It's a good thing I row, because I'm pretty much trained on waking up before dawn and functioning on a minimal amount of sleep. Gabe has a bit more trouble with that one ;] Like I said, we had a train to catch at 7, so I got up pretty early so that I could shower and get ready for the day. We were planning on stopping at a café in the train station to pick up breakfast because the breakfast at our hostel doesn't start until 7, but when we were checking out they told us they could put it out early. So I got my fruit again! Man was I in a good mood after that.... another reason why The Academy rocks =] I was definitely a little bummed that we had to leave, but then I remembered we were headed for Rome and I had a long list of things to do and see, including attending Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square. So I wasn't sad for very long =]

One perk to leaving Florence at the crack of dawn was that we arrived in Rome before 9, giving us two full days in the city. Still, there was a lot of ground for us to cover on our list in two days (most of the travel websites I looked at said you needed at least 8 days in Rome!), so we headed straight for our hostel. We figured we wouldn't be able to get into our room yet since it was only 9 when we got there, and we were just going to drop off the big duffle bag. But as it turned out, our room was ready 10 minutes after we got there! Which was great because then I could drop my computer off, too =]

Tickets are required to attend Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter's square, so we set off to pick those up at The Pontifical North American College, the Bishop's office for U.S. Visitors to the Vatican, first. Sister Anna Marie had emailed me detailed directions using the Trevi Fountain as the starting point, so we technically went searching for that first... but we ended up stumbling on The Pontifical North American College before we found the Trevi Fountain! Which was kind of funny, because the building really doesn't stick out at all, I just happened to look to the left at just the right moment. Like I said, I'm pretty sure St. Christopher has had a huge role in this trip =] The Pontifical North American College wasn't at all what I was expecting... I'm used to going to St. John's in EL, which is a pretty liberal/non-traditional Catholic Church. Just attending mass at my Grandma's church is weird and feels stuffy to me... I think I was expecting it to look more like the Nonnberg Abbey in Sound of Music... and I was definitely expecting nuns like the ones my Dad had as teachers in school that I always hear stories about. But it wasn't anything like that at all. There was a garden/court yard inside and it was so peaceful... and the nuns were very friendly and excited that we were going to be attending mass. If I had had more time in Rome, I think it would have been cool to stay there for an hour or so to talk to the nuns and learn more about the Vatican. But like I said, long list, tight schedule...so we grabbed our tickets, listened to the instructions, snapped a couple photos, and went off to find the Trevi Fountain.

The Trevi Fountain was stunning. Even though there were tons of people there, I still think I got some fairly decent pictures. It was my first infamous Roman site, and I couldn't get over the detail and beauty of the fountain...and it's even more incredible when you think about when it was built! After I threw my coin in the fountain, I called McKenzie, a guy from my high school that graduated a couple years ahead of me and was studying in Rome this semester. It was really dumb luck that I saw one of his albums from Rome on the stalkfeed, because up until the week before we left I had no idea he was even in Rome. He had given me a list of things I needed to see and we were hoping to be able to meet up at some point for gelato and a tour of the city. For once, my droid actually functioned when I needed it to, and we made plans to meet at the Pantheon around 3. It was around noon at that point, so we had time to try and find the Spanish Steps and Barcaccia's Fountain before grabbing lunch. We didn't end up finding the Spanish Steps; we ran into the Altare della Patria, which houses the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, in-between Piazza Venezia and Capitoline Hill first. It's a beautiful building (well, more of a monument), built to honor Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy, but it is controversial because it blocks the view of the Ruins, which are directly behind it. If you're facing the Altare della Patria, to the right of it is a building with a balcony, and that is where Mussolini declared war.

We walked into the Altare della Patria and looked around a bit, but I was more interested in getting to the terrace to see the view of the city. It's really beautiful... there are SO many basilicas (churches) scattered throughout Rome and most of them have incredible domes. I got my first look at St. Peter's from the terrace, too! It got me really excited for mass tomorrow. Even though it was pretty far in the distance, it still looked huge!

After the Altare della Patria we wandered towards the Pantheon and ended up finding a really great Pizzeria on our way. They had Mozzarella di Bufala (mozzarella made from the milk of a water buffalo instead of a cow) pizza, which Luca had recommended I try. It was delicious! I wanted to get a glass of wine, too, but our waitress came out with not one, but 2 ½ liters of their house wine. Luckily it wasn't expensive like our gelato fail (or the time my Mom ordered two expensive meals when she was backpacking in Europe) ...it was just a lot of wine. I kind of floated to the Pantheon after that!
McKenzie had already told me that the Pantheon was one of his favorite things in Rome, but I was still taken back by how incredible it was when I saw it. It was built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome in 126 and is one of the best-preserved buildings from the Ancient Roman Empire because it was converted into a Basilica in the 7th century. In the center of the Pantheon there is a concrete dome with an opening called the oculus. Even though it is almost 2000 years old, the dome is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. I didn't even find a postcard that really captured how amazing it is, and I know my photos don't do it justice either, so just take my word that it is incredible.

We met up with McKenzie and his roommate George here, and the four of us headed to Piazza Navona. There was a really cool fountain in this Piazza by Bernini called the Fountain of Four Rivers, and a church, Sant'Agnese in Agone, that we went into. The church was constructed in memory of St. Agnes, who was 12 years old when she was martyred. Her skull is in the chapel of the church... I'm not sure how I felt about that detail, but the church itself was very beautiful.

After Piazza Navona we headed for gelato. I can't remember the name of the place, but it is supposed to be one of the best places for gelato in Rome. I had Baileys and one other flavor, and they were both delicious =] After gelato, McKenzie and George wanted to take us to another church. Well, we didn't exactly go into a church, but rather the Capuchin Crypt that is somehow attached to the church. The skeletons of 4,000 Cappuchin monks were artfully arranged here to decorate the walls of several tiny chapels. It gives you a really weird feeling to walk through, but in a very morbid way it's quite beautiful. You're not allowed to take pictures, but I would suggest googling the place to see what I mean... There are various rooms, separated to some extent by bone type, for instance one mainly had hipbones and another predominately skulls, but the last one was by far the creepiest; there is a plate that says in various languages "What you are, we once were. What we are, you will become." Creeeeepyyy...

After that we headed for the Spanish Steps. They were absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately completely overrun with tourists due to it being Easter weekend, so I don't think my pictures will turn out very well. Oh well, they were still beautiful, especially since they had recently been decked out with flowers =]
After that, we headed to Piazza del Popolo and went inside the Santa Marie del Popolo church. I was pretty dumb and didn't realize that this was one of the churches Luca had put on my list to see because there is a really great painting by Cararggie inside... so I saw it, but didn't realize it until a few hours later. It was still a great piece of art, but I think I would have appreciated it more if I had known that's what it was then...

There's a street that connects Piaza del Popolo to Piazza Venezia, the piazza with the controversial Ministry of Culture building, and it is really cool to look down! It would be fun to walk down the street, but I'll have to save that for another trip. The Piazza del Popolo is right next to the Villa Borghese Gardens, which were also on my list, and McKenzie was planning on taking us there next. Il Pincio is supposed to offer a great view of the city, and it definitely does, but unfortunately it had started to rain a bit so I didn't want to get out my camera. We walked around the gardens a bit; it's quite large and the trees provided cover from the rain. There's a zoo and an art gallery, Borghese Museum, which Luca had put on my list and McKenzie was hoping to go to as well, but unfortunately when he went to get tickets they were already sold out. Walking in the gardens was still cool, though; it was difficult to believe we were still in the center of Rome. It's also incredible to be walking in the city and randomly run into ruins. I guess I pictured the ruins to be outside of the city; I was sure we would have to take a bus or something to get to the Colosseum. But it's all literally right there, in the city! McKenzie described it as a city built on a city, built on a city, and I think that's the only way to explain it, because in practically the same Piazza you can see buildings from the Ancient Roman Empire, the Italian Renaissance, and contemporary times. To go even further, some of the buildings used materials from other buildings in their construction. St. Peter's Cathedral, for instance, is partially built with material from the Colosseum. Crazy cool...

McKenzie had invited us over to cook pizza and pasta at his apartment, so after the gardens we went back to his place. The view from his roof puts the view of the mountains from my room to shame (let alone my view at 404)—you can practically touch St. Peter's Dome! It was amazing, and I can already understand why he has fallen in love with Rome. Making pizza and pasta was a lot of fun, too... and the pizza was delicious! Definitely one of the best, if not the best I've had so far. It's going to be so difficult to go back to pizza in Germany or the States, and I definitely understand now why Luca doesn't get pizza in Germany. It would just be a huge disappointment.

McKenzie invited us to go out with him after dinner, but we had to be up early again to get in line by 7:30 so that we could get a seat for mass, so we had to decline. It would have been fun, I'm sure, but I don't want to be too tired to enjoy the mass because it's definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

If I knew how to say good night in Italian, I'd say that, but since I don't, Ciao!