Day 65 (5/25/11)

Today we have an audience with the Pope so we got up bright and early to head out to the Vatican. When we got there it turned out that the audience was outside in the square, which was at the same time cool since the space is great but awful because we were all in jeans in the crazy heat with the sun directly above us. After a bit of waiting around the Popemobile finally arrived (sans Tupperware lid) and drove around the where we were sitting for a little while (we were like ten feet away!). After an introduction there was a reading done by a series of Cardinals in all kinds of languages, and then the Pope spoke for a while. Next they introduced all of the groups that were in attendance and the Pope spoke to each set in their language! We though it was funny that his French was pretty great and had the right accent but his English had a pretty heavy German accent to it. Once that was done he blessed us and told us that it applied to friends and family, so you’re welcome!
Once the ceremony was over we took the bus back home to the apartment, ran to the store for a few things for dinner tonight, and went to the studio. We worked for a little while before meeting with them to show the various models we had made over the past week. They seemed pretty excited about what we had so now it is pretty much go time! Once we finished we decided gelato was in order, so we set off for Frigidarium again! This time I had tiramisu and another specialty flavor that tasted like a milkshake with giant fudge chunks in it; amazing yet again! After that we came back to the studio, pretended to do work, and set off to try to see Villa Giulia again.
This time we took a mini bus out, which was a blast because the size makes every little bump we hit quite an event, and the route took us through back streets and around some precarious corners. When we finally got there we walked through the gardens a little bit before finally arriving at the Villa. Of course, the time we found turned out to be an hour off, so it was closed. So, dejected and annoyed, we hopped back on the bus (we got on at the first stop so we had seats the whole way home) and slept until returning to Trastevere.
For dinner Brian and I made sandwiches with sausage, peppers, onion, and hash browns (with odd oatmeal consistency), which were amazing and incredibly filling! After finishing that I worked on the blog and studied some Italian before heading off to bed.