Tuesday, October 14
Today is our last day in Rome.
In Europe.
It's time to go home.
Our flight is at 10 pm tonight.
We can't believe our trip
is coming to an end.
We have enjoyed our trip
so much.
Everything has gone so
smoothly.
It has been like a dream,
Don't wake us up.
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| 8.04 am. |
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| Finish up the cheese. |
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| Save some butter for the eggs. |
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| Nice coffee machine. |
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| Heating up some milk. |
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| We have to finish the eggs too. |
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| OMG! What? |
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| THREE YOLKS pop out from ONE egg! |
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| That big yolk is from a second egg. |
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| We are gonna miss the coffee in Europe. |
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| Bon appetite. |
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| 9:18 am. Bye for now, Barocci. |
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| We will see you again someday. |
We walk to the train station,
pulling our suitcases behind us
and carrying a backpack on
our shoulders.
Okay, so just to update
on what we are doing today.
We are going to visit
Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.
We have not been able to get a ticket
for Sistine Chapel.
We are obviously late in
getting the tickets,
but as it turns out,
it is a blessing in disguise,
as we will learn later.
On Sunday,
we attended Holy Mass with the Pope.
For me at the time,
THAT was already the climax of Rome.
No Sistine Chapel, no problem.
I was fine.
I was with the Pope, c'mon on.
On Monday night,
Bryan went online to check for
tickets again.
Believe it or not.
He managed to get
Jump - the - Queue
(or Skip - the - Line)
tickets for
Vatican Museum and
Sistine Chapel.
How lucky!
The website had issued an
instant reply
to acknowledge receipt of payment
and at the same time,
directed him to pick up the tickets
at their office the next day at 11 am.
An agent from the office will then take us
to the beginning of the waiting-line
tomorrow.
Wow!!
That's the skip-the-line part.
I was so excited.
Our last day,
on Tuesday tomorrow
and we are able to cover
Sistine Chapel too.
That's sooooo fantastic!
That's the update.
Back to present ...
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| Waiting for the train. |
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| We are here. |
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| Furio Camillo. |
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| To Vatican City (Station : Ottaviano). |
About 10 stops.
About 17 minutes.
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| 10.04 am. At the luggage locker. |
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| Bryan keys in the password. |
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| We get locker number 48. |
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| Decode : 12 |
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| 21. Nice. |
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| The locker is nearby the station. |
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| 10.20 am. |
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| We are about 5 minutes walk away from ... |
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| the ticket office. |
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| We have some time ... |
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| for croissants and coffee. |
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| 10.39 am. Gasp! |
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| We coolly walk to the ticket office ... |
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| to get our tickets to SKIP THE LINE! |
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| I see gluten-free and lactose-free. |
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| Nice. |
This snack-machine is in
the ticket office.
Or should I say the tour office.
See the postcards on the left.
Bryan is in front of those postcards,
at the information counter,
waiting to be attended to.
I am browsing around.
There are many tourists in
that tour office.
The staffs at the front counter are
obviously busy.
I sit on a bench and wait patiently.
After awhile,
I take a glance at the time,
and frown to myself.
11:30 am.
We have been waiting for our tickets
for almost 40 minutes.
What is taking them so long?
I head to the front,
where Bryan is.
He looks agitated.
I ask, "What's wrong?"
He mutters,
"Our tickets have been cancelled!"
WHAT???
He explains impatiently.
Angrily, almost.
"A technical hick-up on the
company's website."
Apparently, that website
continued to accept payment
from tourists buying tickets online
even though the quota for the day
had been filled.
There are a handful of tourists
who are also affected.
The girl attending to all of us
can only say,
"We are sorry,
we are very sorry ...
We can schedule another day ...
We will arrange for your refund ..."
Oh no.
What can we do???
We cannot take another day,
since we are flying home tonight.
One group agrees to change
to the next day.
A man says he wants his refund
as he is flying home early
the next morning.
Sigh.
Looks like we have no choice
but to go the refund way.
Mannn.
What an anti-climax.
This can't be it.
What's the point of those
online tickets that suddenly
became available then?
What a bummer!
The counter girl suggests
to Bryan to try
"to ask the men outside ...
they may still have tickets."
The touts ...
she is obviously referring
to the touts.
With a curt word of thanks,
and a stiff nod,
we walk out.
Barely a few steps away from
that tour office,
we see a well-dressed guy,
promoting the Vatican tours.
He is holding some brochures.
Bryan approaches him.
Fast forward ...
We are back on the skip - the - line tour.
Thank God!
It turns out,
that nice - suit - tout - guy
had 2 tickets left
for the 12 pm (in English) tour.
There is a group of 4 people before us,
so they couldn't take those tickets.
And that is how we got those
last 2 tickets!
My, my ...
Drama Minggu Ini.
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| Meanwhile, Bryan receive these texts from ... |
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| the online tour company. |
Interesting to note that
both texts appeared on
his WhatsApp at
11.22 am.
Decode : 21 21
Hmm.
Nice. Nice.
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| 11.22 am. |
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| 11.22 am. |
That triggers me to look further,
when I suddenly notice the Order Number.
Wahhh.
One too many 4s.
1 3 8 9 1 4 4 8 9
Decode :
4 8 8 4 4 8 9
4 44 44 4 4 44 9
Oh my.
That cancellation is not
just any normal cancellation.
It was clearly,
a divine intervention.
God has better plans for us,
looks like.
I suddenly feel happier.
We are on track with God's Plans.
the tout - guy led us to another
tour company
that was nearby.
We are given the numbers 1 and 2.
Hahaha.
21.
Nice.
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| 12.01 pm. |
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| 12.01 pm. |
12.01 12.01
4 4
Nice. Nice.
Gosh, by now I truly feel
the angels are watching us closely
from above.
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| We jump the line and ... |
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| go straight to the entrance of the Museum. |
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| This is our tour guide. |
Isn't that like a SUN on the
back of his shirt?
I whisper to Bryan,
"Son is here."
Shortly after that,
I suddenly notice a red shirt
in the crowd.
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| RobertSON 82 |
Decode : SON 4
Big Smile.
(12.20 pm)
Unbelievable.
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| Vatican Museum. |
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| Our tour guide looks like a cartoon. |
There's no other word to describe him.
That's a Japanese flag he's holding.
He says he's half-Japanese.
I look at the flag.
I see an Orange Dot.
The red is faded.
It looks reddish - orange.
Nice.
Orange Dot blog ...
that recorded Daniel's time
in Lourdes in 2009.
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| Getting our audios. |
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| See the long escalator? |
After getting our audios,
the tour guide says,
"We have to walk up the stairs because
for some reason, the escalator is not
operating today."
Just as he finished his sentence,
a Museum - staff walks over to the
escalator and set it to work.
Hahahaha.
Right in time for us to go on.
That's a high climb up.
In the nick of time.
Thank goodness!
Huh.
Orange Dot??
Possible.
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| The SUN is facing me as we walk on. |
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| There is a large screen ... |
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| playing these ... |
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| images. |
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| Love this! |
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| Pope Leo XIV |
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| He's my favourite Pope. |
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| The Pope at the window of the Apostolic Palace. |
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| We have the audio on us. |
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| The open space ... |
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| and surrounding area ... |
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| inside the ... |
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| compound of the Vatican Museum. |
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| Sfera Consfera. A sphere within a sphere. |
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| A symbol of a new world emerging from the old. |
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| This is the centerpiece of the ... |
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| courtyard in ... |
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| the Vatican Museum. |
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| By Italian artist, Arnaldo Pomodoro (1990). |
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| The tour guide ... |
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| gives a ... |
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| brief summary ... |
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| of the paintings ... |
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| we would later see in .... |
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| the Sistine Chapel. |
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| See the pine cone in front of the museum. |
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| It's not the best photo but ... |
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| the green pine cone is behind the sphere. |
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| This is the Pinecone Courtyard. |
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| The Ceiling. |
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| The Last Judgment. |
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| The Sistine Chapel Ceiling. |
I've already grown a goiter
from this torture,
Hunched up here like a cat
in Lombardy,
(or anywhere else where the
stagnant water's poison).
My stomach's squashed under my chin,
my beard's pointing at heaven,
my brain's crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy's.
My brush, above me all the time,
dribbles paint so my face makes
a fine floor for droppings!
My haunches are grinding into my guts,
my poor ass strains to work
as a counterweight,
every gesture I make is blind
and aimless.
My skin hangs loose below me,
my spine's all knotted from
folding over itself.
I'm bent taut as a Syrian bow.
Because I'm stuck like this,
my thoughts are crazy,
perfidious tripe:
anyone shoots badly through a
crooked blowpipe.
My painting is dead.
Defend it for me, Giovanni,
protect my honour.
I am not in the right place -
I am not a painter.
—Michelangelo
-Detail.jpg) |
| The Creation of Adam. |
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| I take ... |
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| some photos ... |
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| in the ... |
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| museum ... |
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| whilst ... |
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| listening ... |
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| to ... |
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| the ... |
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| audio ... |
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| for ... |
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| their ... |
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| historical ... |
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| summary. |
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| This ... |
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| would ... |
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| be ... |
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| something ... |
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| we should research ourselves. |
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| 2.05 pm. |
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| Image of Sistine Chapel from Google. |
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| 2.28 pm. |
Truly, this tour is exactly 2.5 hours.
From 12 pm to 2.30 pm.
The tour guide says
he would take us through
a special passage
that links the Sistine Chapel
to the St Peter's Basilica.
We only discover then that
we cannot use this special exit
if we are on our own.
We would have to exit
the Vatican Museum,
walk around the walls
to St Peter's Square
and go through a second round of
security-check
before entering the Basilica.
This secret passage by-pass
all this hassle and line up again.
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| Nobody uses this passage. |
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| We are so ... |
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| relieved and thankful that ... |
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| we are with the tour and not on our own. |
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| Now we understand ... |
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| why our original online tickets ... |
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| had to be cancelled only AFTER ... |
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| we arrive at the tour office. |
Had the tickets been cancelled
immediately
(ie, when Bryan went online),
we would NOT have bothered
to come here at all today.
So, can you see that the online tickets
were to get us to go to the Vatican
this morning, and
to receive the suggestion of that girl
at the counter to take a tour.
The tour was never in the plan.
We didn't think we needed
to join a tour,
but THANK GOD we did.
We joined a proper tour
with a guide to assist us.
The online tickets would have
entitled us to
skip-the-line
at the entrance
but with NO TOUR GUIDE
briefing us on the history and
NO secret passage privilege.
And certainly NO reminder
about the HOLY DOOR.
Oh Wow!!
Sure, our guide does look like a cartoon,
but hey,
God often chooses the most
insignificant people
to deliver His important messages.
My special message??
That I received through that comical guide?
"The Holy Door."
THAT ---
is my message!
I had totally forgotten.
God would not let us go home
without experiencing the ---
Holy Door.
I still had no idea what
the Holy Door is about,
but the tour guide had given a clue :
"Ask the guards to show you
which is the Holy Door ..."
Well, that's what I'm gonna do.
Oh, another interesting
thing to note.
During the tour,
the guide numbered us again.
So he could call our numbers
and check that we are all together
at any time, during the tour.
We already had those green round
stickers on our shoulder.
Still, he numbered us again ...
from numbers 1 to 10,
but skipping numbers 4 and 9.
He would call Number 1 ...
and couple Number 1
would raise their hands.
Number 2 ... and so on.
Bryan and myself are
couple Number 3.
From Number 3,
he would skip Number 4,
and call Number 5,
6, 7, 8 and then
skip Number 9,
and call Number 10.
If any of us in the group
find that a little strange,
we keep our opinions to ourselves.
No one asks him why.
Until in the middle of the tour,
he kinda takes upon himself
to explain to us
that he does not use Numbers 4 and 9
because they are not his lucky numbers.
(On hindsight, that explanation is
meant for me ... and only me.)
He says,
4 is associated with death
and 9, with suffering.
I listen quietly.
Sure.
4 is not for the living.
It's a sign for the ANGELS.
But 9 ...
I have not the faintest idea of the
meaning behind the number 9.
Suffering?
Never heard of that.
At the time of blogging,
I recall the Order Number
of our online ticket,
that was cancelled ....
to have one too many 4s
and
one number 9.
1 3 8 9 1 4 4 8 9
Decode :
4 8 8 4 4 8 9
4 44 44 4 4 44 9
Wow!
Look at the connection.
It truly truly truly,
is a divine intervention.
What else would you call this?
Coincidence?
No no.
There are NO coincidences.
Only a divine power that directs
events to fulfill a purpose.
Oh my.
This is HUGE!
Thank you, Jesus and Mary
for the messenger.
And Daniel too, of course.
The tour guy could have worn
any outfit that morning,
but he had to choose one that
shows me the SUN.
Oh, on top of that,
there was an Asian man who confronted
the tour guide in the museum
at one point,
and the Chinese guy asked the tour guy,
(in front of me) (I was right there)
"Do you know that, that is the
symbol of the rising sun?"
(pointing to the tour guy's t-shirt?)
The tour guy replies,
"Yes, of course I know ..."
That Chinese man retorts,
as he shows a look of distaste,
"And -- you -- still -- wear -- it?"
Pause.
Honestly, I do not know
what that exchange is all about.
Something political??
I believe I was meant
to hear the word
"the rising son ..."
My son is risen and he is
making his presence felt.
I get that.
Nice.
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| 2.38 pm. |
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| We are following the path ... |
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| that leads us directly to the Basilica. |
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| 2.39 pm. |
 |
| See that door? |
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| Bryan says THAT must be ... |
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| the Holy Door. |
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| People are ... |
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| going in and out ... |
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| of this door. |
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| 2.40 pm |
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| 2.40 pm |
So, I approach the guy in a
Vatican uniform, and asks,
"Excuse me, is -- that -- the
Holy Door?"
(I point to the right,
where Bryan is).
The guy looks over to my
"Holy Door"
and replies immediately,
"No no ... that is NOT the
Holy Door ..."
(he then points towards his left)
"Go up these stairs,
pass the first door,
it's not the first door,
it's the second door ...
That's the Holy Door."
OMG!
Good thing I asked.
The tour guy did say to ask
and confirm
which is the Holy Door.
I wave frantically to Bryan.
He sees me.
He comes over.
We have a good laugh.
Together, we walk up the stairs.
We walk pass the first door,
saying aloud,
"Not - this - door."
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| We walk on to the second door. |
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| THIS -- |
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| is the HOLY DOOR! |
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| On the right side of the red backdrop. |
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| We are so excited. |
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| So this is what it means. |
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| Walking through the Holy Door. |
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| The Holy Door is open ... |
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| every 25 years. |
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| JESUS IS THE DOOR. |
The Holy Door
symbolizes Jesus,
who is referred to in the Bible as
the "gate" through which
one must enter to be saved.
Walking through
the Holy Door
is a physical representation of
moving from sin to
grace and freedom
as a child of GOD.
I remember walking through
this passage way
right after we enter the Holy Doors.
It feels -- life-changing.
Somehow.
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| We are walking towards ... |
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| the Eucharist. |
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| The floor we are walking on. |
St Peter's Baldacchino
was the brainchild of Pope Urban VIII.
The Pope hired Italy's finest
Baroque-style artist Bernini,
for its construction.
This grand and towering bronze canopy
was built over the High Altar
with St Peter's tomb beneath,
took an astounding 9 years to complete!
(1624 - 1633)
This Baldacchino remains
an undisputed marvel of
Bernini's artistry.
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| 3.41 pm. |
With that,
our mission in Vatican City
is accomplished and completed.
See that overhead arch?
When we step out of that arch,
we would be in Italy.
Inside the arch,
we are in Vatican City.
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| I see 21 ... 21 ... 44 ... 44. |
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| More 21 ... 21. |
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| Home sweet home. |
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| Wednesday, 15th @ 10.57 pm |
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| Murano Glass necklace and earrings from Rome. |
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| Souvenir outlet at Colosseum. |
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| From Vatican : This beautiful rosary set ... |
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| Pieta, Crucifix and Jubilee keychains. |
