When in Rome

I think one of my favorite trips so far was the trip I took to Rome with my friend Erica. Everything went so well during the trip! We saw my friend Rupert, ate delicious food, stayed in the most comfortable (and conveniently located) bed and breakfast, and we saw so many things even though we were only there for two full days.

Thursday night we got in quite late, so we stayed at Rupert's apartment for just the first night. So moving on to Friday.

Friday: Erica, Rupert, and I set out to explore a bit of Rome. Since Rupert is studying there, he knew of some cool churches to take us into and an AMAZING pizza place to eat lunch.

Rupert then left us to explore Vatican City on our own. At first it looked like Erica and I weren't going to have much luck with the rest of our day; The Sistine Chapel, though beautiful, was a little underwhelming and took less than an hour. We wanted to see St. Peter's Basilica afterwards, but a guide told us the Basilica was closed for the whole day.Then we were foolish and stopped for coffee in the Vatican (BAD IDEA) and ended up paying 5 and a half euros each for a small cup of coffee… However, our luck turned around because as we were leaving, we decided to take one last picture of the Basilica, and we realized it had reopened! Though the line was long, it moved quickly, and the inside of St. Peter's was well worth the wait! On top of that, we were surprised to learn that the Pope himself was giving mass! Though neither of us are Catholic, it was still really cool to accidentally be in the same room as the Pope! We even had a pretty good view of him, and it was cool to hear him speak (even though we couldn't understand).

Here's the Pope!

Me and Erica outside of St. Peters Basilica

Later that night, Erica and I met up again with Rupert, and we ate some more delicious food and saw the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the cat sanctuary (yes that's a real place) and the New Plaza all in one night! We had a great time walking all around Rome and seeing the different sights.

Me and Rupert outside the Pantheon

The Trevi Fountain! We made many wishes

Spanish students on the Spanish Steps!

Saturday: Erica and I once again met up with Rupert to do a tour of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. It was incredible! The Forum was massive, and we wandered around for a good two hours, taking tons of pictures. Then we headed over to the Colosseum. It was really amazing for me to see all these ruins, and I especially enjoyed going into them because I know little to nothing about Roman history. Now I feel like I can say I know something! That took a good bit of the day. We said goodbye to Rupert after lunch, and then Erica and I did some shopping and more eating.

The Roman Forum

Me and Erica inside the Colosseum

We met up with our friends Nikita and Lizzie and two of their friends for dinner. I swear, every meal was more delicious than the last. And we found a DELICIOUS gelato place that dips your gelato in chocolate. Oh my god. I thought I was going to die of happiness. Even though the dinner we had eaten had me STUFFED, I couldn't resist the cookie batter chocolate dipped gelato.

Sunday morning Erica and I woke up early to catch our flight. We were very sad to say goodbye. Rome was absolutely incredible, and I hope I can go back soon! One weekend was simply not enough.