Guess I should blog about the last 4 cities I've been in, huh?
After a very early morning on literally 45 minutes of sleep, I packed up my
things in
Barcelona and headed to the airport
with Christina, Emily and Lane for a weekend in
Rome to finish off Spring Break.
When we landed, Lane's dad greeted us at the airport and drove C, E and I to
our bed and breakfast. Thanks Lane's dad! After checking in and dropping off
our things, the three of us had a pizza lunch then headed off to see the
Spanish steps and Trevi fountain. So beautiful! My 2
nd favorite
thing about
Rome
was the Trevi fountain. I felt like I could sit there for an hour and enjoy
every second of it. We did some shopping, had our first gelato of the weekend.
We walked around, stumbling on the high end shopping street… Prada, Gucci, LV
etc. We had a pasta dinner at another small place near our B&B then had an
early night.
The next morning there was talk of plans of getting up and going to a mass…
we chose sleep instead and were all very happy with that decision. Later on we
headed into
Vatican City
for the tour that Emily and I had. It was absolutely incredible. It started
with museums with some great sculptures, a huge bath made of purple marble (the
most expensive kind in the world!), lots of Raphael paintings. Then we were in
the Sistine Chapel. Wow. Just spectacular. Snagged some illegal photos of the
ceiling and all the walls. It was marvelous. Then we walked outside and made
our way to St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s HUGE! There are marks along the floor
showing how big other churches around the world are. The vastness is just
amazing. There’s a Michelangelo sculpture too, of Mary holding Jesus. The tour
ended and Emily and I went down into the tombs where the bodies of past Popes
are kept. Very eerie. After walking through, and stopping at the gift shop, we
each mailed a postcard home and met up with Christina who was soaking up the
gorgeous sunlight in the square. We took some wonderfully touristy pictures in
front of the Basilica and then had an excellent meal of pizza right nearby.
When we’d finished we walked to the Pantheon… which was honestly anti climactic.
We couldn’t go inside so we snapped some pictures and headed off to do some
shopping because I still needed to replace my jacket. After a few hours of
shopping we had a late night dinner at a wonderful, cute restaurant. We ate
pasta outside, and Christina had a whole fish! She got to debone it! Ha! We
split a tiramisu before going back to our beds and crashing for the night.
The third day we met up with Lane and headed first thing to the Coliseum. We
had gelato for breakfast (lemon and frutti- yum!) and then opted to pay for a
skip-the-line guided tour. Wasn’t anything special, but we didn’t wait in the 2
hour line. The Coliseum was… incredible. Breathtaking. I absolutely loved it-
number 1 favorite thing of
Rome
by far.
I wanted to sit for
hours just taking it all in. We had a
tour of the Platno Ruins right next to the Coliseum as part of our
skip-the-line tour which was really interesting and the tour guide was very
knowledgeable. After that we wanted to find lunch, and we wound up at a little
restaurant near the Coliseum. Wine, bread, pizza, espresso, and giant gelatos
(mint and chocolate!) later we were all very happy and very full. (Thank you Lane’s
Dad for buying us lunch!) After that we turned the corner to go to St. Peter in
Chains where you can be the closest in the world to a Michelangelo. We wandered
around for a bit, stopping in a second church where some musicians were
rehearsing for a concert that night. We did some more shopping, then after the
sun went down we went back to the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain to see
it all lit up. So beautiful. We threw our last coins in and had our third gelato
for the day (chocolate chip, called something else though) and waited for Lane’s
dad to meet us there. We took a few more pictures, then went back to our
B&B for a few hours of sleep. Lane and her dad picked us up bright and
early to take us all to the airport back to Well.
Total gelato count for the weekend: six.
