A friend from home came to visit, and it was my turn to play tour guide. As most of my roommates would agree, a Rome-in-a-day extravaganza is not as appealing as one may think after experiencing the easygoing mentality in Cortona. And the thought of giving such a historical city justice only made me wish I had my professor, a living guidebook as we like to call him, by our side during the adventure.
Regardless of my desires, Rome-in-a-day was a must. Little did we know of the surprise that was to come to which no guidebook would be necessary.
Arriving with the sun high and tourists abounding, I decided why not start with the most overwhelming area. We headed toward St. Peter’s Basilica in hopes of sifting through the crowds to enter. From afar it looked as though the lines were snaking around every inch of the square, and soon we found ourselves surrounded by over 100,000 other foreigners. Imagine, if you will, all of Tiger Stadium cheering outside of St. Peter’s, and you get a slight image of what I am describing. Except, of course, the people who swarmed around us came from places I had never heard of and spoke in languages I did not know existed. They were also much less intoxicated.
I am sure you can guess what was about to occur. That’s right, the pope would be addressing the crowd in almost 10 minutes. You can only imagine what this meant to me, since I grew up Catholic. I had dreaded a trip to Rome only to find that I was about to physically see and hear the pope himself speaking from Vatican City. Il papa Benedetto XVI, a gentle German man with a power the people so easily and willingly give to him, entered the scene waving his arms through the air as tears welled in my eyes.
Although he stood in a window high above us appearing tiny from our stance, his voice echoed through the square, and I felt comfort in his words. He spoke in seven languages including French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, English, Italian and German, and people scattered throughout the crowds cheered as he shifted from one to the next.
Maybe it was the peaceful words he spoke or simply the atmosphere of enthusiasm and joy that surrounded me but I knew that moment was irreplaceable.
This event put our afternoon at ease as we felt we had seen a part of Rome that is rare to the typical tourist. And I realized that, indeed, Rome-in-a-day can be done. It was enjoyable and, ironically, relaxing. The vitality of the diverse crowds, which normally I ridicule because of my dislike for the “tourist” mentality, made me appreciate the accumulation of cultures sharing a commonality, a link between our differences.
It made me value the liveliness of the eternal city, its vast magnificence and the ability to share it with a dear friend who brought comfort from home, if only for a short while.
 
Holly enjoys receiving postcards. Contact her at [email protected]