My Italian adventures started off in Rome. The first day there we woke up and visited
the Colosseum. We had bought the "Roma
Pass" which allowed us to stand in a shorter line, but that line was still
long. So we were deciding what we should
do when a guy asked us if we wanted to take a tour and we could get on an even
shorter line. We decided to do that and
it was a great decision. Not only was
the line quicker but also our tour guide was great! He knew a lot about the Colosseum and Roman
culture so I learned a lot but he was also really funny.

After the Colosseum we went to Palatine hill and the Roman
Forum – basically the downtown of ancient Rome.
We had a different tour guide for this who was also really good but not
quite as funny. What's left of downtown
Rome now is just stone, but it used to have tons of marble and gold. When St. Peter’s Basilica was built, they
came to the forum and took all the expensive materials to furnish the
church. So we had to use a little bit of
our imagination as we walked through.

We took a walk to the Trevi fountain, which I was very
prepared to be underwhelmed by. I mean a
fountain’s a fountain right? Wrong. The Trevi fountain is absolutely enormous
with a large pool at the bottom. Just
like Lizzie McGuire I made a wish there.
Although I didn’t meet an Italian pop star…. Next we went to the Spanish
steps, which unfortunately were closed so I couldn’t walk up them and pretend I
was in Roman Holiday.

The next day we spent first just walking around and then we
took one of those double decker tour bus things. Rome is a really big city and it’s hard to
walk all of it so the bus helped us to see more of the city than we could have
otherwise. Afterwards we planned on
going to the Borgese art gallery,
but when we got there they told us we needed to reserve tickets in
advance. So instead we walked around in
the park that it was in.

Our last day in Rome we decided to go to the Vatican. The second tour guide from the Colosseum told
us about her tour company that also gives tours of the Vatican, so we decided
to do that. Just like the Colosseum, on
top of getting a tour guide you also get to skip the line – which was a
Godsend. The Vatican is usually closed
on Sunday, but this week it was also closed on Saturday for Father’s Day. This meant that on Monday when we went, there
were a TON of people there. Even once we
got inside it was super super crowded.

That being said it was still really cool. The museum has all works from ancient Rome,
mostly sculptures, which was not what I expected but was also really cool. The best part though was Sistine Chapel. Sadly you’re not allowed to take pictures in
there but the whole thing was amazing.
To see the scale of Michelangelo’s work and the detail was amazing.

We ended with St. Peter’s Basilica, which was also really
beautiful. It was especially interesting
to my friends and I because we’ve seen quite a few Spanish Cathedrals and to be
honest, they all kinda look the same after awhile. But this church was completely different,
both in its layout and how it was decorated, and the fact that they used
marble. Overall it was really cool to
see.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the pope but there’s
always hope for next time!