Sam comes to visit/Palm Sunday at the Vatican/EARTHQUAKES!! 4/3

The weekend after spring break, Sam came to visit with his friend Danny from Prague.  They came on Friday morning and I knew there was a lot to show them, so we started right away on the site seeing.  I brought them to the Vatican first and showed them the Basilica.  Since Easter was the next weekend, it was starting to get busy.  After seeing the Basilica and the Catacombs, we went to the Vatican Museum.  I had never been either, so I was excited to see the Sistine Chapel.  The Museum is HUGE.  I couldn't believe how much stuff was in there.  They have a really cool Egyptian exhibit and many things from ancient Rome.  The ceilings were all decorated lavishly and the walls were full of paintings and frescos.  They put the Sistine Chapel at the end so that you have to go through the whole thing before seeing it.  I must admit, I thought it was going to look a lot different.  I thought it was a brightly lit long hallway but it is a dark rectangular room.  It was still very amazing to see though.  Michelangelo must have had a stiff neck for years after painting it!  

I kept the boys moving and we made our way over to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.  We walked over to the Pantheon but mass was going on so we couldn't see the inside.  After a full day of sites, we headed back to rest up for the next day.  

Saturday morning I showed them the Colosseum and Palatine hill.  We spent quite a few hours in there because there is so much to see.  I brought them to see my school and to my favorite pizza place for lunch.  After lunch, we were all pretty tired so we headed back to take a nap.  I decided to cook for the boys after they were done napping and I think we had enough food to feed 10 so they were stuffed. 

Sunday was the big day.  My roommate Lindsay has connections at the Vatican so she got us tickets to go to Palm Sunday at the Vatican and Pope Bennedetto was saying mass!  Sam and I went and bought some Rosaries so that we could have them blessed and we got some olive branches because they use those instead of palms here.  The mass was 2 hours long but we loved it because it was so beautiful out and we were at the Vatican!  The entire mass was in Italian so poor Sam didn't have a clue what was going on.  I also was lost at times because they were using many words that weren't in my vocabulary.  

After mass we rushed back to the apartment and got ready to go to the Roma soccer game!  I had never been to a game before and I knew  I wouldn't feel immersed in the culture enough if I didn't attend at least one game.  We of course were extremely late for the game, but it turns out that we had the wrong time for the game and we were right on time.  The game was extremely fun and entertaining.  We came back and made a great dinner.  Sam and Danny had to leave my house around 4:30 am so they went to bed early.  I stayed up until about 2:30am studying for an exam and then went to bed.  At 3:30am the earthquake happened.  It woke us up from our sleep and lasted around 30 seconds.  We weren't sure what was going on because none of us had been in an earthquake before.  Most people in my apartment building were running out on the streets, but we weren't sure what to do so we just went to bed because we had to be up in a half hour for Sam to leave.  

The next few days were one earthquake after another.  The next few were a little scarier because I actually knew what was happening.  Sarah got here on Tuesday and she has felt two so far.  I feel so terrible for all those people in L'Aquila who have lost their homes and their lives.  Our school collected a ton of canned goods and blankets for the homeless there.  We should all keep them in our prayers.