Mi due centi

It has officially been one week here in Rome and let me say that it has been sooooo amazing. It is everything I was hoping for and much more than I was imagining (the pictures in the history books just don't do this place justice). There are already so many stories to be told, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most, is more recently our Sunday morning at the Pantheon (La mettina di dominica al Pantheon). Yesterday was the service for the Pentacost. I will try my best to put into words the experience, although I think the essence is lost in translation. Before the service began, the clergy (consisting of about 6 -8 priests, some cardinals, and the bishop) walked slowly to the altar and as they were doing so, a dove flew from one of the columns out the door... indication number one that it was going to be an extraordinary mass. The choir was so magnificant that they didn't even need a microphone. Their voices filled the church accompanied by the organ (which gave me chills at the strike of the first chord). The whole service was in italian, which was rather hard to understand because it was spoken so fast. But you could still feel what was being said "Spirito.... Spirito.... " was the majority of what I could make out, but somehow it didn't really matter, I'm sure everyone that was there would agree. The end of the mass was the most breathtaking part. At the top of the dome of the Pantheon is an oculous in which thousands of rose petals were dropped. At first we all thought it was just going to be flutters of rose petals for maybe 30 seconds or so... but these things were being dumped for about 5 good minutes... 5 minutes I wished could have lasted longer. Here is the picture (care of miss Danielle Doeringsfeld) ... i tired to put more up and it is tricky.. i will try to post more pics later