Today we had to get up "early"... 9:00. I ended up waking up at 7:30, so I decided I'd go ahead and take a shower to get it out of the way. Claire woke me up at 9:40. I opened the shudders and began my day. I went downstairs for a breakfast of pastries and hot chocolate again. Yum. Then we went to Claire's school to drop off more papers and then went into town again to see the castle. It was open this time, and Claire gave us a little tour since she is learning a...

Today I got to sleep in late... Till 9:30! Haven't gotten more than six hours of sleep in two weeks!! It was wonderful! I began the day by opening up my shudders and letting my hair flow in the soft wind that accompanied the beautiful yard, blue skies, sun and singing birds. It was a dream. Then I went down for a fresh breakfast from the local baker. I could not tell you the names of the foods, but there were many and they were delicious. After eating, we went to...

The wake up call came at 5:00 and we went to the airport where we had to part with our fellow Sionians sooner than we thought. Luckily, one of the California schools went with us through security, so Sarah and I felt much better. We were nervous that our flight was so shorti that we'd get there and just fall asleep at noon haha. But we were really excited. Luckily, our families were waiting for us with huge smiles :) it was so nice to finally meet them! We drove ...

We left the hotel and took the subway... There are only two in Rome because they keep digging and finding ancient ruins... It took us straight to the Colosseum where they were on strike... So our tour guide just took us to other ruins and gave us some history of the Colosseum without going inside. We broke early for lunch to kill time so Michael get us new reservations for the Colosseum. It was back open when we finished lunch (where we got a fabulous meal deal)....

We woke up and got a wonderful breakfast then headed out, hopped on a bus, and went to the Vatican. The line was long, but we got to cut everyone with the group. We toured through the museums, which were not particularly my favorite, but then we moved on to more exciting stuff like St. Peter's Basilica. After a little modesty fiasco, we made it in and walkedo around as much as we could while being constantly pushed around. Then we went into St. Peter's Square and...