ROME (Day 1)

And we finally get to Rome: the climax of our semester in Europe!

It was just Sarah and I on our first morning in Rome, and here's the beautiful view we see upon arriving! We got up early to visit the Tombs of the Popes and to climb the Cupola in St. Peter's.

The tombs are located beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, and this is where most of the popes throughout the history of the church including Pope John Paul II are buried. I was expecting to see John Paul II’s tomb so that wasn’t a surprise, but then I turned the corner to see the elaborate tomb of St. Peter, which I completely forgot was there until I saw it... sending chills down my spine and remembering… of course, out of all the things about Rome and the Vatican, I should have gone in expecting to see St. Peter’s tomb! Here is the altar known as Bernini's canopy which is at the center of the basilica and located right above St. Peter's tomb:

(the rest of the tombs must be seen by going down into the lower level)

“Cupola” is a term used in architecture that defines a dome-like structure on the top of a building. The cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica is one of the largest domes in the world. The first flight of stairs takes you to the a balcony that overlooks St. Peter’s interior. In the above picture you can kind of see the dome above the canopy and then here is the view we saw from above:

The second flight of stairs which was narrow and slanted led up through the dome to the very top and to the spectacular view of Rome from all around. It was a pretty strenuous and long walk up but extremely rewarding standing hundreds of feet in the air, on one of the largest domes in the world, on THE largest church in the world, in the heart of the universal church at the Vatican in Rome, on a gorgeous day with an incredible view… and knowing you walked all the way up, to get there… it was pretty good feeling :)

We were kind of running down the stairs to get to mass on time... We got there just in time to Sunday mass at 10:30 at St. Peter's Basilica in Latin! We picked up lunch after mass with Steve, Perry, Brooke and Sarah (Andrea joined us later).

We ran into some Franciscan students who had met two seminarians who I think were both from Ohio and who were studying in Rome. They walked us around and gave us some cool facts about Rome... They were awesome guys! :) They made sure we were back to the basilica by 1:45 for a short 1-hour tour of St. Peter's Basilica from another seminarian. Sarah, Andrea and I began walking back to the hotel about 3:30, stopped for gelato at the famous Old Bridge Gelato Shop (massive amounts of gelato for only  €2)! Our feet were killing us so we rested back at the hotel till dinner at 7. We had a holy hour at Suore Riparatrici del Sacro Cuore Mother House Church which translates to Institute of Sisters of Reparation of the Sacred Heart just down the street from the hotel  :)

Florence

We woke up in the morning and I washed Andrea's hair for her and our friend Perry made scrambled eggs for whoever wanted them in the morning :) we started our day at 9:30 and at this point our huge group broke up and I hung out with Lydia and Terese for the day. We started to hit the stops I wrote down from the Europe book but most everything cost money so since we weren't sure how much other places would cost, we prioritized our options and just followed our map to the next destination :) while we were walking and looking at the shops we passed all the leather jackets which were a pretty big temptation until we were sucked into a leather store and this guy was so persistent, he asked us what colors we liked and found us some jackets and helped us put them on and everything. After the whole experience I was thankful since I really didn't think the leather jacket was my style but we told him our budget was €20 not because we actually thought we could get a jacket for that much, but to simply show the fact we were broke college students, but the lowest was definitely about €100 and that's when we left. I felt bad but there was just no way! Here's the Duomo cathedral which dominates the heart of Florence with its huge dome:

We really wanted to go up into the dome but the cost was a bit unreasonable so we were a little bummed, but it all worked out great because we ended up getting to go into St. Peter's Basilica dome which was cheaper and way more worth it anyway. After the Duomo we went to find the Galleria dell' Accademia and saw Michelangelo's famous "David." We found a sweet little church to pray in on our way to the Piazza della Signoria and there we saw a replica of Michelangelo's "Victory" statue and the "David." We picked up some pizza for lunch and ate outside in the sun :) We walked alongside the river on the way to the Basilica di Santa Croce.

At the Basilica we saw the tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo!

Then we walked to the Ponte Vecchio which means "old bridge." This bridge is the oldest surviving bridge in the city and the only one to escape destruction during World War II.

We stopped for dinner and gelato on our way to the train station. Trains to Rome left every 30 minutes were almost to the train station at 6:00. We had been taking our time until we looked at the clock and had 10 minutes to catch the 6:10 train if we wanted. It obviously wouldn't have been a big deal if we missed it since another one was coming in 30 minutes but Terese and I thought we could maybe catch it. So we started sprinting. Lydia wasn't so keen about the idea so we let her walk since we still needed to get tickets and pick up our luggage. Terese ran to the ticket machine while I ran to get our luggage. We definitely missed the 6:10 train since the ticket machine was being a pain haha but it was fun anyway and not stressful at all since it wasn't like the last train or anything ;) We met three Spanish ladies from Venezuela who were sisters and were spending their vacation in Italy on the train and Terese, being the brave girl she is, asked them if they would pray a rosary with us, and we offered to say it in Spanish with them! Both Terese and I learned the Hail Mary and Our Father in Spanish, except both of us couldn't really remember the Our Father but it was really fun and they just loved us and we loved them too! We arrived to our hotel in Rome at 8:30ish and just relaxed for the evening :) 



Pisa

Classes were out for 10-day break on Thursday, but the official itinerary for our Rome and Assisi trip began on Sunday morning so we had two days of our own time to go where we wanted. It was difficult to plan a trip when we were so focused on studying for our final nursing exam though so we joined a big group going to Florence and Pisa!

There were 17 of us in this group which was huge but SO much fun. The plans were made with the expectation that smaller groups would form but we actually all did the exact same thing until the second day when we ended up breaking into smaller groups.

We left Thursday night as usual but didn't get on our night train until 1:30am from Salzburg to Venice, Italy. During the train ride I borrowed a Europe book from one of the girls and took notes about main attractions in Florence. It was very handy while we were traveling Florence on Saturday! We arrived in Florence at 10:30am and we walked straight to a hostel that we managed to get rooms for everyone for only €16 (regularly €24). I was a follower pretty much all day Friday so I don't know how it happened but it was definitely a blessing. We settled into our hostel and caught a short 1 hour train ride to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. We picked up food as we were walking to the Tower and I ordered pizza that unbeknownst to me had anchovies. It was possibly the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten, I almost couldn't finish it. I'm not very picky when it comes to pizza and toppings but I will never eat pizza with anchovies again.
When we got to the Leaning Tower, we took pictures, looked at the souvenir shops along the road, laid in the grass, saw the Duomo di Pisa

At five we started walking back to the train station. We stopped by the supermarket when we got back to Florence and picked up spaghetti noodles and sauce for dinner. Having 17 people made doing things really easy since people could just take turns with jobs. Two of our friends worked so hard to make dinner and we had a big dinner party all together at the hostel! We had a whole floor to ourselves with four bedrooms and the kitchen so it was a ton of fun :)