Roma!

Caio! Wow, its been a long time since I've had internet! Apparently, I had it the whole dang time in this hostel but I had no idea. Whoops. Its our third day in Rome so I'll give you a rundown of the whole trip:

Day 1: We got in and found our hostel. It was so hard to find and has the tiniest sign on the door that lets you know what it is. Luckily, they had space and a decent price so we put down our stuff and headed out. We wanted to do the Colosseum today so we started walking in that direction. After just a few blocks, we could see the ruins down below- SO COOL. Its so hard to believe that over 2000 years ago they were building these massive stone structure in SUCH inticate detail- and that it is still here! We stopped for a quick, cheap, and not very good lunch and headed down there. Our tickets got us into the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. The Colosseum is spectacular. I am so fascinated by the era of the gladiators and all of the history that the Colosseum holds. It is massive and said it could fit about 50,000 people in it back then. They have partially restored the floor to give you an idea of what it used to look like. Again, it is so impressive how intricate everything is. They built all of those passages underneath the floor to house the gladiators and the animals and such and hoisted them up through pulley systems and trap doors to battle on the main floor. We stayed in the Colosseum for sooo long and took pictures of everything. I loved seeing it. Then we saw the Arch of Constantine. After that we went to Palatine Hill which is a huge huge where all of the royalty used to have their palaces. There are still remnants of a lot of it and it was amazing. They. were. huge. HUGE. There is one part that was a terrace to one of the palaces and it was like half a football field. The views from it were amazing- all of Rome to the north, hills in the south, and the Colosseum right to the East. It must have been such a big deal back then. Then, we went over to the Roman Forum. It basically would have been the city center of ancient Rome. There are still enormous buildings standing, temples, pillars, and remnants of many others. As you walk around, they tell you that you are walking on the same stones that Cesar and so many others walked on 2000 years ago. The Forum area includes the place where Cesar's body was burned after he was murdered, the house where the Senate met, the temple of Vesta and the house of the Vestal Virgins, and soooooo many other things. I absolutely loved it. We didn't have enough time to finish seeing everything before they closed. But, we were starving anyway so we went back to eat at a pizza place we saw on our way down there. This was THE BEST meal I have had on the trip. My pizza had mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and rocket (kind of like arugula). It was so fresh and perfect and the cherry tomatoes were incredibly sweet. I loveeeeeee Italian food! MMMMMM.

Day 2:
We got up early, ate free breakfast at our hostel (yessssss), and I headed back to finish the Roman Forum. I liked it so much yesterday that I wanted to go and make sure I saw everything. (I am getting so good at taking pictures of myself with the self timer) Then, I headed back to the hostel to pick up Sarah. We headed to the Vatican and signed up for a tour. The guide took us on a 4-ish hour tour through the whole complex. We started in the museums- they were actually pretty overwhelming. They have something like 6 acres of museum space fulllll of statues, tapestrys, paintings, etc. But THEN, THEN we got to see the Sistine Chapel. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. Seriously nothing can compare to seeing that. Michaelangelo was soooo sooo incredibly talented. It is breathtaking. Soooo intrictae and perfect. Its my favorite thing I have seen so far FOR SURE. You are not allowed to take pictures in there, but I may have snuck one or two- whoops. Again, incredible. After the Sistine Chapel, we went into St. Mark's Basilica. I am pretty sure it is the largest church in the world. It is two football fields long. Romans did it big. Inside is Michelangelo's 'Piata'. Its a statue he did when he was just 24 of Mary holding Jesus' limp body after he was crucified. It is incredible. (I realize I keep saying that, but y'all, all of it really is incredible). Michaelanglo carved it from a single piece of marble and said the he was just freeing it from its stone prison. Thats a beautiful thought- to look at a stone and see the art inside of it and to be freeing it. It is sheer talent and is absolutely baffling to me that someone could do that. On our way home from the Vatican, we stopped by the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. The fountain was sooo cooool. Its huge and filled with tourists all around it. We fought our way through the crowd to get some good photos and throw in our coin! All of the fountains in Rome are fed by aqueducts and have beautiful, clear water. It was awesome. It was a great day but a veryyyy long day. My feet are killing me. I have to massage them every night just so I can walk again the next day. We went back to our hostel for freeeeee pasta night and met some of the other kids staying here. It was fun to sit around with people from all over the world with such different backgrounds and just hang out.

Day 3:
This is the only place so far that we have stayed this long! I am excited to have another day here. I wake up pretty early (around 730) and headed for a walk around the city. It took me to the Campo di Fiori which is a flower market, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain again, the Piazza de Popolo, and the Borghese Gardens (their version of Central Park) which overlooked the whole city. It was a lot of ground to cover, but worth it. I also had gelatto from a famous place and it was spectacular! The weather has been nice here- hoooottttt, hottttt, hotttt- I feel like I'm back home! Luckily, there are water fountains all over the city that are fed from their aqueducts with clean cold water! We have put those to good use.

Whew! That was it... think we've done enough of Rome?! Tomorrow its off to sandy beaches, sunny weather, and relaxation for a few days :) :)

P.S. If you want a postcard, make sure I have your address!