Rome.. Rome.. and more Rome!

Hi friends! Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile but we have been SO busy.. leaving me exhausted every night! ...but I have to admit, being in Italy makes exhaustion so much better :) 

Last weekend, a few of us decided to test our learning skills and take the train to Rome for the day night!

Train to Rome!

With a group of girls, you always leave later than you plan. By the time we got ready, walked to Albano to catch the train, enjoyed the hour train ride to Rome, then jumped on the metro to our first destination, it was dark! haha but it didn't bother us! After all that traveling we were so hungry so we stopped at the first place we saw off the metro, ate yummy [and more expensive food] and gelato.

Danielle and I shared raspberry and Nutella!

Cannot get enough enough of this stuff!

Unfortunately this only left us with a couple hours to walk around because the last train was leaving at 9 something, and if we missed that, we would be taking a taxi.... and paying wayyy more. So we decided to go to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain! ... two places I have been before, but always happy to visit again!

Jamie. Me. Susanna. Rae. Brittany
Throwing in our coins :)

Love it at night!

So many people! (An avg. of 3,000 euros are thrown in a day!
Which is about $4,000! and.. all of the money goes to chairty!) 

Spanish Steps!

So many beautiful stores in front of the Spanish steps!

Needless to say, we had a fun first night in Rome, and were very proud of our successful traveling skills! Which would come in handy the next week....


Wednesday was our first day to Rome for class! We got to go by bus which was so nice. Our first stop was at the Capuchin Crypt! Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but here are some from the Internet...

This is ALL human bones!

There are 6 small rooms or "chapels" that are covered in "art" of over 4,000 friar bodies! Some rooms were just skulls, some were leg and pelvis bones, etc. It was a little to creepy for my liking, but at the same time very interesting to see.

Next we went to the Mouth of Truth. The myth behind it is that if you stick your hand inside and it gets bitten off, you are a liar. So we waited in line to run up, stick our hand in, and have a random man take a picture of us very quickly. They made it very clear [in every language] that you were only allowed to take one picture.. Lame. Personally, I thought it was anti-climatic... am I allowed to say that? Oops.

Don't worry... I still have my hand! :)

Our next stops were the Jewish Ghetto, Tiber Island, and Trastevere [where I happened to be the "Expert of the Day"].

All 20 of us at Tiber Isalnd!

(From the Internet) but Tiber Island is beautiful!

Trastevere is along the Tiber River and is known for its night life. We ate lunch there and happened to run into some other students from Auburn who are here studying Architecture! Gotta love Auburn family moments :)

Rae and I at lunch!

We then walked over Ponte Sant'Angelo and by Castel Sant'Angelo to get to St. Peter's Basilica!

Castel Sant'Angelo

View from Ponte Sant'Angelo!

1 of the 6 beautiful angels on Pont Sant'Angelo... designed by Bernini!

St. Peter's!

Definitely my favorite site in Rome.

We are learning to embrace the solo shots :)

I love the Vatican because it's the one place I fully remember being with my family when we were in Rome in 2002. We actually took our Christmas card in the same spot I am standing above. Too bad I don't have that picture on my computer... I have taped glasses and capris with tennis shoes :) Gotta love middle school!

The coolest part of the day was that we were lucky enough to go under the Basilica to see St. Peter's Necropolis! This is something you have to book far far in advance and is very difficult to get a tour of! Unfortunately, we could not take pictures there either, but it was amazing to see all of the original tombs and other work of the Romans.

Our last stop of the day was at the Knights of Malta Keyhole which I love! It's this random door that when you look through the keyhole you get a perfect view of St. Peter's! We all tried to get a good picture... it is harder than you think!

The door!

Looking through...

As you can see I could not get a good pic due to the flash but this is the view!

... at the end of the day I couldn't wait to be in my bed and go straight so bed! Little did I know Wednesday would be just a small dose of how exhausted we would be after Thursday!...

Thursday we were up and headed to the train by 7:45!! SO early. We were all dragging as you can imagine. Our assignment for this day was to be able to walk the group from an assigned location to the next [with an partner], without any help from Cinzia or Tommy. I was with Rachel and we lead the group from Piazza Colonna to the Trevi Fountain perfectly! At each stop we also continued to do Expert of the Day's. I just love class in Italy :) I have to keep reminding myself that getting up at 7 once or twice in a semester to go visit Rome is nothing compared to having 3 8 am classes a week normally! haha

The day started at the Spanish Steps! I am glad we got to experience it in the day and at night! ...and I am sure we will make it there a few more times before we leave :)

All of us!

Mary Cate, Rae, and Me!

Next stop was Piazza Colonna... and on the right side of the piazza is the Palazzo Chigi, which the Chigi family bought! We just show up everywhere!

at Piazza Colonna with Rachel!

Then Rachel and I walked the group to the Trevi...

Trevi Fountain!

Some of us with Cinzia!

Rae Rae!

Throwing in our coin so we can return to Italy one day :)

Ok so funny story... Italians do not know the meaning of PDA... and we are getting used to this... slowly! It is very common to see couples making out just about anywhere you go! So we were at the Trevi fountain and Brittany turns around and sees this couple... uh.. cuddling? He was like smelling her face and rubbing his on hers.. and we just couldn't stop laughing.. and staring! It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen someone do in public! ....

She must smell delightful

But then... it gets worse... he starts biting her lip! and breathing on her!... and I'm not sure she was enjoying it! At this point there is like 6 of us completely watching them...

...Then they just go for it. Full. on. sucking face. With hundreds of people and children around! We were dying laughing and taking pictures behind them.

All American's feeling uncomfortable right about now.

Cinzia was making fun of us for thinking this was awkward.. she said, "I mean, if you want to kiss your boyfriend, why should you have to wait until you are alone?!"  haha But now she warns us when we are going to an area that is known for making out! haha I wonder if America will ever become like this? Hmm

Moving along... the Pantheon was next! I am absolutely amazed by the Pantheon. How in the world could the Romans build this without any tools!? It has a diameter of 150 feet without columns to support it. The Romans had to create a lighter weight concrete to use on the dome so it would not cave in! and the walls get thicker as they go down!

Pantheon

Inside! All original marble and beautiful detail!

Britt looking through the drain where the water goes when it rains!

The ceiling!

One of out last stops of the day, before meeting Maurizio and Roberta for tea, was the Piazza del Popolo and the Santa Maria del Popolo church! The square is HUGE... Via del Corso [main road in Rome] and 2 other roads all lead to the square. There are also 2 churches between the roads that were designed by Bernini...

The 2 churches: Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Monesanto.  

The whole square 

View from above!
(which apparently is another make out spot... even though I didn't see any!)

Restaurant at Piazza Navona

Campo dei Fiori for lunch.. means "field of flowers"

Piazza Venezia! aka "The Wedding Cake" or "Typewriter"

Brittany is still practicing drinking from the fountains.... :)

Love this store! So fun!

Tea time with Jamie and Sallie... best way to end the day!

So tired after all of this... but Friday was packed with more Rome adventures!

Our assignment for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was a "Scavenger Hunt"! We were given 20 different descriptions of places or things in Rome and we had to research the answers and then go find them and take a picture with it.

About 10 of us got up around 9 Friday and headed to Rome to knock out the assignment... and we did! I couldn't believe it. We got all 20 pictures before dinner time and it was the greatest feeling. It may seem like we hurried through everything but we actually didn't.. we took our time [especially at the Coliseum and the Roman Forum], enjoyed lunch, and some of us even stayed later and shopped!

Here are a few pictures...

Coliseum

Inside!

Group shot :)

Palatine Hill

Roman Forum 

More Forum pics

Via Scara (Road in Forum) that we forgot to do while we were in there! haha

SPQR Sign

Piazza del Campidoglio

Marcus Aurelius

Okay.. another funny story... so one of the places we had to go on the scavenger hunt was the Piazza del Campidoglio (as pictured above) and we had to take a picture with the Marcus Aurelius inside, a she-wolf statue, and these ancient roman coins. Easier said than done!

We finally found the first 2 things after going up and down the stairs back and forth... but still could not find the coins! In every room there is a person working but they cannot leave their area so we would just ask them how to get to the coins... by making a circle with our fingers and saying "co-oiinnns" very slowly, hoping they would understand! Well they seemed to understand but we were lost for 20 minutes! Every person would say, "Coins? yes, 2nd floor, take the lift!" Well we learned later that there was 2 second floors! I am pretty sure we wandered around that museum for a good 30 minutes, dying laughing everytime someone would tell us "2nd floor, take the lift!". It was like we were in a movie and they were playing a trick on the Americans! We would always smile and reply "Um okay but we have tried that SIX/SEVEN/EIGHT/ETC times!" It was hilarious after taking the lift about 10 times. Thankfully some lady FINALLY helped us find them and at that point we were not even interested in looking at them. We snapped the picture and got out of there!!! 

Oh and the other funny part was that when we got there they made us put all of our belongings [except cameras] into lockers. We didn't think much of it until we started walking around and realized NO ONE else had done this. Everyone we passed has purses, jackets, bags in their hands. That's when things really started to feel like a movie! haha... I seriously thought they were playing a game with us!!

In the "lift" for the 10th time!! SO frustrating yet so funny!

The ancient coins that gave us so. much. trouble.

Leaving the museum. Never going back!

Highlight of the night was probably seeing the best street performance ever! aka Michael Jackson's twin!!! We watched him do 3 full songs with wardrobe change, music, and legit dancing!

SO many people gathered around on Piazza dei Popolo! 

So good!! haha

So now it's Saturday and believe it or not we have been resting all day [because we finished the scavenger hunt in 1 day] to now head back to Rome for the night!! haha ...We passed the Hard Rock Cafe the other night and have not been able to stop thinking about it!! So we are going tonight! We already read the whole menu online... Yay for cheeseburgers, nachos, honey mustard chicken, etc. Seriously cannot wait! :)

Thank goodness for American food.

Sorry this was info overload once again! I hate when I get behind with my blog!

xoxo
Britt