Mario, Luigi, The Turtles...

...back from Italy! Glorious (extended) weekend, indeed. We tore up the place, what can I say. Florence was absolutely beautiful...seeing Michaelangelo's "David" was probably worth the trip itself. We then spent two days in Rome, where we saw the Pope, no big deal. First we went to the Vatican museum, which boasts a ridiculously expansive collection of artwork. Makes me wonder how such wealth has accumulated in an institution that preaches almsgiving...but I won't get into that haha..We wanted to see St. Peter's Basilica, but for some reason no one was being let in, so what else do we do but join in the line. At 3:30 the crowd started pouring in, and we found out there was a pre-Advent celebration. The ceremony consisted of a multitude of Latin hymns and a homily from the Pope. I found it slightly awkward that a bunch of mostly tween girls near the aisle were snapping as many pictures as possible as the Pope walked by, standing on their chairs. You would have thought it was the Jonas Bros rollin' in. All in all, I had a great, grand, wonderful weekend, and it was lovely to spend the holiday with Mary, Abbey, and Molly!