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| St. Peter's Basilica |
I woke up EARLY Thursday morning and headed
to the train station. I managed to pack only my backpack for the entire
weekend. I know, shocker. I'm usually the girl to bring a whole suitcase for a
week stay and a backpack for just spending the night. But I tried something new
this time. I’m proud that I was able to
consolidate into just a backpack though. It was really convenient.
At the Santa Maria Novella train station,
Sarah, Taylor and I validated our tickets and hopped aboard the train to Rome.
Don’t forget to validate your ticket!! There
is a huge fine if you forget.
We arrived in Rome and made our way to our
hostel, the Rose B&B and hostel to check in. They were very friendly and
accommodating. Since we had a half of day left, we decided to go to Vatican
City and see St. Peter's Basilica.
Fun Fact: Vatican City is the smallest
country in the world. It is located in the middle of Rome.
We had to figure out the metro but it wasn't
too hard. We just had to make sure we were going in the right direction. It was
like taking the subway in New York, which I wouldn't say I'm a pro at it. But
after this summer, I know a thing or two.
While at St. Peter's Basilica, we took
pictures and attended a mass. (Mostly everyone in Italy is Catholic). This was
my first church service in Italy, so in my mind I thought that it was going to
be spoken in English. I patiently waited for the service to start thinking I
was going to be able to listen and follow along. Imagine my surprise, when the priest
started speaking in Italian. I had no idea why I was thinking the service would
be in English. Since I could only understand a few words all I could do was
follow the gestures and actions of what the rest of the congregation did. It
was a nice service and I’m glad that I was able to experience it.
Friday
We took the subway to a bus stop that was far
away and tried to catch the bus to go see the catacombs.
I didn’t know this but apparently, you're
supposed to go see those while in Rome. Personally, I never knew that but my
roommate, Sarah was super excited about it. After missing 3 busses because they
drove past us with out of order signs on them, we decided to go check out the
Colosseum instead. The Colosseum was awesome! Luckily, we bought an audio guide
and were able to listen to all the history that went along with it. There was
no way I was going to be able to enjoy the colosseum without knowing all the
background information. I learned so much.
Fun Fact: They used to fill the entire first
floor with water and have naval battles.
After another emperor came into power, he
built elevators that animals or people would come out of from a lower floor and
battle. Think when your favorite singer comes out of the floor at at music
awards show or concert.
They would also hold executions and make
people fight to the death.
After the colosseum, we went outside to the
Palentino. I think those are ruins of a nearby neighborhood but i'm not sure so
don't quote me on it.
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| Palentino |
After lunch near the colosseum, we walked
back over to catch the bus to the catacombs. We arrived at the catacombs and
had a tour around.
We went underground and looked at the
catacombs. It was interesting and I learned something new though. People were a
lot shorter back then... and unfortunately, the life expectancy was like 19
years old. Something that was not so cool to find out was a lot of children
died.
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| Catacombs |
On Saturday, we woke up ridiculously early to
catch the train to Naples. When I say ridiculous, I mean we woke up at like 4
am to catch like a 5 am train. Once in Naples, we had to take the
circumvesuviana, which was like the subway except it is above ground. We
arrived at Pompeii. Waking up and catching the train that early was totally
worth it. I was incredibly excited to be at Pompeii because I remember learning
about this in grade school. We each paid to get an audio guide that looked like
a telephone and we were able to listen to the history of each cite. There is
like no way you can go to Pompeii and not buy one of these things, unless you
want to have a good walk.
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| Pompeii |
Pompeii is huge. It is a whole town that you
can wall all over. You could easily spend an entire day there walking around
listening to the history. If you do decide to go to Pompeii, wear proper
walking shoes, as there are uneven/hilly roads that you have to climb up and
lots of gravel.
We spent the morning there and then in the
afternoon we signed up to go up Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano that erupted and
covered all of Pompeii. We rode in vehicles most of the way up and we were able
to hike 15 to 20 minutes to the top and see the crater. You could even see
steam (smoke) coming out of the crater because the volcano is still active.  |
| On top of Mt. Vesuvius |
On Sunday, we covered the rest of Rome. We walked
to Piazza della Repubblica, the Rome version, and took pictures. (We have one
in Florence as well.) I think that this is the place where Paolo takes Lizzie
on his Vespa, in The Lizzie McGuire movie, (if you remember watching that
movie) but I’m not 100% sure. We took
the Metro to meet Alessio and his friends for breakfast. Alessio is my friend,
who did a study abroad year at my high school during my senior year. He is
originally from Rome. We had a traditional Italian breakfast. He explained that
he and his friends like to go bar hopping on Sunday mornings because it is the
only time that they can all get together.
I had caffe e cornetto (coffee and a
croissant). It was nice to hang out in a big group and sit around, drink
cappuccinos and eat pastries. The only difficulty was we only spoke a little
Italian and Alessio’s friends only spoke a little English so there was a big
language barrier. Alessio speaks really good English from his year abroad in
the States. So he was able to translate back and forth some of the things said.
After that bar, we went to a pastry
shop where the majority of things are 30 or 40 centesimi (euro cents). Of
course, what I picked out ended up being more expensive but it was very worth
it. I can say that I will miss Italian pastries when I get home to the states.
After saying goodbye to Alessio and his friends, we walked to the Pantheon,
Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona and the Trevi Fountain.
The Lizzie McGuire movie has been
one of my favorites since middle school so I’ve always wanted to see the Trevi
Fountain. I’ve wanted to throw a coin into the fountain and make a wish for
quite sometime now. For those of you who don’t know, the Trevi fountain is
currently under construction and will be until next year so that means there is
no water in the fountain and there is scaffolding covering the statue part of
the fountain. This was a huge disappointment. Looking on the positive side, I
was able to walk over the fountain and not many people can say the same
thing.
Unfortunately, I was not able to
throw my coin into the fountain and make a wish so I’m going to have to come
back to Italy one day and accomplish that goal.
After walking back to our hostel,
we grabbed our bags and headed to the train. It was time to go home to
Florence.
