When in Rome!

Friday

Rome. Where to even start? A city filled with history, beautifulness and crazy drivers tugged at my heart strings as the shuttle took me from the train station to my hotel.

Getting up early Friday morning was a pain in my butt. My alarm went off at 6:45 telling me it was time to venture to another city. Not being a morning person works against me. The night before I showered and packed because I knew I would forget to do something or end up rushing in the morning. Plus, if I had to shower I knew I would have to wake up a lot earlier because my roommates had to shower too.

So as we locked out apartment at 7:30 A.M. we started our 20 minute hike to the train station. Two of my roommates had book-bags and my other roommate had a carry bag. I, however, thought it would be easier to bring my tiny suitcase with wheels. WRONG. Trailing that thing behind me on cobblestone was not too much fun. Yes, it was easier and my back did not hurt, but I was convinced it wasn't going to have wheels by the end of the weekend. Also, I probably woke up the city of Florence with it because of the "thumpity thump thump" noises it was making.

Arriving five minutes late to the station, we still were able to find our group. This trip was funded through my fee I had to pay with my tuition so we had chaperones for it. Our tickets were already bought and ready to go, which made life a lot easier. The best part was we were able to take the fast train. It took about an hour and a half and we flew through the countryside. Even though we were going fast I was still able to see the pure beauty of the Tuscan countryside passing wineries and country houses.

As beautiful as it was, my sleepiness took over and I was out.

It was about a 15 minute drive from the train station to our hotel with Roman traffic. Let me tell you, I thought it was scary enough being in the back of a taxi in Florence, but in a bus, oh my gosh I thought I was going to poop my pants. We almost took out a moped and the funny part was the guy driving it was fine with it! I could never drive here. I would be in an ambulance within ten minutes of being on the roads.

We stayed at a hotel called Hotel Navona. Now when I went on this hotel's website I looked at the rooms and the looked so pretty and spacious and the beds looked huge. It ended up being what felt like the size of a closet.

Now it was really cute, I'm not going to lie, but trying to maneuver around this closet of a room was quite the experience. Not to mention our bathroom was smaller than my closet at home.

After we checked into our rooms at the hotel our two chaperones, which were basically just there to show us around, took us to see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. The Forum ended up being closed because transportation services were on strike. I knew a lot was going on in Italy, but I didn't realize how bad it was. I was told traveling in Italy is not good right now because a lot of transportation services are striking. I need to look more into it, but my teacher told me that the new Prime Minister passed something new that affects a lot of people and they are not happy about it.

After seeing the Forum from the street we walked straight to the Colosseum. My teacher was telling us all of the history behind it, but unfortunately I could not hear her because there were 39 of us trying to weasel our way in closer to her. I soon gave up and just looked at my surroundings and couldn't grasp the fact I was in Rome. I've seen pictures, I've been thinking about all of these landmarks since i can last remember, and here I was, standing a few feet away from this very old structure.

We had tickets to tour it, so we went in and climbed stairs to the second level and walked around the entire building. Words cannot describe what it was like to walk through it. It wasn't on my list of things to see over here, but it was mind blowing. Kory is very into history and watching discovery channel and all I could think about was "wow, I cannot wait to bring him back here and experience this with him." He'll probably appreciate it ten times more than me and we'll know everything there is to know about it within five minutes of being there — He said so himself.

After the Colosseum Jess, Kate and I went to grab lunch from this grab 'n' go place. Thank god it was time for food because all I ate was a yogurt and granola bar at 7:00 and it was not 1:00. When I get hungry I get weak and grumpy, as many of you probably already know.

The place had seats under a tent, and the best past about lunch was that it was right across the street from the Colosseum. My friend Jess couldn't have said it better, "Guys, we're eating lunch in front of the Colosseum. This is unreal."

After lunch we met back up with the group of 39 and our we went to the Pantheon. The church was gorgeous and breath taking. It was simply a massive circle shape with an opening in the ceiling. The floors even had holes to drain the water for when it rains.

Next, our itinerary allotted us free time for the rest of the day. I was wide awake and was all set to keep walking around, but a lot of my friends still had to check into their hotel rooms because they were not ready when we arrived. So I went back and laid on my bed to wait. Before I knew it, sleepiness overwhelmed me. It was about 4:30 so I set an alarm for 5 for a little cat nap. Didn't wake up so easily and slept until 6:30. It was a much needed nap.

Once Lydia and I gathered a few of our friends we ventured out to see Rome. We found the Trevi Fountain and I fell in love with it. It's so beautiful, especially when it's lit up at night. We didn't have coins on us so we didn't make any wishes that night. I asked a guy sitting down to take a picture of my friends and I. After we asked him if he was American and he and his friends told us they were from Minnesota studying Spanish is Madrid. It was really cool to meet people from my country and a state I've never been to. There are so many students studying all over Europe and it's always cool to run into them.

Afterwards we went back to wake up our friend Erika and then we stumbled upon this fantastic restaurant. I cannot remember the name, but they had a special for bruchetta, any type of pasta or pizza, homemade dessert for €16! The group of six of us all got the special and ordered two bottles of water and two bottles of wine. Everything was to die for! It was probably the best mean I've had since arriving in Italy. And the people working there were so friendly and welcoming, it just topped off the evening.

After being stuffed silly, we made our way to the rest of our friends at a bar called Trinity College and then made our way back to the hotel where I crashed into my bed. Walking all day and going hard from 6:45 A.M. to 1 A.M. the next day wears on you.

Saturday

I was able to sleep in a little later. About an hour later. Not good enough. When my alarm went off I've been more confused in my life. I was in such a deep sleep and in such a deep dream that I was completely thrown off when reality woke me.

After showering, grabbing breakfast from the hotel, and meeting the group in the lobby at 9:30, we began our busy, event-filled day. Our chaperone, Petra, whom I love, led us on a 20 minute walk to Vatican City. This trip was unreal. This was the one item on my itinerary I was really looking forward to. I just wish I wasn't so tired during it all.

We met my Italian Art teacher at the entrance of the Vatican museum. He told us the Vatican has about 10,000 rooms inside of it which is crazy! It took about 2 or 3 hours to walk through the entire thing, which didn't include walking around and looking at every room.

I really appreciated the fact that we had headsets that our teacher spoke to us through and talked us through our walk about the history of everything. In the Sistine Chapel I learned that Michelangelo painted it. It took him four years when he thought it would take him one. He stood up the entire time while painting it, even while he was painting the ceiling. You would think he would have been lying down on something while doing the ceiling, but he didn't. My teacher said Michelangelo said he could never read books the same way again because his eyes were so used to looking up while painting.

The really cool fact I learned was that Michelangelo was recommended by an artist named Rafael. He recommended him because he thought Michelangelo would screw it up and would it would make Rafael look better than him, but it did the exact opposite.

We ended the tour at St. Peter's Basilica. During my time there I had an emotional moment, and I really have no idea why. I knelt down to pray in front of Pope John Paul II's tomb. I started thinking about my mom and how happy I was that I get to share this with her here in a few months. Pope John Paul II is her favorite and I thought to myself, wow, I'm sitting right in front of him. I'm just thankful for everything that I have and for these experiences I am able to take on.

My friend Bethany and I decided it was time to leave after a half hour of looking around. While we were walking we watched these two men trying to avoid the police. We saw a man holding scarves hiding behind a truck and then a police car turn on its lights. The road was blocked because it was one way so the tiny police car had to go all the way to the end of the road and come back. Every time the police car did that the scarf man ran across the street and then the police would speed up and try to turn around again. The set up of the roads were definitely against the police but it was hilarious watching it. Needless to say, the police didn't catch them.

On our walk home we stopped at a restaurant for a quick lunch and ran into some Kent State people and ate lunch with them. It was a cute, quaint Italian restaurant off the main road. I had the pizza and cola deal for €10. Another good deal!

We met up with a couple of our other friends after lunch and made our way back to the Trevi Fountain. This time we made wishes!

After taking a much-needed hour and a half nap, I got all dressed up and the entire Kent group went out for a fully-paid, three-course meal at Trattoria Da Luigi. I scarfed down the first course, which consisted of pasta and risotto because I was starving and I thought that it was my dinner. However, I forgot pasta is only the first course meal here. Next we had what we think was a roast and potatoes. I'm not too much of a meat person except for chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers, but I didn't want to be rude, so I tried it. Eh, I tried it at least. The third course was salad. I find it funny it's their third course here because it's our first at home.

Lastly, I had tiramisu. SO GOOD. I could never get sick of such a good dessert.

Afterwards, Petra went out for a few drinks with us. We sat outside on a patio and were just talking and enjoying the night in Rome.

Sunday

Sunday morning I had to wake up an hour earlier than Saturday, but I just grew used to feeling exhausted. After chugging a cup of coffee and downing a pastry, we grabbed our luggage from our room that we packed the previous night.

After packing the bus up with everyone's luggage the bus drove us to Galleria Borghese. Rome was absolutely empty at 8:30 A.M. It was a different experience driving through Rome with no bumper to bumper traffic.

At the Galleria Rocky, my teacher described to us the history of everything while we walked past it, which was really cool. Seeing all of the stone sculptures was amazing. All of the sculptures started out as a block of marble, and somehow the artist created works of art that looked like an actual human being. It amazes me at what human beings were capable of back then. Now everything is done digitally and half the effort is put into everything. It's a let down.

The rest of the day Rocky led us around into a few churches and we were able to go into them and learn the history of them. Later a few of my friends grabbed lunch and ventured around Rome during our final hours in the city.

The entire Kent group took a shuttle from the hotel to the train station and we were home at 7 P.M. Walking home was a drag, but I was in bed and asleep by 12:30 which is early for me. I'm going to try to do the same tonight because I felt so refreshed with nine hours of sleep.

The trip was a lot in three days and it took a lot out of me, but I cannot complain about that because it was worth it all! I loved Rome, and I cannot wait to go back with my family when they visit in April!