When in Rome..

Bonjourno from Rome! :) Today was my favorite day thus far! It was thirteen hour day, it was a long one, but definitely filled with spectacular sites! We started off the morning with a wonderful free breakfast downstairs in our hotel, which is not always a luxury of ours (it’s always free just not wonderful ;) We then hopped on our bus and headed to the Roman Colosseum, which is much cooler in person than it is in pictures! We got a really nice tour guide who told us all we ever needed to know about the Colosseum, which I LOVED because I’m a huge history nerd. We took lots of pictures and then headed to Foro Romano with the same sweet tour guide. The Foro Romano is basically the center of the old Roman Empire. There were so many facts and historical sites in that area. The one that stuck out most to me was that Julius Caesar was burned in the middle of the square and his son (actually his adopted nephew) built a temple over where his body was burned. We also saw two Arc de Triumphs which symbolized victories of the Emperor. Next, we were off to a quick lunch (at a train station, I might add—Kaci was super pumped about it ;) and then we headed to the Vatican City! Fun fact: The Vatican City is the smallest country in the world and only has 900 citizens! Even though I’m not Catholic, it was still REALLY cool to me. We went into the Vatican Museum and had to wait awhile for our tour guide. However, that was no problem for me because there was a shop upstairs that was calling my name. (shops always seem to have that effect on me) I was debating whether or not to get rosaries (souvenirs for people) then, or just wait—I just didn’t want them to run out. Erin thought this was SO funny and told me that the Vatican would not run out of rosaries. However, I didn’t want to chance it and got them anyways! :) Finally, our tour guide got there and we started our tour of the Vatican. We went through multiple courtyards and saw many famous paintings, statues, tapestries, and religious sites. After a mini lesson of the Sistine Chapel in one of the courtyards, which was actually really neat, we got to go in! It was all painted by Michael Angelo and was absolutely beautiful. It was really entertaining to see all his sarcastic, often looked over, details in the paintings. We were supposed to be quiet and not taking pictures but, everyone there was doing both so it wasn’t as tranquil as I thought it would be, but it was cool nonetheless. Next, we were off to St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the largest church in the world. It was BEAUTIFUL! We see a lot of churches here, but that one was one of my favorites. We saw a lot of art and statues in there, and Peter’s tomb. After the Basilica, we went outside and saw the chimney where the white or black smoke comes out when they elect the pope, we saw where the Pope comes out to bless people every Sunday and Wednesday, and we saw many Angels and Demon reference points :) (which Kace and Erin loved.) After that we stopped by a gift shop before leaving Vatican City. Oh baby, that gift shop was not good for me, or my budget :) But it had some really cool stuff in there and we all splurged a little, me more than others ;) Then we were off on the walking tour of a life time. On the walking the main things we saw were the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navano, lots of shopping, gelato places-which we came back to, and multiple other fountains and statues. Then we went back to the hotel, exhausted. We literally were going from 7:30am to 8:30pm. We stopped by a pizza place right by our hotel for dinner and then headed up, showered and were out!

The next day, we literally roamed Rome. We went down to breakfast, a little later than usual. Over breakfast we caught up with some of our fellow travelers on their night. It included one of the girls breaking her shoe on a rude Italian waitress’ face, police, and supposedly quite a scene. I nearly choked on my croissant. They then asked us what we did last night. We had a whole on new realization of how lame we were and decided we needed to start making up epic stories such as theirs. After breakfast we were off. We went into tons of shops and markets, ate a delicious, authentic Italian lunch, and then did some more shops and markets. We were all pretty tired, so Kace and two of the girls we were with took a taxi back to the hotel, and Erin and Jackie and I decided to walk back-but got some yummy gelato on the way so that made it worth it. After that, we took a quick nap in the hotel, showered, and Jackie and I went out to dinner with a couple of girls in our group. (Kace and Erin were still pretty tired, so they hung out in the hotel and grabbed some dinner there.) We went to Piazza Navano square and ate outside, which is more common here, and watched the people playing music and painting in the square. It was a really cool atmosphere. After that we were on a mission to find this famous gelato place, San Crispino. We finally made it, and I got my second gelato, yes that’s embarrassing, of the day, and it was SO good :) (Gelato is the newest love of my life). We then just walked around, soaking our surroundings in and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and go to bed early the next morning was Florence! Hope all is well at home, love and miss you all!

Britt and the other three :)