This past weekend may have been one of the best weekends so far! I went to Rome for three days and I had some great experiences. Since we have no classes on Fridays here in Perugia we were able to enjoy lots of time in Italy's capital. So when in Rome....
On Friday morning my roommate Erin and friend Kym started our journey to Rome! We got up at 5:30 in the morning in order to catch our train at 7 am. Rome is about 3 hours from Perugia by train and we got there in about 2 hours thanks to the fast train system in Italy. We got to ride on the Eurostar which is a fast train that can hit speeds up to 250 km/hour, believe me it was fast! We got to Rome in no time at all :)
Once we got to Rome we checked in at our hostel which was a 2 minute walk from the train station. I had never stayed in a hostel so I was a little nervous but it all worked out. We stayed in a 10 bed mixed dorm, we had roommates from New York City, Finland, France, and Australia. Everyone was really nice and very accommodating so my first hostel experience was an A+. After checking in we decided to see the sights in Rome. We first walked to the Pantheon which is one of the oldest churches in all of Italy. A lot of famous artists and past Italian leaders are buried inside. There is also a huge hole in the top of the dome called the oculus. I am not sure what the point of it was but it was still interesting that the hole is still there. And when it rains you will get wet!
After taking many pictures of the Pantheon we ventured over to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is famous all over the world and I was blown away when we first saw it. It is so much larger than I imagined and there were tons of people all around. One of the biggest reasons people come to the Trevi is to make their wishes. As the story goes, if you throw 2 coins in you will be ensured a trip back to Rome and find true love. So we all did it and we even took a video....
One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Rome was to see the Colosseum. I had dreamed about seeing it for a very long time. When I would be having a bad day at work over the Summer I would say to myself "when you're standing in front of the Colosseum this will all be worth it" and believe me it was! When I had my first glimpse of the Colosseum on Friday night I couldn't control myself. My friends laughed at me but I yelled "I see the Colosseum!" when I saw the tiniest piece of it many steps away. It was such a surreal experience to be standing under such a huge structure. It's hard to believe but that was only our first day in Rome!
After a very restful nights' sleep we got up Saturday morning and planned to spend almost the entire day in the Vatican City. We took the metro to a location just outside the Vatican walls and went to the Vatican Museum. If you ever go to the Vatican Museum please make reservations. Erin made us reservations before we left and it was well worth it. The line to get in the museum was almost 3 hours long but with our reservations we went right in. The museum is huge! You could spend an entire day in there and still not see everything. I knew exactly what I wanted to see before going so we headed straight to the Sistine chapel. It's odd but the Sistine chapel is literally in the museum itself. There is no photography allowed inside but it was incredible. When I stepped inside it was an out of body experience. I am not a big fan of art history but the paintings are unreal. And just imagining Michelangelo himself painting the ceiling took my breath away. The chapel is very small but so amazing. It is also still used today when the cardinals elect a new pope. I think it seeing the chapel was my favorite part of our weekend.
When we finished with the museum we headed straight to St. Peter's square to see the inside of the basilica. Walking into St. Peter's square was another unforgettable experience. The sheer size of it was larger than I had pictured. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to get into the basilica but it was well worth it because when we got in we saw signs saying we COULD take pictures with flash! This may not seem like much but considering you can't take pictures inside almost any church in Italy it was incredible we could take as many pictures as we wanted of the biggest basilica in the world! Needless to say I snapped as many photos as I could.
The greatest part of the basilica is seeing Michelangelo's Pieta. This is one of his earliest sculptures he did when he was only in his twenties. It is of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified. When I first laid eyes on the sculpture I was very moved by it. It was another one of those moments that just made me speechless. And best of all we could take pictures of it! To protect the sculpture it is behind bulletproof glass....
I hope everyone had a restful weekend and I want to congratulate the Lebanon Valley football team for winning their homecoming game this past Saturday, way to go dutchmen!! Also a big congrats to the LVC field hockey team who is 14-0 right now!! I am so proud to be a dutchmen today :)
Italian word of the post:
Amico - friend
Have a great week everyone!
Morgan :)
Here is a link to my Facebook so you can see the rest of my photos from Rome! Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240292&id=604955888&l=f6936a666f
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