While In Rome...

So Rome was, no doubt, the best weekend vacation I’ve had so far!!!! Mainly because of the people (awesome group—shoutout Mica, Anna, Jill y Colin), the food, the hotel and the weather!  We were well rested (not) Friday morning when we had to meet our group at 4am but the traveling wasn’t bad!  It is so much easier when our program takes care of everything!!!  Funny thing is that our program is so big that we were separated into two groups to fly there and back… and for some reason one group had Alitalia and the other Ryan Air.  We happened to luck out and get Alitalia so our flight was so much nicer, we got food and drinks and our seats reclined : ) Once we arrived in Rome, Mica and I almost had a nightmare because we decided to go to the restroom right after landing to find out that our group just kept on walking… whoops.  We miraculously ended up running into them in the Baggage Claim though!  We took a bus to the hotel—so scary… Italians are such crazy drivers and cars are parked everywhere in the already tiny streets so it’s like driving through an obstacle course.  We arrived at the hotel—HEAVEN!  I cannot believe it but somehow API got us a four star hotel and it was amazing!  I seriously had never been so comfortable since I arrived in Europe.  We each had double beds, a really nice bathroom with a BATHTUB and an amazing breakfast included.  I took two baths while we were there—honestly, the best decision I’ve made.  I’ve been craving baths and after walking so much it was so relaxing and soothing for all my sore muscles!  We started out right by having a guided tour of the Vatican!  Really cool, learned a lot that I hadn’t learned before… it was really cool having seen it already but now being able to learn more detail.  After the Vatican, we had a bus tour of the whole city which was really nice to find our bearings and get to know the city.  I find it amazing that it only took 150 years to build St. Peters and it’s so gorgeous… built with 150 different types of marble.  Friday, we basically ate a lot and then roamed around and found the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon.  The food we had was so good!  I have never had such an amazing calzone—tomatoes, mozzarella, basil & pesto and olive oil.  On Saturday we got a guided tour of the Coliseum and the Forum, which was really nice.  The Coliseum was probably my favorite.  Last time I had been to Rome I wasn’t able to go in so it was really cool this time and to learn all sorts of facts!  After that, we walked ate more pizza and walking around the city.  We tried to make it to the Vatican Museum by 4:00pm, but it ended up being a disaster.  There were so many people that walking the city took a lot longer and even after running for a straight 10 minutes like a madwoman, we didn’t make it in time : (  But it’s alright and we had a really long game of “Would You Rather” for about 2 hours—the majority of it based on AARY POTTA!  So instead, we ate more and decided to take naps.  We were refreshed and got some good wine and then went to dinner and roamed around the city more.  We found the Spanish steps but for some reason we didn’t walk up to the top to see the beautiful view?  Funny thing but as we were walking home, Colin looks over and says “You’re last name is Rosati right?”  Apparently, we had walked right by our restaurant at least five times already and I hadn’t even seen it!  The whole time I had been looking and it was right in front of me!  I was excited to see it again though!  We were exhausted so we went home and decided to rest up so we could wake up early for a long day on Sunday!  We had an awesome breakfast downstairs and then set out to see Piazza Novana and buy souvenirs!  At 11:30 we returned to Vatican City for the third time in three days to see the pope!!!! It was such a cool experience, I’m glad I can check that off of my bucket list!  He greeted and blessed everyone in more than 10 languages, very nice!  It began drizzling a little bit but it was definitely worth it!  After that we ate more pasta and pizza and, of course, gelato before Jill, Colin and Anna had to go home—they were in the other group and returned home five hours earlier on a different flight.   So Mica, Le and I stayed and walked around the city shopping and checking out more sites!  It had been raining but it cleared up and ended up being very nice!  We found the Spanish steps again and walked to the top to see a beautiful view!  We also ran into a little parade which was cute!  It was sooo adorable while we there because of Carnaval I think and all of the little kids run around the city dressed up and throw confetti everywhere!!  The streets were COVERED!  Oh yeah, that’s one thing about Rome.  I’m so used to Barcelona and Rome was a lotttt more dirty!  But I still loved the city!  I felt like we really got to know the city while we there—I knew my way around, it was cool.  And the people were soo nice there!  I had Amatriciana while we were there and, I have to admit, mine’s better : )  The food was SO good though, I know I definitely gained weight that weekend!  Also, I happened to get gelato five times in three days.  Whoops.  This weekend was really fun though and best part—because the program paid for the hotel and tours and everything, all we paid for was food. = AWESOME.  Ciao!