ROME!

Holy cow, I'm in Italy!!!

I'll try to be as concise as possible to save you all the boredom of my impossibly long stories.

So we got to Rome on Friday without a hitch (yay!), and didn't end up doing too much. We met some Australians who were staying in our hostel and recommended this pizza place that charged you by the weight (and it was fantastic, by the way). We also visited the Piazza della Repubblica, which was really pretty at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get really good pictures of it because I couldn't get my hand to stay still.

Saturday we went with the Australians to see the Vatican city. We didn't get there until ten because one of them (Dan) thought there was this free tour at 1030 (but this wasn't true), so we ended up getting in this HUGE line to see St. Peter's Basilica. We had a bunch of tour guides come up to us and ask us if we wanted a guided tour, but they were all really expensive, so we kept saying no. But then we found out that the pope (for whatever reason) decided he wanted to close the Sistine Chapel at one and that we weren't going to get in to see it if we stayed in that line. We eventually haggled this one tour guide down to 20 euro (including admission fee when everyone else on the tour paid 25 euro and then the 14 euro admission fee; it was pretty sweet). I really liked our tour guide, and what's more, I LOVED the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel (we got in JUST in time to see it), and St. Peter's Basilica. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth wide open the entire time.

Then on Friday night, we took ourselves on a walking tour through Rome. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, adn the Spanish Steps. I got some pretty sweet night shots of them (which you should check out on my pictures page).

Saturday, four of us went to the Villa Borghese, specifically the Galleria Borghese. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely amazing. The walls and ceilings and even the floors were just COVERED in all of this fabulous art. AND I got to see Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, adn Rape of Persephone. I was completely blown away. We also got to check out the Villa itself for a little while and it was just so pretty; it was like this giant part with all of these sculptures and fountains, and it was just wonderful.

We got to see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on Saturday, and they were both SUPER cool. The Roman Forum was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be (it helped that we had a really good tour guide). I was just really excited to have gotten to see both of those things at night and then again during the day. I felt like I learned a lot, too, so that was a bonus.

Sunday we took ourselves on a tour of Rome, and we actually walked across the entire main part of the city throughout the day. We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli (has the MOST beautiful stained glass I've ever seen), the Trevi fountain (which wasn't on because they were working on it), the Pantheon (amazing dome!!), St. Ignacio di Loyola (BEST CEILING EVER!!), Piazza Navona (sad that the fountain was under construction), Castel Sant' Angelo, and then just walked down the Tiber River. It was a fantastic day.

So... I think everyone should visit my Picasa page and look at all of the wonderful pictures that I took. And I will update again after Florence!!