Vidimus Papam!

On Sunday morning (March 12) Kirk and I walked down to St. Peter's. As we were waiting in line, we overheard someone mention the papal blessing at noon (given from a window of the papal apartments, which I'm guessing are something like our apartment), a weekly occurrence about which I had totally forgotten. After we exited the church, the St. Peter's Square was starting to fill up (though not, apparently, to the extent that it was filled today for the weekly Wednesday papal audience, at which there was a crowd estimated at 50,000 according to a news report I read):

Here is Pope Benedict XVI in the window:

And here's one I tried to doctor on the computer to get a closer view:

Afterwards, we picked up a little food and went to meet the better halves in Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon. I believe Allison took this shot of Kirk and me on the steps of the fountain:

You'll notice that there's a bottle next to Kirk's right leg. It is some sort of concoction made by Fanta called, enigmatically, 'Red Emotion'. I don't know what's in it. Furthermore, I didn't know emotions had a color and, beyond that, I didn't know they had a flavor. But Kirk seemed to enjoy it, so, hey--I'll second that emotion.