(A longer) gelato break!

I am leaving tomorrow morning for my program's second and last field trip of the quarter! We are spending two days in Assisi and two days in Florence. Then our professor is letting us loose until we meet again during quiz section and discussion on Wednesday. Yes, that is correct, we are being given eight whole days to be away from Rome. Don't get me wrong, Rome is a wonderful city, but the novelty of being here has worn off and I can finally see how touristy and tacky some neighborhoods can be. So I'm going to take this opportunity to try on some masks in Venice and hike through Plitvice National Park in Croatia.

On another note, Pope John Paul II's Beatification mass this morning was absolutely INSANE. I took a nice long nap right after the mass and it's already eleven o'clock, but I have barely recovered since then. More on that at a later date. I'd rather not relive it right now...

Anyway, after several visits to the Vatican I have developed some new life goals:

• Have every single surface of my future home covered in frescoes or gilded with gold
• Read the second reading at a Papal mass
• Read a prayer of the faithful in Vietnamese at a Papal mass in an áo dài 
• Receive communion from the Pope
• Marry a Swiss guard 
• Have my Swiss baby kissed by the Pope

That is all. 

hd