I've Got the Golden (Papal) Ticket

This morning was the Papal Audience at St. Peter's Basilica and I was expecting a mob scene in the square because of the one I went to with la mia famiglia in 2000. Back then, there were chairs everywhere and JP II drove around a little bit in his fancy pope mobile and blessed the thousands of us who were there. I guess each pope has a different blessing style because Benny XVI had us in a large auditorium behind the Basilica which has a creep statue of Jesus (with what looked like either branches or the dead souls from that river in Hercules) behind him. Benny just kind of walked out onto the stage senza pope mobile (I was disappointed at this) but the crowd still went wild which was hilarious. There was so much love and energy going around with people screaming when he called their group and then singing him little songs, I'm pretty sure I got a Papal high, because I still have a feeling of euphoria. Look closely at this next photo, do you see his bright red shoes? He looks fresh right? White is definitely his color.

A different bishop would get up to say little prayer in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish (!) and they called out each group that was there and we all went crazy screaming when they called AUR. Then Benny would say a little snippet about St. Bonaventure (maybe he was the saint of the day or something) and then bless us and our religious objects. (Aunt Mary, if you're reading this the only religious object I had with me was the necklace of the Holy Spirit as a dove you gave me for my Confirmation, so now it has a Papal Blessing on it, sweet!) There was also a little orchestra that would play different songs in between. Then Il Papa got up and we all sang Our Father in Latin (and by sing I mean stammered through, Latin is not easy)and it was over.

When we got back out into the square my friend went to send some postcards because the Vatican City mail or way more reliable than Rome's mail. And what should happen but a little changing of the Swiss Guard!? (And I think you know by now I'm kind of obsessed with them and I want to see them fight in the worst way)So here are some pictures of that, unfortunately no one tried to attack the pope and there were no ninjas in sight, so the fight scene has yet to happen.