Roma

This weekend I visited Rome with one of my roommates. Besides Cinque Terre and Milan, Rome is definitely my new favorite Italian location. It was a big city, but still filled with culture, and it was also relaxing which was very nice. We stayed with her extended Italian family members in their apartment in the city. They were so kind and it was so great to have a home cooked meal, and of course great tour guides! Only one of them spoke English so we also worked on out Italian A LOT this weekend, which was really fun. Although I still don’t know how to say everything I want to, I am getting a lot better and can understand so much more when people speak Italian to me or around me, so I am very satisfied currently.

Saturday we went to the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and many more amazing landmarks. Piazza Navona was my absolute favorite. It is filled with fountains, shops, churches, and many, many people. It was a great people watching location. On the main statue, in the fountain facing the main church, there is a man holding his hand out, blocking the church from his view. It is said that two different architects made the church and the fountain, so the second one made the statue blocking the church because he didn’t like the artist. No one really knows this for sure, they just interpret it this way, which I find funny and appropriately gossipy.

Sunday, we went to the Vatican. We waited in line for an hour to go inside and it was so worth it. First off as we got off of the bus, we saw a huge parade processing towards the church. It was a Brazilian church that would later process officially into the actual Vatican, which was very cool to watch. The Pope came out of the second window at 12 and unfortunately we were inside the Vatican at the time, so we missed him. But we saw the thousands of people outside his window waiting for him, which was crazy! The inside of the Vatican had so much detail. I would go back to Rome in a heartbeat. I almost didn’t go because I am running out of travel weekends! But I am so happy I didn’t leave Italy without seeing this great city.