When in Rome!

Well I went to Rome again a few weeks ago! Friends and I went for our winter break. We had Thursday and Friday off and spent it eating gelato, pasta, and pizza! It was our first RyanAir flight and we survived! RyanAir is so interesting... no assigned seats so it's a free for all when they start boarding. They also make tons of announcements the entire flight and sell things from a trolley that are really overpriced, I guess they have to make money somehow since they're flights are so cheap. We arrived in Rome in the afternoon and got settled into our hotel. We were within walking distance of the Coliseum so we just strolled on over to have a look at it! We tried to go in the Roman Forum but it was closing for the day. We then just wandered around and found some nice churches and a park to explore and our first gelato.  Then we wanted to see the church of Paul in Chains, where the chains of St. Paul are kept. I was able to get us back to the church after only being there once 2 years before when I was in Rome with our youth group. I'm pretty proud of my abilities to go anywhere once and get there for the rest of my life.

oh hey, there's the coliseum... no big deal

For the rest of the evening we explored more of Rome. We went to the Spanish steps where we saw a group of Spaniards dancing and singing the Macarana. Then we hit up a classy McCafe for the bathroom and some coffee and headed to Trevi Fountain.  On the way we shopped! When we got to Trevi we all through in some coins and made our wishes! We also met up with the friend of a friend that is studying in Rome. She took us to one of her favorite gelato places for gelato #2!

after we all made our wish into the fountain

THe next morning we woke up really early and hit up the Vatican Museum. We basically sprinted through it and made through in about 3-4 hours. That's an accomplishment. We spent the rest of the day in the Vatican! We walked through St. Peter's and went up in the cupula! We climbed 538 stairs approximately to make it to the top and climbed all of them back down.  Next we met up with a priest friend and he gave us a tour of the Jewish neighborhood. I had never seen that area before so it was really neat to see it. We sat down with him for a nice pasta dinner (i had penne arrabiatta!! my favorite) and then went and got gelato #3. My feet have never hurt so badly in my entire life, but the day was so worth it!

the stairs were definitely worth it to see the Vatican from the top of St. Peter's

Saturday we went church hopping! Meaghan and I woke up earlier than the others to move our luggage to another hostel since ours had no room for saturday night. We then visited my favorite church ever! The Church of the Holy Cross. It has relics of the Holy Cross and a copy of the shroud of Turin. When I was there two years ago I lit a votive candle for my sister and her husband to receive the gift of a child and have patience in their wait. Two years later I was celebrating my niece's 1st birthday shortly after re-visiting this church. Then we met up with the rest of the group at the church of the Pope- St. John Lateran's Basilica! There happened to mass starting in a side chapel of the church, so I stepped in to the Italian mass (I have now been to mass in French, Spanish, Latin, and Italian). Then there happened to be confession and adoration going on also, so I hit the trifecta at the basilica of the pope! It was so amazing to be in such a place receiving so many graces! Then we hit up Mary Major's Basilica which is where a relic of the manger Jesus was born in is kept. I lit another votive candle for other little niece and sister under a statue of Our Lady to be healthy through the pregnancy. I thought it was fitting to pray for the birth of my niece where the relic of where Jesus was born is kept.  It is so amazing to see so many special pieces of Christ's life and saint's lives.  I especially love to see the respect given to them by everyone there to visit. It amazes me how many people travel so many miles to visit these religious sites. Then we got lunch and gelato #4 while waiting to see the bones of the Cappuchin Monks. The bones are displayed as artwork to reverence the monks that have been buried there. I still don't know the whole backstory of the crypt, but it was an intense site to visit. Thousands and thousands of bones all around of men who have died, it was a really intense few minutes walking through. Then we visited St. Ignatius Loyola church and the Agony of St. Anne church. Then we saw the Pantheon. We also stopped at a place for gelato #5, but I did not actually partake in the gelato, which is unfortunate because it was the best gelato place we went to... oh well. We went to Trevi Fountain for one last wish and headed to dinner. We went to a fancy dinner and headed to our hostel for a quick 2 hour nap before heading to the airport for our early flight.

St. John Lateran basilica

It was a fantastic weekend in Rome, and I'm so glad I made the decision to go. I almost didn't go because it was "too expensive" but I've learned here in Spain that sometimes the experience is worth way more than the price to pay for it. Yes I can't just spend my money however I want pretending it won't run out (trust me it's close to running out...) but sometimes it's more worth it for the experience than to miss out on some of the best memories I will ever have! I may never have these opportunities again!