Rome

This past weekend I went to Rome with my roommate Makenzie. We took the train Friday morning and arrived there at around two in the afternoon.  It was sleeting when we arrived and had lunch.  Then we figured out our way to take the bus to the hostel that we would be spending the next couple nights at.  Knowinng bus 64 was the key to our weekend.  After we dropped our bags off at the hostel that was located right near the Vatican, we decided to check that spot out first.  It was snowing out and freezing on our walk over there, but we were dedicated tourists.  After looking at the inside and outside of the Vatican we tried to go to the museum to look at the Sistein Chapel, but by that time the museum was closing.  We thought that we would just go back to our hostel at this time because it was starting to get dark and that we would try taking a shortcut.  That was the worst decision ever! We ended up getting lost around Rome because we walked ourselves off the map and could not figure out how to get back on the map.  We walked around aimlessly for three hours until we decided to warm up at a cafe.  Meanwhile our toes, fingers, and entire bodies were freezing cold from walking around in the cold slush.  The best decision we made was to just call a taxi from the cafe and bring us back to the hostel.  The taxi driver ended up bringing us back the exact way we had just walked from the museum and then back around the Vatican, the way we thought would have taken longer.  Lesson learned:  shortcuts in life never work.

The next day was still really bad weather. We went to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Colosseum.  We spent about three hours walking around until we were too cold again and went back to the hostel.  Thank goodness on the last day it was nice outside! We were so happy to actually see the sun.  We went back to every sight that we had went to earlier that weekend.  While walking over to the Vatican we heard a voice on a loud speaker system.  When we finally got to St. Peter's Square, we looked up and saw Pope Benedict XVI making a speech! We could not believe our eyes, it was probably one of the coolest things that I have ever witnessed.  After revisiting the rest of the sights we started exploring more and found the sight where they Romans held the chariot races during the ancient times.  We ventured even further and were able to see more of the ancient ruins.  Then we headed back to the hostel to pack up and take the train back to Florence.  The only downside to the weekend was that with the terrible weather in Rome, we could not visit any of the museums.  This was the first time Rome has seen snow in about twenty-eight years, so all of the locals were freaking out about the few inches that they were getting and closed pretty much everything down.  I can not wait to go back later in the semester to go see the Sistein Chapel and the inside of the Colosseum.