Europe 102: Elusive Bronze Door

It's been a looong while since I wrote something about my Europe trip. It's a year ago that I had my trip but memories of it still lingers. I don't think that I will totally forget about this however, in any case, it's best to put it in writing. From Florence, we move further to the ancient city of Rome. :)

Let me just have a little introduction... My little nieces just had their first communion last May... our little angels. I can still remember when I was a kid going through the same thing with white dresses and feeling like graduating on a different level. During the month of May, we celebrate the Flores de Mayo season (translated as Flowers of May, for the feast of the Lady of Fatima). It is usually at this time of the year that first communions are being conducted but not entirely only that. Some cities or towns have grand celebrations with all the “reyna elenas” and “reyna emperatriz” marching with gowns and crowns and flowers for this celebration. Aside from these celebrations, for us kids, we have another sort of gathering. For Catholic kids in our community, we have like a summer school without the exams.. :D Kids from all ages gather to learn basic Catholic catechism like stories from the bible, reciting prayers, and of course sing gospel hymns. I particularly like the last one... but note that I'm not a singer, just a sing-er (i.e. sing whatev-er). And since it is summer school break and almost every kid is there, we were able to play fun team games after session... not video or computer games but pure traditional Filipino games with sticks, tin cans, slippers, and a big place to run around and sweat like crazy... however, this is not my point.

My point is that, the Philippines has always been rooted to its Catholic religion and traditions. The Christmas season is even more unique here in the Philippines that we have what we call “Misa de Gallo”, a dawn novena mass nine (9) days before Christmas. This reminds me that I have to wake up super early tomorrow to get in time with the Misa de Gallo mass at 4:30am. So as a Catholic, the idea of Europe is usually attached to visiting some of the holy places like the Vatican. You can say that every Filipino Catholic (or every Catholic for that matter) would want to have a pilgrimage to this place. As a Catholic girl myself, I couldn't help to include it in my to-do list (see #8). And when I told my mom that I will be able to visit the Rome (and Vatican), I think that seals the deal for my Europe trip... more like seals-the-deal-with-God-bless-you-kid permission.

St. Peter's Basilica and square.

Aside from Spain, Rome is the most popular European city for Filipinos. Here, people would definitely recognize even its Italian name, Roma. As much as I am excited to see the Vatican City, I'm also excited on what the rest of the Rome offers. Of course, the priority is still the Vatican (again, #8 in my to do list). As much as I was sad leaving the fashionable city of Florence, I was also excited to get into the Rome bandwagon.

Trains and Metro... and Filipinos

The trip from Florence to Rome just took almost 2 hours... (even less the time it takes to travel from Zamboanga to Ipil)... during these train trips, we spend it on reviewing the possible places to go to, playing games, and figuring out how to find our apartment. During our planning stages, I was a bit worried about arriving in Rome at night... well actually, in any places that I've never been to. But since I have someone with me, that made it less worrisome... and this is Rome, what could get wrong? (that rhymes!) :)

Anyways, we arrived at Roma Termini and look for our station on metro bus ride... we took our tickets from the ticket machines and move on... it was the first terminal that I've seen that looks more like a mall outside the train rails. On the other hand, the metro bus feels more like the MRT in Manila with less crowd... well, more like the train station in New York that you've seen from the movies. With our luggage tucked with us, we find the bus for our stop, and move with the crowd to get into the ride... and the first language that I've heard from inside the bus was... Filipino. I heard it because they are the only ones talking. Well, we love to talk in general.. comfort rooms, airport terminals, grocery stores, and buses are no different. Small world, indeed. So, it's inevitable that I looked around and there I saw a group of Filipino workers going home from work. I think two of them looked my way with a smile and a question in their eyes “Is she a Filipina?”... a smile back from me acknowledge that. That point, I felt a little home. When people started to get off the bus, I find myself sitting next to one of them. We had a small talk, what brings me there and what brings her there. She is a mother from Batangas going home to her apartment from work. She was working for years already in Rome and I can sense from her voice that she misses her family. I have only been in Europe for more than a week, and during these times I'm more engrossed in going through from one place to the other but at that moment, my heart missed my family back home. When we got off the bus, I shove that melancholy moment out and get back to the reason why I was there, i.e. to experience Europe... as a Filipina. And besides, I have to collect as much stories and experience as I can to be able to share it with my family and friends back home. They will not forgive me if I just went to Europe and cry my heart out missing them. And I don't intend to do that. Not in Rome.

Strong man...and Italian police

We walk on that night to find our apartment... good thing it wasn't that hard to find it. The hostess warmly greeted us and tour us around the place. But the interesting demonstration was the door. It was one of those big hardwood doors with big keys. Sorry, that's the only description I can give with this door. But she made it sound complicated that it's important that we know the tricks. It's so important that she even have to see us practice opening the door. My partner did it and after a successful first shot, in an admiring tone she looked at me and said “You're a lucky girl, you have a strong man.” I just looked at him... smirked.. superman successfully opened the door.. now, this adds up to our list of inside jokes. :D I tried opening the door myself but to no avail (maybe once, I was successful)... I was lucky after all... so, when you travel to Rome, make sure that you have a “strong” man with you or you are as strong as a man :D.. Rome has crazy big doors, you don't want to find yourself locked out of your apartment.

Anyways, moving on... since our place is just a stone throw away from the Vatican... we decided to have a walk on St. Peter's Square. It was already late, around 10pm, so there wasn't much people around... and you can really see the HUGE basilica to yourself. I'm still out-of-reality hazily wandering my eyes around the square. Gosh, I am stepping on St. Peter's Square. The only time that I usually get to see this place if there are news from the Vatican like the interment of Pope John Paul II or the election of the new Pope. They always show this place as a backdrop in their news and now here I am. After a few walks around the square, my daze and wonder was interrupted by an Italian police car telling us that the square is closed. The square is closed?! That was a bit disappointing. Note to self, Italian police are not charming at all.

Pizza... Pizza... and... Rissoto

One of the things that I love about traveling is the food, of course. And since I'm in Italy, it's super common that you get to taste their list of standard pizza. I was trying to remember the names of these pizzas but the one that just struck me was, Fungi. Unfortunately, my stomach was not in the mood. I guess, it was fed up with all the different kinds and amount of cheeses that I consumed. There was even a pizza that just contains 4-layer of cheese on it. My stomach just needs a breather. So on our first night, we just looked for something familiar, and there I met Risotto. It was so tasty that I forgot all the pizza that I've tasted. Maybe one day I'll get my hands on doing this... and also Ribollita. Good idea for Christmas. :)

Trail of the Bronze Door

Mission: To get this ticket for the Papal audience

Back in the apartment and after walking through St. Peter's Square, I was already eager to already check my to-do list related to Rome, and I just realized that it's just #8. Since the basilica is just nearby, this one is easy. While browsing on what to do & see in Rome, I remembered that the Vatican have Papal audience every wednesday. I never really place this on my to-do-list because it might not be so easy to just get in and see the Pope. And true enough, the website states that you should make reservations at least 2 weeks before and we only have 2 days before the Papal audience. But since we are already there, we just have to take the chance if we can get any tickets. So our journey to the bronze door began.

The very next day, we just went to the Information office of the Vatican to ask where we can get a tickets for the audience. She just mentioned to get into the bronze door. We're not so sure if she means a colored bronze door or a door made of bronze. I just thought that maybe Europeans just have a more fancy name for color brown because I was sure it's not the latter. So we passed the security check, look around St. Peter's square once more and could not see any door that looks like an entrance except the door to the basilica. We then, choose to enter into the basilica.

Moving around the basilica, we did not find any bronze door. The only door that we found was a huge brown door but it's locked and doesn't looked like it's an entrance to anything. (On a side note, the basilica is super duper huge. More on this on my next entry). We asked one of the guards where's the entrance to get the ticket to the Papal Audience, and he mentioned that it's the “bronze door” outside with the Swiss guards. Again, the bronze door.

So we went out and immediately outside, on the side of the basilica was a gate guarded by the Swiss guards. The look on these guards totally says No Entry to civilians. Although, there are some quite a number of tourists nearby, they are taking pictures of the of the guards rather than there to get some tickets. And there doesn't seem anyone else whom you can imagine asking questions about a ticket, other than the guards. Well, there's no harm in trying. So I went ahead to the direction of the gate... imagine, me walking alone on a clear street to the gate with a lot of eyes looking at me like “where the heck is she going?”. True enough about the No-Entry-look, immediately one of the guards met me a distance from the door and asked what I wanted. The same statement that I've asked before, i.e. where's-this-bronze-door-where-I-can-get-the-ticket. He mentioned the gate on the other side of the column. It was only after that I realize, the gate they were guarding was the actual entrance to the Vatican compound.

Our final pitstop for the quest of the bronze door.

Anyways, we moved on looking for that elusive bronze door. There we saw another metal gate, light blue in color with a pair of swiss guards. This time, they look more “friendly”. So, I just asked the same question. One of them, asked me how many will I need and I just said 2. He said wait and went to the guard house cubicle to get something. He gets back bringing 2 tickets and just told us to be on that same gate an hour before the specified time to get better seats. And I was like, “That's it? This is the bronze door?” I was more surprised of finding how the bronze door really looked rather than having the tickets on my hand. :D Going through all that, it was both not-easy and easy to get the tickets. Well, maybe the latter, if you know where the bronze door is.

In the end, it's mission accomplished. Next is to know what's beyond the bronze door. :)