When In Rome...

I'm not even sure where to begin with my Rome trip... other than that it was awesome. You can see pictures of prettttty much everything I mention here on Facebook, seeing as I took somewhere around 1600 pictures in the span of 5 days.
So we arrived around 1 on Monday, after I had had a mere 7 or 8 hours at home to shower, un pack, re pack, and get to the airport. We saw..
Trevi fountain: so so beautiful. and also packed! Rome during Holy Week was definitely an experience. So many people selling things everywhere.. umbrellas (for as soon as it starts raining), sunglasses (for as soon as the sun comes back out), weird dancing cats, roses to take pictures with, etc. Regardless of all the sellers and all the people, it was amazing, and even more amazing at night!
Column of Marcus Aurelius
Pantheon: also amazing. such a beautiful building with so much to see inside
Largo Argentina: Rome's cat heaven. This is an area of ruins that has literally been overrun by cats. Ideally they have their own government system with a pope cat and maybe a censor cat.. jk jk. but that'd be cool.
Campo dei Fiori
Piazza Farnese
Ponte Sisto
Piazza di Trastevere
Four Rivers fountain: Also awesome, and packed with people.
We ended Monday with a delicious group dinner of spaghetti carbonara and of course bruschetta! (obvi I also took pics of my food)

Tuesday, we got up brightttt and early for our visit at the Vatican museum. However, later that day we quickly realized why our teacher Thyge (great man) took us so early. Already at like, 7:45am the place was packed with tours. We followed our tour guide throughout the massive museum, seeing so many things I can't even begin to list. We saw amazing sculptures and paintings and tapestries, and ended in the Sistine Chapel (where sadly no pictures or talking are allowed). It was breathtaking honestly, it's so hard to try to take everything in, basically you just have to stand there and try to focus your eyes on just one part at a time! After our guided tour, we got some time to explore on our own. I tried to see new parts of the museum (according to Thyge it takes two full days to see it in its entirety), but some of my classmates went back to the Sistine Chapel at around noon and said it was actually impossible to make it through it was so crowded. And then we understood why we were up so early. After a delicious group lunch, we went to wait in line for St. Peter's. At first the line looked impossible, but it moved rather quickly. And it was beyond worth it, because that building is beyond words. I wish I could describe to you all how amazing St. Peter's basilica is but I just can't because it is that amazing. So big and gold and full of paintings and sculptures and things with more history than our country... omg. Except we kept realizing we probably shouldn't say 'oh my god' inside the pope's church.. oops. Anyway, the only way I could have maybe described it is through pictures, so check those out.

Wednesday we first went to the Colosseum bright and early on our first sunny day! Naturally, Rome, a city with 300 days of sunshine, decided to have 3 of its 65 rainy/cloudy days when we were there. But I can't complain cause it was sunshine. It was amazing of course, and I also did a WHAM photoshoot! If you don't know what WHAM is you're out of the loop so check it outtttt http://wehadamoment.com/. After the colosseum we visited the Forum Romanum, a huge ruin area of where the Forum was in Roman times. Also so so so much history in every bit of marble. We had to do some sketches, but luckily Thyge accepts my horrid drawings. Afterwards, we went up the Palatine hill and had a great view of the Colosseum, Forum, and into Augustus' house which has just been opened a bit after 25 years of excavation! Check the pics. seriously.

Thursday we travelled out to Ostia Antica, a large area of ruins a half hour from Rome. Ostia was the port through which the Romans got most of their supplies. I don't remember the numbers from class but I know that the ancient Romans had an allotted amount of water per day somewhere over double that of people in NYC! Sadly, Ostia was windy and rainy and kind of cold, but it perked up throughout the day. The highly of Thursday though was definitely after we left Ostia, and a group of us went to the Mediterranean which was only a metro stop or two away. I was SO happy to have my feet in an ocean, even if it was frigid. It was so much fun, and I brought back some sand and shells as well.

Friday was definitely a day to remember becauseee we saw Pope Francis!!! But before I get into all that excitement, Friday morning we saw the Walls of Aurelian and Circus Maximus, among other things. Honestly, the best part about the Circus Maximus was playing with some Italien's dogs.. totally trying to steal them onto the plane. Anyway, Thyge being the great teacher he is, switched our schedule on Thursday, allowing us to do our last group dinner together Thursday night and end early on Friday for those of us who wanted to set up camp for the papa. So Katie, Abby, Katelyn and I had delicious lunch, stocked up on dinner sandwiches, snacks, and some playing cards, and hurried over to the Colosseum. We arrived around 2, although the stations of the cross wouldn't begin until 9:15. However, anyone trying to see the Pope at a public even obviously needs to show up many hours early right? Wrong. Apparently, that's only Americans haha. We were very pleasantly surprised to round the corner to the Colosseum and find the area directly in front of the Pope's stand very empty. It was too good to be true! (turns out it kind of was) We sat, ate, played cards, napped in the sunshine in front of the Colosseum, and made friends with the Italians around us. We talked a lot with an Italian mother and her daughter who go to as many pope events as possible, which she showed us on her camera. But she told us some bad news: around 5, they would kick everyone out in order to make them go through security. And they most definitely did. After the area had filled up substantially, the Italian police slowly forced everyone out of the area. They translated but only roughly, and very meanly. We were sad to leave our prime viewing spot (right on the fence, clear view straight to the pope, right where the procession would stop for station 7, and right across from the media tower). We were sardined and smushed and pushed for about a half hour until we re-entered through 'security' (a casual bag check and patting down for some of us, nothing for others), which would never ever be considered security in America. This was actually one of the only times I missed the American way of doing things. But, luckily, we got right back almosttt to our spot and had a great view. The rest of the night was amazing, a little cold, but we got candles, programs (in Italian but whatevs), and witnessed the procession of various church leaders from around the world right in front of us, and saw Pope Francis in real life and heard him give a speech (also in Italian but whateverrr). Even just the experience of being there was amazing. I've never seen such a large crowd sooo quiet. I was surrounded by nuns, big pope fans, children, the elderly, and many nationalities. Never again (probably) will I have the opportunity to see a new pope give his first Good Friday address, in front of the Colosseum.
Seeing as I'm not Catholic, and I don't generally agree with many of the church's teachings, it may seem odd to some people that I'm so excited about that opportunity. But honestly, it's a life experience I'm so happy I took advantage of for so many reasons above. Plus, I'm a firm believer in understanding the other side, and I couldn't disagree with things without having tried to hear the other side out. And this is the most legit of other sides ever. So no, when I applauded Pope Francis, I wasn't applauding some of his remarks, but I was applauding his mere presence, and his apparent return to a more progressive church, including women and other religions. Plus the man is just adorable!

Saturday: We explored the Castello St. Angelo and took some pictures overlooking Rome on the very windy top. For the next few hours, free time including searching frantically for a viva il papa flag with Francis' face on it (unsuccessful), and eating a delicious last Italian meal.

More fun facts about the trip:
- I had gelato at least once, if not twice, every day. Flavors I tried include: mint, straticella (basically vanilla with chocolate pieces), baccio palma (chocolate with peanuts- THE BEST), champagne (not as good as hoped), and white chocolate.
- Had mostly pasta every day, such as spaghetti carbonara, gnocchi, four cheese ravioli, and the most delicious- spaghetti with garlic and olive oil.
(and yes, I've probably gained quite a few pounds as a result of the two things above... but probably lost them with what I'm about to tell you)
- Rome involves a hell of a lot of walking. I thought I'd adjusted to large amounts of city walking in Copenhagen, but no. My feet, as well as my classmates', were literally crying in pain at the end of each day. They still haven't recovered.
- I was able to buy a vial of holy water in St. Peters, and yes, it is the coolest souvenir ever.
- In case you were wondering, no one's quite sure how to pronounce my teacher's name. We usually go with Tiga, Tiger, Toooooge, etc.
- I felt a selfie was appropriate at every monument.. so yeah, get excited for those pictures.
- Check out our pic of our debut on Italian TV! #famous
- The ceiling of many buildings we visited is almost always cooler than what's in the room. Had neck cramps from looking up so much. But actually, when you walk into a room, always check out the ceiling.