augustine. Today was a big day for us, and it included a lot of walking (12 Miles by my count!). Just after a quick breakfast, we left our hotel bright and early at 7:45 and walked over to the Vatican for the pope’s weekly audience.

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The Pope talked for a short while and then other people translated everything he said into about nine languages (which may be an exaggeration, but it sure felt like a ton). I tried my best to snap a picture of Il Papa as he walked into the room, but all I could manage to capture was a sea of phone screens being held up, which is far less interesting so I didn’t include it.

After the audience with the Pope, we toured St. Peter’s Basilica which was, in a word, incredible. Of course, as it is for most things like this, pictures don’t come close to doing it justice. It is unbelievably massive, and very beautifully decorated with paintings and statues.

By far the highlight of the day for me was climbing the 551 steps up the basilica and looking out onto the city. The climb was tough as the stairs were steep and claustrophobic, but the view was entirely worth it. The next few photos highlight how small the steps were the for the majority of the climb.

After the long, sweaty climb we were treated to this gorgeous 360^o panoramic view of the city.

After the basilica, we went on a guided tour of the Necropolis, which is the area under the Basilica. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in there, so you’ll just have to trust me that it’s pretty darn cool. Under the Basilica there is the ancient Roman Necropolis, which was a massive cemetery (of sorts), where the wealthy Romans would build mausoleums to bury their dead and keep in touch with them in the afterlife. It was buried when Constantine (the first Christian Emperor) decided to build a Basilica in honor of St. Peter, in the location of the current Basilica. He took the top off the Vatican hill and used the dirt to cover the Necropolis and flatten the area. In later years, it was discovered that the tomb of St. Peter himself was buried along with the Necropolis and was re-discovered in the 1940s when excavations began under Pope Pius XII.

After we finished at the Vatican, we had our second (and final) Italian lesson. Today’s focus was on how to order (wine) at Italian bars and how to shop at Roman grocery stores. We took a short field trip in the middle of class and bought some pastries from the shop on the street below, but apparently, it wouldn’t have been appropriate to order some wine. Lame. All in all, this day has been great. Every day is getting better than the last, and I don’t expect this trend to end any time soon.

 

See you soon Mom!!

-Charles

 

 

Side note- I’ve taken it upon myself to document the trip through portraits of Seagulls. Here are a few of my favorites so far.