Day two was the big day. This was the biggest reason we had come to Rome. Zach and Hannah were going to be receiving their First Holy Communion. Father N was able to reserve an altar for their first Communion. However, at this particular church, they only allowed Mass on their altars early in the morning. So, we got up at 6am to get ready to go, and take the subway in to St. Peter's Basillica!
We arrived at 7:45 and I took Hannah in to the bathroom to get her white dress on. I hadn't wanted to dare let her wear it on the subway! We were all ready, and followed Fr. N into the great church. He went and got dressed in the Sacristy, then we were escorted behind the ropes, and down in to the grotto of the Basilica.
Here, there are several small chapels, and we were going to be having Mass in the Chapel of the Bruised Madonna. In the 15th century, a soldier, mad over losing while gambling, threw a stone at the picture of Mary and she began bleeding. The tiles the blood fell on are still hanging in the chapel, and we were able to touch them. There is also a very visible bruise on Mary's face still to this day. All around us, there were other Masses going on in other languages. And it was beautiful hearing all these chapels singing "Alleluia" since it was the Octave of Easter.
Fr. N said Mass, and Zach and Hannah were both able to receive their First Holy Communion. We were all so happy, excited and proud of them. Here are a few pictures.
Afterwards, we went outside and grabbed some pictures and snacks. We were the spotlight. When I put these two next to the church to take a picture, all these strangers started taking their picture. I felt like the whole time I was on guard to get between people and their camera, but I failed a lot. At one point, I got done taking their picture to turn around to see at least 10 people with their ipods/tablets standing behind me taking their picture!! Other cultures are so odd to me about some things.
Then we changed in the bathrooms of the Basilica. I had a really cool nursing experience happen. I was sitting in the air-conditioned hallway while the boys were changing, nursing Beka. Across from me, a lot of teens were sitting on the floor and the guard came up and told them they couldn't sit there and they needed to head outside. Then he walked towards me, bringing me a chair! I was very grateful and impressed.
Afterwards, we went back inside and did the Dome of St. Peter's. The younger two girls and I went to the middle of the Dome, saw it up top, then hung out on the roof of St. Peter's. Meanwhile, Jon, Fr. N, and the older two decided to climb all the way to the top. I made the executive decision I didn't want to climb the tight, claustrophobic area, and that we did not need to take Abby up that high after her immense fear at the top of Notre Dame. So we ate nutella and peaked in the giftshop and took a few selfies lol.
When we got back down from the Dome, we took a few more pictures. Then we headed to the USO Rome because they advertised free pizza on Fridays from 12-2. We got there at 12:30 and they had just ordered the pizza, which soon arrived- 1 box. It was ok. Maybe they were not use to large families coming? As we were leaving, a family of 5 came in, before 2, and they had already cleaned up from lunch. I appreciated that we got a bit of free pizza, but i put this to warn people, dont count on a full lunch if you plan to go there and have a large family. It was nice to use clean bathrooms though. They don't have a changing table though, and seemed really surprised when I asked them if there was somewhere they'd prefer me to change her lol. I just used their couch.We then went to a store for a few souvenirs and headed home, to eat leftover tortellini.
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