"like a big pizza pie"

I now understand the phrase "when in Rome." Maybe I don't know exactly where it came from, but I justified the amount of pizza and gelato consumed this weekend with that phrase. With only a day and a half to spend in the beautiful city of Rome, I think I checked just about everything off of its to-do list, mostly due to how well everything seemed to fall into place for myself and my friends!

First off, our hostel (maybe not the best place ever, don't worry Mom, I survived so that's all that matters) was right around the corner from the train/bus station which definitely cut down on travel time and money. Then, seeing as it was already 5pm on Friday, we realized we had to hit the ground running. After some researching, we stumbled upon the information that the Vatican is open during the summer at night so we bought our tickets and began our journey over to the Vatican (about a 4 mile trek). Stop one was the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately it was under construction and there was no water and gates were all around it, but I still made an imaginary wish and basked in its Hollywood glory. Stop two was pizza. It was so. Good. Stop three was the Vatican. It was amazing seeing everything inside the museum, we even stumbled upon a live concert in the garderns, and then the Sistine Chapel. It's hard to describe that work of art because you just sit in the chapel for minutes upon minutes wondering how it's possible for one person to paint the entire room including the famous ceiling. Stop three was gelato, maybe equally amazing as the Vatican. Not really, but it's a close call. Stop four was taking a taxi back because our feet couldn't handle any more.

 

Trevi fountain minus water, but then our restaurant had a painting of it so it's practically like we saw it
Just look at that pizza

 The Vatican (that's St. Peter's Basilica)

yummmmmmm 

Day two, we got up and crushed the town. First stop was the Colosseum. Heather is basically a genius because we bought tickets ahead of time and got to skip out on the entire line for the most part and then do our own thing once we got inside.

Much like the rest of
the city with ruins
tucked away all over
the place, it's amazing
that something so old
and so grand can be a
part of normal landscape. It's also just mind-blowing that something like this is still standing and can handle having thousands of visitors
every day. Even by 1130 it was already a rather hot day so we ventured around to find a place for lunch and again, we had pizza. After giving our bodies a rest, we went back to the Roman Forum which is essentially ruins of the basic city buildings the Romans used, yet we can see similarities in our modern day cities. I'm only sharing one picture on here so just know that it does not nearly capture the immense spread of ruins laid out. Following that, we had to tap out. We walked back to our hostel, stopping for gelato, and then took a siesta (our bodies are so used to Spain things) and then changed to go back out to the Vatican.

 

           

I guess I'll start to sound repetitive, but going inside St. Peter's Basilica, which I think is the largest Basilica in Europe, was just amazing and so immense. It was also really cool because they were holding Mass while we walked through and we got to hear some of it. Then we found our way to restaurant suggested to me in one of the prettiest little neighborhoods I've ever seen. The neighborhood: Trastavere. The restaurant: Dar Poeta. The verdict: life-changing. The three of us all got our own pizza and then shared pieces, but essentially we all ate an entire pizza then proceeded onto dessert aka Dar Poeta's famous Nutella Calzone. It was huge, yet we, mainly me, finished the entire thing much to the amusement of the other patrons. Hands down one of the best meals of my entire life. After that, we just took it easy and casually strolled the streets of Rome back to our hostel, stopping to see the Pantheon, listen to street performers, buy souvenirs, and just take in it's natural beauty. It had also rained a lot earlier in the evening which was a blessing in disguise because it turned into a fantastic, cool evening.

 

(left) Just a glimpse of the interior of St. Peter's
(above) The Pantheon

 

I don't even know how to describe to you how delicious and perfect this meal was. 

We all three crashed, I fell asleep watching the Italy game live streaming on my phone because we didn't have the energy to go find a place at midnight to watch it. We did however hear the cheers from the streets when they scored both goals. 

Now the reality of life will set back in because I have class tomorrow. It's hard to believe I only have two full weeks of class remaining! It's flying by and with World Cup mania picking up, there's no slowing down! 

Ciao!