Palm Sunday was the last day that I spent in Rome, and where is a better place to spend it than in Vatican City in St. Peter’s Square.  At 8:30am I made my way through the crowds of people and into the square.  Though it was all in Italian, it wasn’t impossible to follow the mass along, though I do feel like it was slightly different from a regular mass.

Palms were being handed out as you walked into the square and there were screens showing the priest and choir up in the front.  By the time communion was being handed out, the entire square was filled with people and there was security making sure more people could not enter.  People pushed and shoved their way to receive communion, and once the priest ran out, some cried and pleaded him for a blessing.  It was a very unreal experience.  I was lucky enough to receive one of the last communions from a priest.

After mass was over, around noon, the new pope, Pope Francis, came out in his “pope mobile”, which is actually a jeep, and came out into the crowd after blessing everyone in the crowd.  People were throwing their infant children at him to bless them.  He patted children on the head as he passed by.  I stood about 20 feet away from where he was.  Everyone was going crazy, pushing and shoving as he passed by the section where we were standing.  It was such an exciting experience! I can now officially check seeing the pope off my bucket list!

As we were leaving, we could see that the entire street was filled with people who were not allowed into the square.  There had to be somewhere between 10,000-15,000 people in the square and on the street that day.  It was crazy but I feel so incredibly lucky to have been able to actually be in the square that day.  A fun, random fact we found out the day before was that Pope Francis was having lunch with the old Pope.  I will forever be curious about what two popes talk about during lunch together.