I did soooo much sight-seeing this weekend! It was crazy. I went on a trip to Rome that was organized by the school. We left early again on Saturday (I can't handle all of these 6am departure times!) and made the 4ish hour ride to Rome. Once we were there, we went straight to the Colosseum and toured around there. It's one thing to see the Colosseum in movies, but it's really great to actually see it in person! After that, we got to see the Arch of Constantine and then got to walk around the Forum for a little while. Seeing all of these old structures in person is really cool since the US doesn't have anything this old standing!
After a quick lunch, we went on a 3 hour tour of the Vatican. For the tour, we all got a personal headset that we could listen to the tourguide through. We went through a lot of galleries. There were rooms upon rooms of tapestries, paintings, sculptures...you name it. Finally after walking around for forever (in the hot rooms with no places to sit), we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel! Michelangelo's painted ceiling is AMAZING. Seeing the one panel that shows Adam reaching to God in person was unreal. After the Sistine Chapel, we went to see Saint Peter's Basilica. It is HUGE in person. I've seen it a few times on TV, so I knew what it looked like, but I guess I didn't realize how big it actually was. We ended our tour in Saint Peter's Square, and I got to see the little window where the Pope looks out and blesses the people! (I didn't get to see the Pope, but the window was good enough haha!)
On our way to the hotel, we had to stop the bus and walk for a ways to get there because we were stopped by a parade. Apparently on the one weekend that we're in Rome, it happened to be the weekend of Rome's gay pride weekend as well! So there was a very flamboyant parade going on right in front of our hotel! It was actually a lot of fun though. It was also really cool because LADY GAGA was in Rome for the event, and gave a FREE concert!!! So yeah, I (along with most people on our trip) went down to this big open area near the Colosseum last night to hear her perform! It was awesome seeing her play in person. She only played a few songs, but for seeing her for free, we were all satisfied :)
Today we got up and did a long walking tour of the rest of the main highlights of Rome. We saw Navona Square, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Vittoriale and the Trajan Column, and also Trevi Fountain! Don't worry, I made sure I had coins with me so I could throw it backwards and make my wish to return to Rome someday! (Hey Mom and Dad, I threw one in for you guys too since you didn't get a chance to when you were there!) After the long tour, we went to a restaurant and had a traditional Roman lunch. Fortunately for us, it was a delicious 4-course meal (that was already paid for!). After we were all in food-comas, we made our last stop in Rome and went to the Catacombs of St. Domitilla. It was cool, but still a little creepy.
I'm so glad that I got to see everything in Rome that I did this weekend. Our schedule was a little jam-packed, but it was well worth it. I still need to load my pictures to my computer, so I'll have to post a few tomorrow. So check back later to see them!
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