Updated 03/13/2013 10:13 PM
Hilton Resident in Vatican City: 'Exhilarating Feeling'
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Among a sea of faithful in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday was a Rochester-area man who traveled all the way to Rome to witness history.
"We were standing along the fence and just to see white smoke on the screen and then a bunch of people just erupt in the middle of the city," said Jacob Resnick.
Resnick, 20, of Hilton, spoke to YNN's Vivian Lee just moments after Pope Francis addressed the crowd.
Resnick is a college student at Hobart College in Geneva, but is currently studying European Studies abroad in Italy.
Resnick, a Catholic himself, graduated from Aquinas High School. He says he'll never forget seeing the new pope in person for the first time.
"I was in complete excitement, and complete shock at the same time. I was just so taken back by being in the moment to actually see him walking out onto a balcony, and be able to hear him give his acceptance speech to the city was just an amazing feeling," said Resnick by phone Wednesday night.
Unlike the the TV broadcasts, there were no interpreters in St. Peter's Square, but Resnick, who's studying Italian, says he understood much of the new Pope's speech.