Rome, Italy — Midnight Mass

We woke up around 8:30am. I had been up since about 3am, jetlagged, so was a bit groggy. The breakfast buffet was good, we both had a cappuccino (when in Rome).

We had to be in line for Midnight Mass by 6pm, so we had planned our day around that.

Walked over to the Christmas Market in Piazza Navona. There's lots of great old buildings surrounding the plaza. We were still new to Rome and not yet tired of churches and cathedrals so stopped into the church fronting the plaza, Sant'Agnese in Agone.

Then walked over a block and into San Luigi dei Francesi, another nice random church. It's amazing how every block has an amazing old church that elsewhere could be the main sight in a town and here it's just a church, not even great enough to garner a mention in the guide book.

Another couple blocks down and we were at the Pantheon. It was the busiest so far of the sights we visited, but wasn't overwhelmingly busy. I didn't find the sight itself particularly amazing but I think it's architecturally significant for the size of the roof at the time.

It was getting close to 2pm so we got back to our hotel, and then out for lunch. We didn't feel like venturing too far and so had lunch at Yotvata, less than a minute walk. Tried the artichokes in a couple dishes, they are in season now. This time we had two appetizers, one pasta and two mains (yesterday had done 2-2-1 but it was too much pasta). However here it was way too much fish for the main, we could have easily gone 2-1-1 for apps/pasta/main.

Got home, and the jetlag and lack of sleep last night got to us and we napped for an hour or two.

Our alarm woke us up to get ready for midnight mass. We dressed in layers because we didn't know how long we would wait outside, or how hot/cold it would be inside with 15,000 people. We had also brought our iPhones to catch up on reading in the line ups.

Got to the Vatican around 5:30ish. There was already about a thousand people in line, waiting for the security checkpoint to open. Waited about 20 minutes, and then found out we were in the wrong line. The line up we were in was for general admission to St Peter's Square. There's a separate line near the left colonnade for ticket holders for the basilica. So we went to line up there. This security checkpoint was open, and in about ten minutes we were through!

The excitement lasted about 30 seconds when we realized we now had to line up again, this time to enter the basilica. So we got in line. The doors open at 7pm. We didn't have long to wait, as it was already about 6:45pm what with our waiting in wrong lineups and the security check.

We knew it was 7pm because the bells ring rather loudly on the hour. We had read that the line surges for the first ten minutes and then it's okay. Sure enough, everyone pushed forward. The little old nuns in particular seemed to have sharpened their elbows. Anyways we didn't get trampled and made it through the first of many ticket checks.

We quickly walked to the front of the basilica (other people were running to get good seats). Our tickets were checked by Swiss Guard after Swiss Guard at every turn and corner. And then we were in the basilica!

Got a very nice program for the mass, which more than made up for the lack of production quality in the ticket.

There were seats too (when we visited yesterday, and probably normally, the chairs are removed to allow easier flow of tourists. We weren't sure if they put in seats for the mass).

We wanted seats near the blocked-off centre aisle to get a good look at the procession of cardinals and the pope. We ended up about 15 rows from the front, and 7 seats from the aisle. Not bad indeed. Although, there was still about 20 rows of clergy in front of the general assembly, and the altar itself is very large. I'd say we were about 250ft from the pope, so he was pretty small to see at that distance.

Settled in for the wait until the start of mass at 9:30pm. There was an orchestra and a choir, although it was over a sound system so didn't get a feel for the acoustics of the basilica. I tried to find the toilets, but it was harder than our ticket pick up process. So gave up and went back to our seats. (From overhearing other attendees, there's only about 4 toilets for 15,000 people, and the wait was over 90 minutes).

Around 9pm they said the rosary, in either Latin or Italian, not sure. At precisely 9:30pm, the TV lights came on (I'm not kidding, it was like a sporting event with a press booth and multiple camera angles) and the procession of clergy began. Eventually that led way to the cardinals, and finally the pope. To be honest I don't watch the news that much anymore and I don't really know what the pope looks like. I assumed I'd be able to tell by his papal hat or robe, but couldn't pick him out of the line up of cardinals. I only figured out it was the pope because of the security detail surrounding him.

The mass was mostly in Latin, except for the prayers of the faithful which had languages from around the world. The fancy program we received on entry had the English translation on opposite pages which made it easier to follow. It was only the homily that we didn't understand, although we could see all the press updating their social media after the pope was done.

I found it a bit distracting with most people taking pics throughout mass (except at holy times like the blessing of the Eucharist), in particular those taking pics on their iPads.

They did serve communion, via the dozens of clergy. Each row shunted along to the central aisle to receive communion.

They cut out the last few pages of the mass, due to time. TV scheduling wins again, the mass had to complete in 90 minutes as another program was starting on TV at 11pm. So they skipped over the last few prayers, a couple hymns were cut, mass ended and we went in peace. (Actually, that line got cut too so mass just ended).

It took some time to exit, but finally we made it out. We walked back to Trastevere and searched out a restaurant whose kitchen was still open. Found I think the only one open past midnight and split a pizza, which was very good.

Read through the rest of the program and realized that by attending midnight mass we get a Plenary Indulgence. I had to google it and I'm still not clear.

We got home rather late for us around 2am and fell fast asleep.