Sunday, January 10, 2010

Visiting the Pope

When in Rome, it’s always great fun to visit the Vatican.

Vatican City is huge, and it’s always crowded with people, but it is spectacular, whatever religion you may be:


Janet at St Peters

Even after the Christmas Mass ugliness with the crazy lady, St Peters is open, and winter is a great time to visit Rome because there are no crowds, and the weather is nice and warm.


Inside St. Peters

Years ago, you could meet the Pope in-person during a weekly Mass, but they have stopped this practice and you can only see His Holiness on Sundays.

If you visit on Sunday, stay until noon, when the pope appears in his apartment window and blesses the crowd:


The Popes Sunday Blessing

The blessing was in Latin, so I did not understand much, but it never hurts to get blessed by a Pope.

This German Pope was an ex-Nazi and a member of Hitler youth in his younger years:


Pope Benedict in his spiffy Nazi uniform

The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was also the son of a Nazi:


Sieg heil – The Governator salutes you

Here are some of our photos so far from sunny Rome.