Roma

It's been a over a month since I've had a spare minute to write a post, but that's only because my days have been packed with more great experiences and visits from even better people! In the past month, I've taken two weekend visits to Rome, one to Venice, and a day trip to Viareggio for Carnevale! I will write about Venice and Viareggio shortly, but here I'll do my best to combine both my Rome experiences into one explanation.

The first weekend I went to Rome was a trip planned through my program. We stayed in a very basic and inexpensive hotel on the very edge of the city, and had to take the metro to get anywhere close to the center. We had many planned tours of the city, churches, the Vatican, the pantheon, and the colosseum. It was incredible to see such renowned works and ruins, and it seemed surreal to be standing where such ancient stories took place. On Sunday, we were able to attend mass at the Vatican in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Because he had just chosen the new Cardinals, it was a special occasion and mass in the church was open to the public. Because of the long lines and pre-arranged tickets, we didn't make it inside, but we sat outside in folding chairs watching it on a large screen. The service was all in Italian, but certain verses or readings were read in other languages once in a while, which was a very nice touch. After mass, we were also able to see the blessing of the Pope from his office window. It was fun to pick up the bits and pieces of the blessing I was able to understand. He made a point of blessing all study abroad students, which definitely stood out to me.



One of my favorite spots that we went for dinner was called Tony's. It is well known among all study abroad students, and is a friendly atmosphere with good, reasonably priced food. The owner, Tony, with very friendly and is known to bring large groups free wine, appetizers, and dessert. Another one of the highlights was finding a Sushi restaurant! After 2 months of eating Italian food, I had been craving sushi. For 15 euros, we found an "all you can eat" deal, and it was so great. Mediocre sushi never tasted so good!

I came back to Rome two weekends later with my family and my boyfriend, Keenan. Keenan was only there for a day after visiting Florence for a week, but it still fun to show him another city before he left the country. Although the tours were a bit redundant, I very much enjoyed my time with my family in Rome. We had some beautiful roof top meals and stayed at a nice hotel, right in the center of Rome by the Pantheon. With my family, I was able to see the Roman forum and the catacombs, which I was unable to get to on my previous visit. My favorite was the forum. The history was incredible, and it was a beautiful day to walk around such ancient roads.

All in all, Rome was a fun city to visit, but felt much more overwhelming and larger than Florence. I'm happy to be living where I am, but the history and Roman experience is definitely worthwhile.