Ouch!

This morning I woke up to a pitch black room. I thought it was earlier than what it was because of the darkness, but soon enough my alarm clock went off telling me it was five to nine.

I was agonizing over waking up because I just wanted to keep sleeping, but I knew Alessandro would be coming in with the breakfast soon. 

Mom, Ali and Jon rustled in their sleep but didn’t wake up. Soon enough I heard a knock on the door and I mozied on over. 

He was so cute. He had a massive tray with three coffees, one milk and croissants for all of us. I set it down on the table and ate mine. I figured everyone else would either wake up on their own and eat it or eat later. 

I drank a little bit of my coffee and then laid back down. We didn’t have any official plans until 2:00 when we would go to the Vatican to get into the church for the Papal mass.

I was really excited to go to the Papal mass because back in February I emailed the Bishop's office to ask for tickets. They’re free, but you have to have a ticket to get into it. I was really excited because this was another part of my mom’s birthday present for this weekend from me, Ali, Jon, Mike and my mom’s side of the family. I knew she was really excited to go to it too. 

I ended up falling back asleep until 11 when I heard my siblings waking up. Ali had already showered and was getting ready for the day. 

I laid in bed for a bit waking up and then decided I would get ready for the day. 

My first step out of bed was the most painful, horrible experience. I stepped out of bed, felt a horrible pain in my right foot, and before I knew it I was on the floor by the window grabbing my foot. 

“What’s wrong Caitlin?” Mom asked.

I couldn’t even form words right away. My foot was on fire and I didn’t know why.

I looked at where I stepped and saw what I stepped on. I don’t know how my foot managed to fit perfectly into it, but I stepped right into Ali’s straightener, burning both sides of my heel. 

I told mom what happened and Ali went outside to get Alessandro to get ice. 

I’ve broken both wrists before — one of which I played two games of soccer broken with — I’ve burnt my hand before with hot tea, but I’ve never been in so much pain. 

Now that I look back, I laugh at the situation because Ali does not  deal well with tears and does not deal with with situations if she caused them. 

Alessandro brought in a bag of ice and I had Ali get a towel to put it into because it was too cold. Alessandro was so helpful, but we tried communicating that I burnt my foot and he kept talking about how he has broken his ankle so many times. He tried giving me a cream for it, but it was for broken ankles. 

Ali and Jon googled burn to try to communicate to Alessandro, but we weren’t sure if he understood because he kept talking about broken ankles.

Mom and Ali ventured out to find a pharmacy to get a burn cream and band aids, while Jon and I stayed back. 

When they finally got back mom brought over a bottle of the burn cream and told me the woman at the Pharmacy said it would hurt at first, but then it would help the burning pain.

I was not okay with this thought. I already had enough pain and could barely keep my foot off the ice for a minute let alone have a cream make it worse. Somehow I managed to suck it up, lather it on my foot and put the band aid on. The burn hurt for a bit and then it magically stopped hurting. I laid in bed for a while and was flabbergasted at how the cream made it stop. 

Mom and Ali told me their adventure of going to the pharmacy. I told them all pharmacies had a green plus sign outside of them, so they’d know if it was one or not. They said they went into the first one they saw and the woman barely spoke English. Mom said she said the word “burn” in Italian and the woman understood. She gave them some things that I ended up not using. 

Then they went into another one and Mom told Ali it was her turn to try Italian. She asked the woman if she spoke English and she said yes. Mom said of course she does when Ali tried, of which I laughed to. 

Then it came to the subject of today’s plans. Mom wasn’t letting me go to the Vatican for Good Friday, which was fine, but she wasn’t going either. She said she wouldn’t leave me alone in the hotel, which I expected because she’s a mother, but I tried to convince her to go. I really wanted them to go because mom was so excited when I told her I scored tickets back in March. 

When she kept being stubborn, I got really upset because I just wanted her to go, and I knew there was nothing I could do to sway her. 

After laying around for a bit I accidentally fell asleep. When I woke up Ali and mom were back with food from a restaurant nearby. 

It was about 3:00 and we needed to be at the Vatican at 2 because the nun said yesterday it gets really full...for mass at 5:30. She said the ticket doesn’t guarantee you a seat in the Vatican, so she recommended that time.

I went to the bathroom to see if I could walk, and I was happy to see that I could. It still hurt, but I knew I would be fine to go. 

I told mom I was fine. However, by the time Jon showered and we all got ready it was 4:30 and we knew we weren’t going to make it because it took 25 minutes to get to the metro stop and then another 10 minutes to walk. 

I was really bummed, but I let it go because I just wanted to enjoy our last night in Rome. 

We decided to venture around Rome a bit since I was able to walk. We went in the direction mom and Jon went the night before to get dessert because they said that area was pretty. 

When we walked up that way I was taken back by how pretty it was. I felt like I was seeing a new side of Rome. There were trees everywhere and the buildings were beautiful. 

-I loved this car!-

When we were walking I saw a man walking around with scarves. I saw him look at mom’s scarf and knew immediately how the situation was going to go. He came up and tried showing mom scarves and even pulled out one that looked exactly like the one she was wearing. She said no kindly and then he kept on pestering her. 

We were standing at a crosswalk waiting for the ready sign to go, and he kept talking. An older Italian woman looked back and chuckled at the situation and mom looked at her and chuckled too. They really don’t understand the word no. 

Thankfully it turned green, and we crossed the street. We went into a church, that ended up being the Pope’s church, which I was not expecting! 

-Jon entertaining himself and me-

It was beautiful inside, and we realized there was a Good Friday service going on. 

When I was walking around the church I realized this was the first year in eight years I was not going to be at St. Ferdinands on Good Friday for Living Stations. It was such a weird thought. 

After we walked around the church we ventured down the street because mom wanted to see what the building was at the end of it. It was a gorgeous day out, so I didn’t mind being outside.

The building at the end of the street ended up being an old church. It was really cool to see how places have aged over time. 

We walked around a bit more and stumbled upon a cafe. I got a chocolate dessert and mom got the same. Unfortunately neither of us cared for it, but we liked our cappuccino and cafe latte. It was nice to sit outside of a cafe with my family. I was really enjoying my time there with them. 

We walked back to the hotel where we relaxed for an hour or so and then headed back out because we were going to the stations of the cross at the Colosseum held by the Pope. Thankfully, this event didn’t require a ticket, and anyone could go. 

When we were walking there the Colosseum was beautifully lit up and there was a cross in one of the windows. There was a plethora of people walking around and there were police blocking streets from cars. It felt like the fourth of July. 

We found a line of people and assumed it was the line to get in. Luckily it was. We waited for a while and when we were near the front, we heard cheering. 

The Pope had arrived and the event was starting. We walked through two policemen who had to check our bags and then we walked down to the Colosseum. 

The stations were all in Italian, but I was able to pick up on things here and there. It was one of the most surreal moments I’ve experienced. The Colosseum was beautifully lit up behind me, I was listening to and watching the stations of the cross in Italian and the Pope was standing up in front of me. I thought, “Well, this definitely makes up for missing living stations!”

After the stations, the Pope delivered a homily, and the music began to end the event. I couldn’t believe I just heard a homily from the Pope, and I don’t think mom could either.

 This made up for not being able to go to the Good Friday service earlier in the day. I was happy at least mom was able to see the Pope. 

We waited around and enjoyed our surroundings. The crowd was slowly dispersing and we eventually made our way out too and walked home.