ROME!

We nearly missed our bus to the Malaga airport but luckily we and all of our luggage made it to Rome. We stayed at a very nice hotel that was close to the Vatican. After taking our luggage to our rooms, we immediately set out to find Italian food! We stopped at the first restaurant we came across and all of us ladies thoroughly enjoyed out first meal in Rome. Afterwards we found the most amazing gelato place which we frequented several times during our stay :) Breakfast in the hotel was to die for, as were the LONG baths and showers. Water conservation is a big deal in Europe and there are a lot of problems with drought and insufficient water supply. Therefore, showers are very quick and unenjoyable. Needless to say we enjoyed our showers at the hotel (I think we deserved it). For breakfast I had fruit (grapefruit, blood oranges, mysterious type of melon), chocolate cake, croissant with nutella, toast and blueberry jam…After eating all we could we went on a bus tour around the city. We stopped at the Colosseum and saw the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum. It was unbelievable to see these old, historical monuments right beside modern buildings (by modern I mean 19th and 20th c.), but that was the way it was all over Rome. The Colosseum was so much bigger than I even imagined, hence why it is now referred to as the Colosseum instead of it’s original name, the Flavian Ampitheater. We also went to St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City. It is an independent state (the smallest in the world) and the residence of the pope. After lunch we headed to the Spanish Steps. Although we did not know their significance at the time, we figured they were important to us since we were visiting from Spain. I did some research later to find out that they form the tallest and widest staircase in Europe and that the area below the steps is the Spanish Piazza. This piazza was actually Spanish territory at one time during the 17th c. It is said that anyone trespassing (unsuspecting tourist) could be forced to join the Spanish army. I’m not sure how true that tale is. There was a fountain in the piazza, one of many beautiful surprises throughout the city. We proceeded to walk to the Trevi Fountain. As soon as you turned the corner to the plaza it was right there and it seemed so out of place yet so cool. Legend is that if you throw a coin into the Trevi fountain then you will return to Rome. Of course we all threw our coins in (and have pictures to prove it). We went to a wonderful little Italian (of course) restaurant for dinner and after gelato we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. The next day (Sunday) I wanted to go to mass at St. Peter’s. Of course I wanted to do it right and go to the greatest church in the world for my first catholic mass experience. I wasn’t the only one with that idea though and so the line was unbelievably long when we got there. Luckily it moved relatively fast and within 20 minutes we were through the metal detectors and inside. The church was massive and was decorated with so much gold. Constantine built it on the site where Peter was crucified, and we saw the statue of St. Peter inside the church. Even though the mass was in latin and Italian I enjoyed the experience. I went up and got a cracker for communion from one of the priests too. After the service we waited in St. Peter’s square outside the basilica because the pope delivers a blessing to the people there every Sunday at noon. He sits in his bedroom window and they have a sound system set up. He spoke in Italian, Spanish and English so that the visitors could understand too. We thought it was really cool. After lunch we went to find the Pantheon. There was a plaza surrounding it with a McDonalds right across from the Pantheon. It was a very nice McDonalds but the thought of it irked me. The ceiling inside was so neat. It was so precise that it looked fake or digital or something. We read that it would be a difficult if not impossible feat to construct the same type of ceiling today even with all of our advanced technology. It is the only intact structure remaining from the classical period and although originally built as a pagan temple it was converted into a church in 609 AD. Next we journeyed to the Fonte Paolina which was a cool fountain that looked out over the city and was right next to the Spanish Embassy. There were Italian guards with huge machine guns guarding the embassy and they scared us at first, but I went up and started talking to them because we wanted a picture with them so that we could show yall these guns. They said they couldn’t be in any pictures but we did get to talk to them for a while and one of them spoke English very well. After getting slightly lost we found the Garibaldi Monument which is a huge bronze statue of Garibaldi on a horse. It has an outlook that is a wonderful view since it is higher than the rest of the city. We found Santa Maria in Travestere and when we walked in there was evening mass going on so we stayed. Isn’t it funny that I attended my first two mass services on the same day? Don’t worry, I’m still very protestant  The inside of the church was beautiful and one of my favorite places in Rome. The choir was splendid and the priests walked around the church carrying the cross, a Bible and there was a man ringing an incense ball. I am sure that there is a technical name for that procession but I’m not sure what it is. For dinner I had grouper linguine which was amazing. I wasn’t expecting to come across grouper in Rome, but I’m glad that I did! Some of our friends went back to the hotel after dinner but Charlotte, Kelley and I kept on exploring. We were bent on seeing everything possible on our last night in Rome! There is this little island of shops and buildings built on a bridge that we walked over named Isola Tiberina. I thought it was cool but thought that a little café or ice cream place there would have been perfect which failed to exist. We saw the ruins of the Teatro Marcello which was fascinating. It was used as a model for the Colosseum and built by Augustus in the 1st century. In the ruins surrounding the theatre you could see layers of different materials where one structure had been built using the foundation of another. We kept walking and saw the Campodoglio. My camera died before this so unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the last day of my trip :( It was so surreal being in Rome, and seeing all the architecture and monuments that we have studied for so long was amazing.

I really wanted to add pictures throughout this blog, but either there's an easy way to do it that i haven't discovered or this site is not image friendly. Sorry :(

Ashton