A Roma

Weekend!

Friday: Stayed in Arezzo and went out for some Mexican food! Yes there is a Mexican place in Arezzo and yes it is absolutely delicious. Brittany and I split the fajitas and they were great! ( I forgot it was Friday.) I also had my first legal libation that starts with an m and ends in argarita. Delicious as well. I'm looking forward to getting sushi and Chinese food sometime here too.

Saturday: Woke up very early to catch the 7:45 am train to Rome. We arrived at the termini and got to our hostel. I have much better faith in hostels. This one was ten times better than the one in Venice. We got some food and then headed straight to the Vatican.

Oh. my. goodness. I forgot how amazingly awesome the Vatican was. I was there ten years ago for the holy year. My parents and I were three out of the 40 million people that came to visit the Vatican. Crazzy. Ok so right as we stepped out of the metro, we found tour guides willing to take us. Cathy was our tour guide! She was awesome, and American so that was helpful. We first went to the pope's old palace which is now a museum, and saw a bunch of old statues, paintings, and tapestries. My favorite part of that museum were the Raphael paintings. Very very cool.

We then headed to the Sistine chapel where I got to see my favorite Michelangelo painting, "The Last Judgement." The guards there were Nazis, kicking people out who took pictures, and telling us to "SILENZIO." Sounds like some people had a long week.

We then headed to St. Peter's to look at the dead popes. One thing I didn't see last time was Pope John Paul II's tomb because clearly he was alive when I was there last. You can tell he has touched a lot of lives. There were a lot of people there praying in front of his tomb. And then I saw St. Peter's tomb, when I remembered last time we were there, mom dropped her sunglasses down the stairs and had to go get them. I also saw John XXIII. I have him to thank for listening to mass in English, and being able to eat meat on non lent Fridays. Lots of people were in front of his tomb as well so that was nice. The Pieta is my favorite Michelangelo sculpture so I was very happy to see that as well.

Then there was the climb to the top of the Cupola. Oh my goodness. Once again I'm praising the lord for not being fat, claustrophobic, afraid of heights, and the size of a small child. Those stairs would not end, hallways were narrow, and I am so out of shape, I was literally crawling towards the top. But it was so worth it. The view was spectacular, and we showed up right at sunset. It was absolutely beautiful.

We left St. Peters and went to find food. We found a great restaurant, and the weather was so nice, we sat outside and had a nice fun delicious meal. I had fettucine something. We then decided to go to the Trevi Fountain and I threw in a coin for Mama Kettler. Which is good because the whole saying is throw a coin once, you come back, throw a coin twice, you get married, and throw a coin three times, you get divorced. I already threw a coin when I was eleven, and getting married right now is not something enticing. But just in case I won't throw a coin in again...I'll pass on the experience of a divorce. Then we just sat there for an hour observing and talking. It was so nice. We ate some delicious gelato after then trekked to the Spanish Steps. We had a great time, but we were so exhausted, we passed out as soon as we got back to the hostel.

Sunday: We did the whole Roman ruins thing. Colesseum and all that jazz. It was cool to see, but wasn't my cup of tea. The Pantheon is awesome though. I can't believe something that old is in really good condition. Amazing. A few of us stumbled into St. Ignatious of Loyola, and that was so unbelievably beautiful. Then we got gelato, then off to Termini to head home. I had my first run in with a gypsy. He was so annoying. He literally held out his hand as if it was mandatory for me to give him money. "no...no...no...no...no...NO NO NO NO...VAI VIA!" He started to follow me and continued asking. Luckily I had an entourage of six people around me also telling him to go away. He gave up and moved on to other tourists. The end!