When in Rome

St. Peters

All roads lead to Rome right? Well last Thursday we left from Florence to Rome via a 4 hour tour bus. Gosh I felt right back in Chile riding a bus again.  This bus differed from South America in that it was equipped with outlets and wifi. Yep you heard that correctly, except the wifi worked intermittently. All 140 of us made it to Rome just in time for a 3 hour walking tour.  We were your typical tourists in groups of 14 with an Italian guide each equipped with earphones to hear her.  I've studied European/world history but it's a completely different experience to turn a corner and see the Pantheon, walk another 10 minutes and sit on the spanish steps and 10 minutes later you find yourself throwing a coin behind you over your left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain making a wish.  Rome has done an incredible job where they take all this ancient history for literally thousands of years ago and combine it with "modern" architecture from only a couple hundred years ago. I made some friends that night in Saint Ignatius church. The friends happened to be 40 nuns from around the world. Those of you who know me know the joke that my parents think I might become a nun one day. I can assure that I don't foresee that in my future, but the nuns are nice ladies nonetheless.  Thursday night was a 5 course dinner at a fancy restaurant with

Trevi Fountain

a true Italian playing the keyboard and occasionally blowing way too loudly into a whistle. Quite the experience doing the YMCA to a live version with 140 other Americans at a fancy Italian restaurant.  In Italian bread and vegetables are common for a starter, then you have some sort of past dish (or 2), then it's a main course with meat, then salad and topped off with dessert. The dinner was amazing and everyone enjoyed the bottles of red wine the waiters kept bringing out. Friday we went to the Colosseum and Roman Forum and explored on our own. How the Romans built a structure that stands thousands of years later is crazy to me. Smart men.  Lunch was a panini (actually panino because panini means multiple sandwiches). Friday afternoon we went to an art museum. I think we were all too tired because walking around you saw lots of heads nodding and irritated people. The ceilings were filled with incredible art which I admire because who has the patience to stare up or lie on their back painting above them? not me.  Saturday was a tour of the Vatican and that was incredible. 28 thousand visitors come each day to the holy place. After going through the equivalent of airport security we were inside the museum. Again we had a tour guide and were shoveled through the crowd like we were being pushed into a store on black Friday. The Sistine Chapel is beautiful, but people still proceeded to pull out their cameras and talk both of which are strictly prohibited. St. Peter's Basilica is so magnificent. The artwork is all murals versus paintings. I want to climb to the top of the dome before I leave here.  Saturday night was another 5 course exciting meal complete with salami, 3 pastas, mozzarella and tiramisu. Yum!  Like everyone said the food is a whole lot better here than in Chile.  I watched the last half of the Seahawks game at an Irish pub.  On Sunday morning I went to mass at St. Peters. We had to stand the whole time but taking communion from a bunch of priests and bishops is an experience of a lifetime.  After that we went outside to join thousands of people for the Pope's blessing to see him name 21 cardinals from all around the world. Pope Francis is the man and I got a flag from some street vendor to prove it!

Rome was beautiful so was it's gelato, salami sandwiches, cobblestone streets and street artists. What wasn't so beautiful was the large homeless population, Turkish men selling fake designer bags, and the gypses. But hey that just contributes to culture.

Until next time Rome- ciao!