Rome

On Friday we departed to Rome at 7:30 am on buses. The bus took about 4 hours to get there and we made  a rest stop. The rest stop had a full on buffet and cafe which looked great and very clean bathrooms, America could learn from these. I have also noticed that Italy is very environmentally friendly. They never have hand paper towels, instead blow dryers, and reusable cloths (kinda gross though). We continued on to Rome and arrived at about 12 pm. The hotel was not ready for us to check into yet so Paige, Maddy and I ate lunch at a salad restaurant. I had a very delicious seafood salad with all types of everything on it! As we went back to check into our hotel I found a Leonida's Chocolate store, same brand as the one I worked in at the Oaks mall. I took a few pictures there and had to buy a white chocolate bar which was my favorite when I worked there. We then checked in and our hotel room was surprisingly very very nice. It had three seperate twin beds, flat screen TV, very red royal carpet, and golden walls with wonderful drapes. It almost looked like a little royal palace structure. Quickly we shuffled downstairs to meet the group to start our day tours. We visited A big white castle looking building that they call "the wedding cake" because it is new in the center of the ancient roman ruins. As we walked we viewed what is equivalent to an ancient gym, people would lift boulders and throw them to work out. Then we toured the Roman colosseum where low class people would fight for there freedom to the death. Then we went to maybe the crusades it looked like a ton of rocks to me, NOT EXCITING, to a plazza that was pretty I don't know much more about it, and lastly to the Panthenon, the place for all the gods. We did all of this in one half a day! I then had to try a cappucino type drink with whip cream which was alright and continued to get ready for our group meal. We wined and dined starting with a pasta course along with bread. Then we drank wine, followed by a lamb and veal meat dish. Next was every fried thing you could imagine from vegetables, curry, fish, anything along with salad and lastly we enjoyed a strawberry and whip cream dessert. After dinner I went to throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain which was probably the most exciting part of the day for me. We continued to discover the night life with a friend in the program's cousin who lives in Rome. We went to a real Italian night club which was so crowded and full of smoke it was quite the experience i would not like to have again. Some boy kept following me around pulling my hair as well.
The next day after about 4 hours of sleep we woke up to view the Vatican. The Vatican is like disneyland on steroids with no exciting rollercoaster at the end. There was no air conditioning and it took  me two hours to walk through it without any lectures. It was hot and there were probably 1 million people inside. If you ask me, the sistine chapel is better in pictures. Next we hurried over to St. Peter's Basilica where the Rome Pieta is, the sculpture my midterm is about, and the line was nearly a mile long.  It moved surprisingly fast though and we viewed the inside for quite a while mostly looking for my teacher that I had lost. At about 3 pm after all of this art looking, our program thought it would be a great idea to also visit the catacombes, or cemetaries of ancient italians. It was very cold when we went underground to look at the tombs, where some people had been dug out to capture the jewels that had been barried with them. By this time my feet were filthy and I was an exhausted person, cranky and hungry too! I never got an opportunity to really explore Rome from a cultural stand point so that was very upsetting. I don't think I will go back!