a whole lot of ROME!!

ahhh where do i even begin!! we have spent the past four days enjoying the wonders of rome and all it has to offer!! our first day in rome (with class) was this past wednesday... we had a private bus for this day and i never knew how thankful i would be for it!! i had no idea just how big rome is!

our first day in rome we did what is called "off the beaten path" and we got to go places that aren't as touristy!

stop #1: Cappuchin Cript, which is several tiny chapels beneath a church that contains 4,000 skeletal remains.... this was not my favorite... i walked very briskly and got out of there!! but some people enjoyed, so if your stomach can handle it, it is really cool to see.

stop #2: the mouth of truth... it is believed if you lie and stick your hand in the mouth, it will bite your hand off (i still have my hand)! this appeared in the movie the roman holiday with audrey hepbrun!

Me and Brittany... we aren't liars :)

stop #3: the roman jewish ghetto where jews were in a walled quarter with three gates that were locked at night and were restricted of their personal, professional, and religious freedoms

stop #4: tiber island, which is in the middle of Tiber River [runs through Rome]. it is a very beautiful little island!

a church on the beautiful island!

stop #5: Trastevere, which is on the west bank of the tiber river and is a quaint little part of rome! it has the narrow cobblestone roads with beautiful buildings and shops and places to sit outside and enjoy a nice lunch [which i did]! we also got to run into some other auburn students studying abroad in rome... it was nice to see some family :)

me and britt at lunch!

a cute little street in Trastevere!

stop #6: Castel Sant'Angelo, it use to be a fortress and castle for the pope [there is a a bridge from the vatican to castel], but is now a museum!

there are six angels leading up to the museum representing Jesus!

stop #7: vatican city...! we got the a great opportuinty not only to see the church, but go UNDERNEATH to see St. Peter's Necropolis! apparently this is not something easy to do. you have to make appointments way in advance. we were not suppose to do it, but they had a group backed out so we got this great opportunity to see the original tomb of Peter!!

stop #8 [last stop]: was a key whole you can look through and see St. Peter Basillica perfectly!! it was so cool!

the view!

the keyhole...

the keyhole ended our day... we started at 8:30am and got home at 7:30pm! it was a long day, but it was all worth it!!


for our second day we went to more of the well known places of rome. our day started at 7:40 with no exceptions because this we had to catch the train to rome and if you miss you will be waiting another hour! i was a tad bit late with a few other stragglers... we made it, just with wet hair! they wanted us to experience getting there on the train since we will not have the luxury of having a personal driver everyday we decide to go to rome! 


our first stop for the day were the Spanish Steps!

all 19 chigi babies on the steps!!

our second stop was trevi fountain!

me and britt tossing our coins in to come to Italy again :)

Me, Susanna, and Mary Cate!

our third stop was the pantheon!

the hole at the top!! i hope to go on a rainy day!!

okay, one of our class assignment was for two people to lead the whole group from one place to the next. mine and brittany buckelews were assigned to lead the group from the pantheon to piazza novana. once we reached the pantheon we looked at each other with wide eyes because we both knew we had NO IDEA how to get there. so i pulled out my map [thank you kathy king!] and we started looking at it and got a little since of where we were going... but there are so many side roads in rome it gets confusing! so we told everyone to follow us [laughing] and started walking... then we noticed a gift from above... there was a sign directing us to piazza novana!!! we looked at each other and starting laughing and just started walking with so much confidence because we knew the rest of the group never caught on!! so we just followed the signs that lead us all the way there :) 

... our fourth stop... piazza navona! i loved this piazza! there was a lot going on and a ton of little restaurants to eat at!

the fountain in the center of the piazza!

the piazza! 

one of the windows in the piazza!

a band that was playing! he gave me a thumbs up :)

our fifth stop was campo dei fiori! this is another piazza not far from piazza navona.

during the day there is a market [where i got my new sunglasses!] they have a lot of fish and vegetables! there are also many inn's where people can stay with shops and cafe's as well! i had my lunch at a pizza pace where they heat up the pizza then fold it like a sandwich [which a lot of places will do] and it is very convenient when you are on the go!

at night the piazza turns into a popular place for young people [both italians and foreigners]!

they had beautiful flowers!

** didn't take a lot of pictures here... it was way past my lunch time [they eat lunch really late here] so i had food on my mind!!

our last stop was piazza del popolo! for class each of us was assigned a place we went to be an "expert" on, so we had to tell the rest of the group what it was, and this was mine!!

this is the piazza! 3 of the main roads veer off separated by the two churches!

we climbed many stairs to the top to see the view of Rome!

finally our day was done! we met up with Maurizio [a professor] to get tea and we were worn out! keep in mind we did not have our private bus so we walked EVERYWHERE! literally. and we got to experience our first strike in rome... the metro [which goes around rome] was not running all day... so we were all very glad to have some tea and rest!! but i would rather be worn out in italy than anywhere else :)

Brittany, Me, Katie, Leah

our third day in rome was for a class assignment, where we did not have Cinzia or Tommy as our tour guides! we had to complete a scavenger hunt of rome... we were given 20 clues and had to get a solo shot showing we went to each!! they told us it will take more than 1 day to complete... but our group [being the productive group we were] finished in one day! we were determine to finish because we knew we would be exhausted if we had to go around rome another day! here are a few pictures from the day...

"the wedding cake"

the colosseum with suze!

loved this couple... straight from the 60s... adorable. 

the forum!

i love all the crosses here!

little did we know we would be in this museum for a few about an hour trying to find 3 answers!!

apprarently we had to go to the 2nd floor and take a lift to find our last answer, ancient coins...
we took about 5 lifts till we finally found the right one.

we finally found them!!

i have had such a fun time getting to see rome and learn my way around!! i'm still learning... but i am bound and determined to know how to get from place to place!! sorry this blog is so long!! i miss you all!!

we have another day of classes and a cooking lesson tomorrow!! wonder what i will learn how to cook this time??

cioa!

oh! and our fourth day in rome we decided to rest during the day and experience the night life in campo!! very different than the US but a lot of fun to meet different people not only from Italy, but from other countries, and the US!! we got in at 4:30 in the morning...!! haha WHEN IN ROME!