**An addendum to yesterday's blog: It managed to slip my mind that on arriving at Il Vaticano, we saw that entrance to the Piazza was closed for some kind of gathering. It turned out to be none other than Pope Benedict himself delivering mass to some group of people clearly more important than us. Having successfully seen the Pope in the "Popemobile" and heard the opening to mass in at least four languages, we felt we could call our first drop-in to see old Papa Benny quite a success. (Although our current Il Papa is mildly overshadowed by the buzz around his predecessor's beatification. We are on the search for beatification toilet paper, and all evidence suggests that the find can't be far off.)
Ma per tornare a oggi, today, all of Roma festeggia, celebrates, Festa della Repubblica, the anniversay of the Italian vote of universal suffrage in 1946 that chose a republic as the post-fascist, post-war form of Italian government. The main feature of the day, aside from the entire city being off school and work, is a parata militare, military parade. We made our way to the headwaters of the parade (we think) at Piazza Venezia, in front of the infamous, massive, and worrisomely bleached (I suspect an act of terrorism) Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emmanuel II, or, colloquially, la torta nuziale, the wedding cake. The parade unsurprisingly ran on what we shall henceforth dub "Italian time" or "ora italiana." After a long wait amidst pushing Italians, hairy-armpitted picture takers, and confused tourists, we were rewarded with several marching bands, military marchers, and many colorful and apparently significant flags. Also, the military parade finally inspired me, for the first time in 18 years, to look up the significance to the Swiss Guards' being attired like the love children of a clown and one of the guys from Candyland. I didn't turn up much of a legitimate excuse, but I found this enlightening quotation from the official Il Vaticano webpage on the Guards: "At this point we might easily begin to wonder... if the dress has remained unaltered over the centuries and also whether the attractive attire that they wear today can be traced back to a designer...It is mainly thanks to Commandant Jules Repond (1910-1921), who was gifted with an exceptionally fine taste for colours and shapes, that the Swiss Guards wear such fine dress today. After much study and research and drawing inspiration from Raffaello's frescoes, he abolished all types of hats and introduced the simple beret worn today, which bears the soldier's grade." (Citation: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/swiss_guard/swissguard/divisa_en.htm). In all seriousness, however, I did learn that the guards wear Medici colors and their impeccable fashion sense was inspired by the painting of Raffaello, and possibly Michelangelo.
Unfortunately, we had to depart the parata early in order to reveal our true American colors. Colors that did, in fact, run today, as we had to get from Piazza Venezia to Il Vaticano by 12:30. Since Loyola University is so prestigious and all of us are so famous as individuals, we managed to scrape up a contact with a little NYC-based journalism project known as The Today Show. Two long-time denizens of The Today Show, Al Roker and Matt Lauer, came to Roma today to interview Il Papa (no word on whether they took a drive in the Popemobile). As one of our own illustrious Loyola almuni now produces for the show, as ecidenced by the fact that she wears the same fetching hat as Al, Matt, and several others of the crew, we got the privilege of going up close to see the fateful words of their groundbreaking reporting recorded, to fight girls from Jersey to wave at the camera, and, oh yeah, to shake Al Roker's hand. It's no big deal.
After becoming complete celebrities, and accompanying Dr. Sebastion on a harrowing gelato run, we returned to the Collegio and, as yesterday, engaged in widespread studious activities (excpet that this time it's raining and we really did). Tomorrow, we begin something called 'class.' Thus, as a true Roman, except probably not at all, I ventured to the gardens above Piazza del Popolo with my readings downloaded on my laptop and my hipster sketchbook at my side and enjoyed a leisurely yet productive afternoon until the threat of rain chased me back to the Collegio.
Now, as I type, it nears 6 PM, and I sense that the rest of this dayy will be occupied by food. If the rain lets up, we shall stroll to Trevi and past to see what other nighttime sights glow and twinkle as though they are lit by a thousand Tinkerbells.
On another note, over the last two days I have witnessed pioneers braving the roaring Tiber on both rowing shells and kayaks, and hope to follow in their wakes soon if it is at all possible.
On a final note for the day, in rain or shine, crowd or siesta, stench or perfume, night or day, Roma is constantly one of le piu belle citta nel monde.
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