Part VIII: Rome

Rome... ah, Rome, how I adore you!!

Rome was absolutely spectacular!! There are so many amazing things to see and do, the weather was nice, a little rainy, but not cold. Our hotel was right down the street from the train and metro station, even closer than Naples, it was really convenient!! We loved it! It was nice hotel too, free breakfast, it rocked!

We first got to Rome in the evening but that didn't stop us from getting started right away! The first thing we did in Rome was to go and see Piazza del Popolo! It is a great piazza! I loved all the fountains, the big space, and the twin cathedrals on one side! It rocked! We then walked up to a park and it had a great view of the piazza and Rome! It was great! After that we walked over to Piazza Spagna, the Spanish steps, it was really pretty and the fountain at the bottom of the stairs is made to drink out of, it was way cool! One thing I loved about Rome was how close everything was. It looks like things would be far away on the map but they ended up being surprisingly close, it was perfect!!

On day 2 we went to see a bunch of the churches in Rome. They are all so amazing! It is something that is hard to get tired of, they are just so beautiful! We looked at a bunch of markets that day too, shopping in Rome was way fun, sales rock!

One day 3 we went and saw...well, practically everything there is to see in Rome!! It was so fun!! We saw the Colosseum, which is right outside of the entrance of the metro, it was so cool to just walk out of the tunnel and be overwhelmed with something so big!! It was amazing!! We saw part of the Roman forum but decided that we didn't want to pay to get inside, so we just saw part of it from the outside. We saw Vittorio Emanuele which is a huge building dedicated to people who had died in war. It was my favorite building in Rome! It was amazingly beautiful!! We also saw the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Trevi fountain, Piazza Barberini, and a bunch of other things!! It was such an amazing day, I couldn't believe how fantastic everything was! It was really cool to see so many famous things that I have always heard about. They really live up to their reputations!

On day 4... oh day 4, I had been looking forward to this day since the very beginning of our trip! The Vatican!! I was SO excited to see the Vatican and it did not disappoint!! It was so great!! We went inside of St. Peters cathedral, which is the biggest church in the world!! It was AMAZING!!!! So gorgeous! Then we climbed up to the top of it and that was SWEET!!! After that we went to the Vatican museum! We didn't have a ton of time to look through it, but it was still really cool and the sistine chapel was absolutely amazing!!! We also got the best gelato of the whole trip at a shop called The Old Bridge, so delicious!!! We then walked around and saw Castel Sant' Angelo, way cool!!!

Day 5 was really special, it was our 3rd year anniversary from the day that we met, it was really cool. Who knew that 3 years after that day we would be married and in Italy? It was really cool. We went to Tivoli that day but it ended up being pretty sucky... we were there to see some really nice fountains...only the water wasn't working so we didn't get to see them, Jon was so disappointed, it was so sad. The train ride was nice though, and the end of the day got better as we just wandered around Rome and enjoyed ourselves.

Our last day in Rome was an amazing day! Sad because we knew it was our last day. We spent the day going to see all the amazing things we had seen already! It was so cool, we saw a few new things too. Like the mission home and a few churches we hadn't seen yet. We realized at the end of the day that we had seen every place that was in the book Angels and Demons, it was really cool! We got to see some things at night instead of during the day too, like the Trevi Fountain, it was such a nice day, fun and relaxing. Jon got really sad at the end of the day, I felt bad for him. He already misses Italy so much!!

We ended up having to buy a new suitcase too since ours broke, but it was okay. Rome was the best ever!! One of our favorite cities! AMAZING!!