If anything can be said about Rome, it is rich in history. Sadly though my memories of Rome are being literally drenched from head to foot, having pushy men force umbrellas in my face, friends being tricked out of money by sleazy guys dressed as Roman guards, staying 30 minutes outside of Rome in a jank hostel called Peter Pan and there being TWO, only two metro lines for the entire city of Rome. Also in order to catch a 7am flight, we opted out of sleeping for a night. Awesome. However, disregarding all of these things that make Rome sound awful, it really was a neat city. One of my favorite things I got to do was explore the ruins at the Roman Forum. Especially after reading the Francine Rivers Mark of the Lion series, I could actually see and feel like what it would have been like to live during the prime of the Roman empire.
After exploring Rome on our first day, we happened to run into two guys from our study abroad programs, Chris and Wilson. Although we figured this would happen since almost everyone from our program was coming to Rome at some point on our trip, we happened to run into them on a back road randomly. We were already a huge group, starting out as 10, but then we added two of Robynne's friends, and picked up these guys, which then made us a total of 14 (important to remember for later). We then explored Rome some more and went and saw the Trevi fountain (just like in the Lizzie McGuire movie)! haha
After our usual gelato for snack, we went to the Parthenon, and then went to eat at a well known pizza place called Pizzaria da Baffetto. I got a pizza with zucchini's on it, yum! That pretty much sums up our first day in Rome. On the next day we visited the Vatican city, the smallest country in the world. (Debatable?) It was amazing. Actually it was beyond amazing and completely not what I expected. St. Peter's Basilica was huge, enormous, grand, magnificent, larger than life. This is supposedly where St. Peter is buried, which is why there is a huge shrine dedicated to him. (picture below). There was also holy water, a dead pope covered in something that looked like candle wax, and Michelangelo's Pieta. Basically everything in there was historic and significant in some way. The Sistine Chapel was just as stunning. I was so in awe that my neck literally got a cramp from looking up and around for so long. Amazing, absolutely amazing. Wow. Words cannot describe how breathtaking it was. Obviously this picture showing the creation of adam will not suffice, but it'll have to do.
In the Sistine chapel we somehow ran into three of the students from ACU's study abroad program in Germany. What? How does that happen? Now I can say, "Oh yeah I ran into those guys in the Sistine chapel," like that's normal or something. This now made our total 17. Yeah 17. Then to be more ridiculous we heard from some more guys from our program who had decided to come to Rome earlier than planned. Naturally we met up with those five guys, which made us 22! Good job infiltrating and taking over Rome ACU, nicely done. Anyways after a meal with ALL of us. We did some more exploring, including going to the Spanish steps (where Audrey Hepburn has gelato in Roman Holiday) in the rain. Here is the picture of (almost) all of us:
After a tour of the coliseum, which oh by the way was free because we were accidently there on some holiday (whoop whoop), we took a tour of the Roman Forum, which I already talked about above. Chris and Wilson were our own personal tour guides, since they are both history buffs. Amara and I might have stayed behind to explore the ruins a little longer and to steal oranges from the orange trees in the Roman Forum. Although we made quite a spectacle (including a guy handing us an umbrella to use) the mission was accomplished when Andrew climbed behind some hedges to get into a tree with low branches. This next picture shows our triumph. Too bad they were sour and not edible.
Good, ACU appropriate times. After meeting back up with part of the group, we did some more exploring, including going to the liar's grate, which is the place where Gregory Peck pretends he's lost his hand in Roman Holiday. Afterwards we had the most incredible dinner where we met some amazingly nice people. For dinner we had pizza (surprise!) again at the Pizzeria da Baffetto (again, because we liked it so much). However, this time the line to get in was much longer. The people standing behind us in line happened to be from Houston. We chatted with them for the hour we were in line and we finally both got in to tables. While we were ordering the girls from the family found our table and told us their dad was paying for our meal. As a college student, free is the most precious and coveted word in the entire dictionary. After dinner we went to thank him for our meal. As poor college kids we ordered as poor college kids do (sharing, getting free water, etc) and 9 of us ate for less than his family of four. This Houston guy and his family then insisted in paying for our gelato at the place next door and it turned out to be some of the best gelato I had in Italy (I had lots to compare it to!). After having not so many great experiences in Rome, it was refreshing to meet such an amazingly nice and generous family. It was a great ending to our last night in Rome. Here is a picture of us with the family:
And that's the end of my Roman Holiday. Upcoming: Greece, where I met the love of my life. ;)
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