bella roma

This past weekend, Sheri and I went on our first trip EVER with ESN (the exchange student group).  After magically making the bus at 7am, when we didn't wake up until 6:30am, we had ten hours of sleeping, listening to music, and being awoken for food and bathroom breaks.  And then...we were finally in Rome.  Here's a recap day by day :)

FRIDAY:

We embarked on our 10 hour bus ride to Rome.  Once in Rome, we went on a walking tour, and ended up at our restaurant in Piazza Navona where we enjoyed an all inclusive, delicious meal.  After arriving at the hotel, we had literally 10 minutes to get ready for a night out with 2000+ exchange students from across Italy.  We rode the metro to where the busses would be transporting us to the club.  There were was a huge student to bus ratio, and so we ended up waiting in the cold for 2 hours! After getting pushed, shoved, and trampled by people running to get into the new busses, we decided to take a cab back to the hotel and call it a night.

SATURDAY:

Today was the day for sightseeing.  After waking up and grabbing a cappuccino, we went to the Vatican.  It was beautiful!  We didn't sign up for the tour, but we got to see where the Pope comes out and greets the people around Christmas time, etc.  We asked some guards how to get a better view of St. Peter's Basilica, and they advised us to walk around the wall of the Vatican and we would find it.   Unfortunately, we didn't.  But now we can say that we've walked the perimeter of Vatican City.  After, we went to Piazza Navona, had gelato on The Spanish Steps, and tossed coins into The Trevi Fountain.  It was beautiful.  We went back to the hotel, got dressed for another amazing dinner (complete with wine this time!), and got ready to go out on the town.  We opted not to go with the exchange students, so we went to a beautiful club called Art Cafe!  We met some nice people from Calabria studying in Rome, and it was an amazing night!

SUNDAY:

We woke up bright and early to board the busses for our tour of the Colosseum (Il Colosseo).  It was beautiful!  And so many memories came back from being there 5-6 years ago with my family over Christmas.  The rest of the day involved walking around, grabbing lunch at a restaurant where the waiter LOVED us, and riding the bus all the way back to Milano.

It was a short trip, but it was perfect.  Rome was beautiful--so much more beautiful than Milan.  It was amazing to see the city that made me fall in love with Italy--and brought me to this exchange program.  I loved it.