KT Says

Ciao!

This past weekend Ursinus organized a trip for all the students and the professors to Rome from Friday until Sunday. We left bright and early Friday morning (8 am!!) from the train station in a nice, comfy bus so we could get to Rome by 1 pm for our tour of the Vatican Museum. We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Albani, threw our stuff in a locked room, and got back on another bus to get to Vatican City on time. Ursinus was very nice and paid for 3 day bus and metro passes for all of us so we could get around the city with no problem. Anyway, when we arrived at Vatican City, I started to get very excited when I saw the dome for St. Peter’s Basilica rising above the other buildings.

We got through security and everything for the Vatican Museum and started our long, grueling, 4 hour tour. The museum is gorgeous, but it’s an art museum basically; it’s full of everything that previous popes collected during their time as pope and I was not aware that we’d be seeing MORE art in Rome! I love art, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve been living in Florence for almost 3 months–I’m all arted out!

I have to admit, however, that I have become much more of a sculpture-lover since I have lived in Italy, and there was no shortage of sculpture in the Vatican Museum! But after that part of the tour, Rita, our tour guide, led us into the Sistine Chapel. Now, a lot of people have said that the Sistine is sort of anti-climactic because everyone says how amazing it is and blah blah blah, it’s over-done. I did not agree with that at all. I was absolutely blown away. Michelangelo knew what he was doing with paint as much as he knew with marble…his figures on the ceiling as well as behind the altar (The Last Judgement) MOVED. I could have stood in that chapel for hours just staring at the magnificence around me: it literally blew my mind.

After the Chapel, we headed over to St. Peter’s Basilica. I can say with all honesty that this is the most beautiful church that I have ever seen in my life, and believe me, I’ve seen a WHOLE lot of churches.

My pictures are blurry and dark because we couldn’t take pictures with flash inside the church, but they’re there! I only regret not taking a picture of Michelangelo’s Pieta, because it almost brought me to tears. It’s in the Basilica and it’s behind a glass wall and, usually, surrounded by swarms of people. It’s breathtaking, and I recommend to everyone to see it with your own eyes.

That night we were given free time to do whatever, so Mary, Jasmine, me, Kelly, Cara and Bailey took showers and went out to a restaurant nearby. We got lots of food for not too much money, so I was satisfied! Then we came back to our hotel and just passed out. We had to be up the next morning pretty early for our walking tour of Rome.

All of us met in the hotel lobby the next morning at about 8:45-9 am to get the bus to the Colosseum. This is the coolest thing Italy has to offer, I swear! It’s this massive structure that’s still standing…even the rooms below the arena where they kept the animals and the gladiators are still intact. I think this was my favorite part of Rome, to be honest. I couldn’t imagine living in an apartment across the street from this and opening my window everyday to see it. I’m sure I’d take it for granted, but it really made an impression on me when I was there . We also saw some gladiators hanging around smoking…very authentic, haha. Apparently you can take pictures with them, but if you don’t offer them 2 euros per picture before you take it, they can charge you 10 euro. They’re a bunch of crooks if you ask me…but I suppose people have to be smart tourists!

Anyway, after we took our tour of the Colosseum, we went to see the Forum (which was amazing) and the Pantheon. These structures are thousands of years old and they’re just sitting in the middle of a huge, modern city. They’re literally things you have to see to believe. The Pantheon was converted into a church and Raphael is buried there, as well as two or three of Italy’s kings (I actually think they only had 2 or 3 as it was…).

Of course it started to rain at this point, so all of us were wandering around the city in the freezing cold rain without umbrellas. The umbrella salesmen were there to help though, don’t worry! Those guys are everywhere in Italy…if they’re not selling umbrellas, it’s scarves or little remote controlled Smart cars. They’re crazy and will follow you around harassing you. Just yell "NO GRAZIE!" at them…they’ll get the idea eventually .

We went to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps next. The Trevi Fountain is the most gorgeous fountain in the world, especially at night. That’s one thing I think everyone should see once in their life. The Spanish Steps were cool, but I probably would have appreciated them more if they weren’t the last stop on our 5 hour walking tour and I wasn’t so exhausted…and wet.

At the end of our tour Kelly and I had lunch in a small restaurant because we didn’t want to join everyone else at Burger King (too much fast food is never good!) and we did a little shopping at some tourist shops. Overall, it was a nice day. That night a bunch of us went out for dinner…I think there was 11 of us. A nice outdoor cafe accommodated us, probably because they figured we were dumb American students that wouldn’t pay attention to our bill, but whatever works! I had a great time. It was very relaxing to sit around with the whole group and laugh and talk and have a good night.

The next morning we woke up and a bunch of us decided to go to the Vatican to hear the Pope speak at noon. We got there and couldn’t believe the crowd that was there, but it was absolutely worth it. He spoke in Italian for awhile, then French, English, Spanish and German. That really got me…every time he started on a new language another group of people would cheer and clap. It was a beautiful moment and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. It surprised me how much Italian and French I could understand–he spoke very clearly. I’m just very happy that I could witness that .

I took a video of part of his speech (he spoke for about 25 minutes) and I’m glad I did. I don’t want to forget that! I will post it here one day, but loading it onto a website is taking too long and I sort of want to pull my hair out. So…it’ll have to wait, haha.

Overall, I had a great time in Rome and I think it was one of my favorite places to visit! I recommend a trip to anyone who loves history: the city is absolutely teeming with it. Here are my Rome Pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

~Katie

PS-15 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!