[Insert experience in Rome here.] haha Sorry, I’ve been too caught up with stuff, but I promise to update after Switzerland!

6 giugno

Allora, this is wayyy overdue. 

Random stuff before Rome that I don’t want to forget

- Gelato festival: pera alla pepe rosa & spicy chocolate

- Passing by Vesuvio and chatting with Pauly D

- Il Latini: Bistecca alla fiorentina, crostini, moscato, limoncello, cantuccini

Our trip to Rome was on the weekend of the 28th. That Saturday, we went to check out the Vatican. We had a really cool tour guide and got to wear one of those audio things so we could hear what she was saying the whole time without having to always stand near her. We first went through the Vatican museums, which took forever, but our tour guide made it really interesting and funny. She is the only person I know who ever described Jesus as ‘sexy’ haha After the museums, we made our way to the Sistine Chapel. It was pretty intense in there. My neck started hurting from staring up at the walls and ceiling of the chapel. It was just so beautiful! After the chapel, we went to St. Peter’s basilica, aka the biggest church in the world.  They don’t play when they mean biggest, that place is ginormous. Michelangelo’s Pietá (sculpture of Mary carrying Jesus’ dead body) was there. I never thought I’d ever say this, but I got a little teary-eyed because I was really touched by that sculpture. Just by looking at it, you can feel the pain and emotions of a mother’s love that it’s trying to convey. The whole basilica was pretty intense. There were actually people breaking down in front of the Pope’s memorial. After walking around the church, we went outside to St. Peter’s Square. It felt so amazing that I was actually there because I’ve only seen these places in the movies (haha The Da Vinci Code/Angels & Demons) After the tour, the group kind of separated and some of us checked out the Castel Sant’Angelo and walked around the city for a bit. Then we had dinner all together. As always, you’re guaranteed to have amazing food when you’re with Chiara. Then something really strange happened after dinner. I drank a lot of wine during dinner, but I swear I wasn’t drunk or anything.. but I fainted for the first time! I have no idea why. I got dizzy and blacked out for like 2 seconds and then I was normal again. So weird! That’s never happened to me before. So because of that, I decided not to go out that night. Everyone just kinda went back to the hotel because they were tired too. Btw, our 4-star hotel was pretty legit.

Sunday, we did a lot of walking.. we checked out the Colosseum/Roman forums, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi fountain. I finally got to see the Colosseum! We just walked around it, but didn’t get to go inside. Which just means I def have to go inside next time! We walked over to Piazza Navona and check out the 4 rivers fountain. Rome has about a million churches and fountains. The Pantheon and the Trevi fountain were beautiful, even though they were a bit crowded. If you throw a coin into the fountain, it means that you will come back to Rome. I threw one even though I was for sure gonna come back to Rome 2 more times this month. When we went to see the Spanish Steps, we could barely see the steps because it was so crowded with Palermo soccer fans. There was a game that night and everyone in the streets were wearing pink(the team’s color). It was pretty insane. I’ve never seen so much pride in my life. It reminded me of Queen’s Day in Amsterdam, except instead of orange it was pink.  After the tour, we got gelato (honey & pear, soo good!) and lunch (spaghetti alla carbonara). 

We had a lot of free time so we just walked around the city. I’m so glad I’m coming to Rome again, there’s too many things I didn’t get to go see that weekend. Roma, see you soon!