In the words of Lizzie McGuire, "This is what dreams are made of"

This past weekend Hayley, Meredith, Cece, and I traveled to Rome, the eternal city. Friday, those who weren't Catholic had to pretend they were for the day as we explored Vatican City. After a few bumps in the morning (tickets wouldn't print and a small pickpocketing incident - don't worry the worst part was a coach wallet was gone) we arrived at Vatican City. We trudged through ancient artifacts, roman statues and decorative tapestries to finally arrive at the Sistine Chapel! I want to give a shout out to Rick Steves for informing us on the magic of Rome throughout the weekend! I appreciated the Sistine Chapel so much more after really understanding every piece of Michelangelo's work even if the guards kept yelling for everyone to be silent in this sacred place. Oops, sorry. After that we went inside the largest cathedral in the world, St. Peter's Basilica! It was incredible! Before we entered we waited in St. Peter's Square and saw the pope's bedroom! Actually, Pope Francis I is so cool that he does not stay in the fancy Vatican Apartments but in a much humbler apartment outside of St. Peter's Square. Inside St. Peter's Basilica I saw Michelangelo's La Pieta, Blessed John Paul II who will be canonized on April 28, the place where St. Peter was crucified upside down, and the tombs of many former popes. I was in chills more than half the time I was there.

Second on the right on the top floor is usually the Pope's bedroom

La Pieta

Pope John Paul II's tomb

Like many pilgrims, I passed through and touched the foot of St. Peter

Saturday was Hayley's birthday!!! Woo! Meredith woke her up with a cake? nah, pizza of course! After some celebration we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. While yesterday, everyone was a Catholic for the day, the last thing we wanted to be were Catholics today since many Christians were killed in the arena. It was cool to see where the gladiators fought. Hayley had taken Latin so she knew a lot about it all too. The Roman Forum was cool but unfortunately, my Rick Steves tour script would not download so we ended up just looking at a bunch of old ruins and not really knowing what we were looking at. I tried to remember back to 7th grade summer reading about the mystery book in the Roman times and when we read Julius Caesar around freshman year in high school. It's hard to remember all the way back to then.

Who wants cake when you can have pizza?!

Colosseum

Check out the columns: doric, ionic and corinthian

That is...uh?

Of course we had to have Hayley make a special wish on her birthday so we went to the Trevi Fountain to make a wish! It was beautiful at night!

Make a wish! Now where's Paolo?!

Sunday, I saw the pope! Yes, Pope Francis I! Every Sunday that he is in Rome he says a blessing in St. Peter's Square. One of the coolest experiences of my life. Friday, we learned that St. Peter's Square holds about 80,000 people. I am not kidding when I say there were at least 75,000 people there to see the pope. The only part of the square that was empty was the part where the view to the window was blocked by the columns in the square. Even though Pope Francis I does not live in the Vatican Apartments, he still speaks from the next window. It was all in Italian. I could understand a few phrases here and there. Hearing everyone pray the Hail Mary was unbelievable. After the pope said his final blessing, all those 80,000 people had to get back to the city, probably via the metro. I realized that I hadn't had gelato yet. And how could I leave Rome without eating gelato?! So I decided to let some people rush to the metro while I ate some delicious strawberry gelato and watch the masses of people head back on the metro.

There he is, Pope Francis I!

So many people!

Everything in Rome was bigger than I was expecting it to be, literally. I mean everything, St. Peter's, the Colosseum, and the crowds to see the pope. It was an experience in the Eternal City that I will never forget. Get ready for next weekend's adventures where I will be riding a camel on my 21st birthday!