PERI: When in Rome :)

    This past weekend was a Spanish holiday known as Puente.  Monday was Constitution day and Wednesday was Immaculate Conception day, so lucky for us, we had a 6 day holiday!!  Mitzi, her friend Kristin, my roommate Elizabeth, and myself ventured to Rome!  It was an incredible trip.  Originally we had thought about going to Rome and various other cities in Italy since we had such a long break, but the trains between towns are either expensive or slow... and I am so glad that we decided to spend all five days of our trip in Rome!  We stayed at a nice little hostel that ended up being in the perfect location for exploring the city.  Rome has a terrible metro system (we were informed that the reason the metro is so outdated and has so few lines is because it is impossible to build an underground metro because they are constantly running into ruins beneath the city), so we ended up walking A LOT.  I would say we walked at least 7-8 miles every day.  The first night we were there we ran into some bad weather and got stuck out in a rain storm, but other than that the weather was pretty good.

View from hostel window.

    There is SOOO much to say about Rome that I do not even know where to begin.  We did a great job waking up early and hitting the touristy sites to avoid lines.  There are so many historical and interesting things to see in Rome-- there are literally picture-worthy sites every place you look!  But I feel like we were very efficient in the sites that we saw :)  I think it will be easier to read and write if I list them by day:


Friday: Trevi fountain by night, Pantheon, and a little of the area around our hostel

Trevi Fountain at night

Saturday: St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican City.  These two sites literally took ALLLL day.  We got to the Basilica about 8:30am and were able to walk right in.  The Basilica was so vast that it was hard to comprehend its beauty, one could spend days soaking it all in.  The Vatican was phenomenal, but a lot like the Louvre in Paris in that there is so much to see, and the exhibits are so big, that they become a bit monotonous after a while.  The Sistine Chapel was absolutely mind boggling and fantastic.

Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

Inside Sistine Chapel

Sunday: Colosseum, Palatino, and Spanish steps.  The Colosseum was absolutely incredible.  The ruins of what is left are so interesting and look different from every angle.  The exhibition they had there about the Colosseum and the events that used to take place there was fascinating.  The Spanish steps are a very large staircase that go up from a main plaza with lots of shops to higher ground in the city.  We sat on the steps eating gelato and people watching.

In front of Colosseum with the rip-off street gladiator...

Inside Colosseum

Spanish Steps

Monday: Took a half hour train ride to Frascati, a small town in a more country area.  The town was so quaint and cute, it was great to get out of the city.

Quaint little Frascati

Along with those main events, we also explored various things, we were always finding something interesting on our walks around the city.

Another very notable thing about Rome is the FOOD!  Honestly, the second we finished one meal we could not wait to feel a little pang of hunger so we could eat again :).  The pizza, gelato, and of course the pasta were to die for!  There are so many other things to mention about beautiful Roma, unfortunately pictures and words just don't do it justice.

Us four ladies at a Romantic Italian dinner :)                          And delicious pasta!!