European Travel 2014: Spring Break Part One: Rome

For Spring Break a group of 7 of us decided to go to Rome and then fly out to Malta. We woke up early in Venice on Monday the 14th and took a high speed train to Rome. I think high speed trains are the way to go... much faster than regular trains and it didn't drain me for the rest of the day. We got to Rome and first on the agenda was to find our hostel. This turned into a 2 hour walk, probably more, around Rome with all our backpacks. It was also quite warm out and we were all sweating. Eventually, we found our hostel, which was actually an apartment that we were renting out for the next couple of days. We were a little early for checkin so we grabbed a quick bite to eat down the way from our apartment. Then we were able to be let in and we settled in and decided what to do for the remainder of the day. We all decided that a bus tour would be the best way to start out the trip just to get an understanding of our surroundings. So we walked out to find the this bus tour and it turns out that we were actually extremely close to our apartment when we got into the train station. We just decided to take a right do a whole loop around, what felt like, the whole city instead of taking a left and going literally straight to our apartment. Any-who, the bus tour was a magnificent idea. We saw so much and it was a nice way to relax and unwind after that exhausting apartment hunting. After the bus tour we went to a grocery store near our apartment to buy groceries for dinner. We bought homemade noodles, bread, sauce, and little things for breakfast the next day. The noodles were amazing. You could definitely taste the difference. After family dinner we decided what to do for the next day and got a rough plan set up. We decided on visiting St. Peter's Basilica and The Vatican. Once plans we set we went out to find gelato. WE FOUND THE BEST GELATO IN ROME, I SWEAR. I am pretty sure we got gelato a total of like 6 times in the 3 days that we were there. It was so worth it. It is called Frigidarium and I definitely, highly, extremely recommend it. So. Good. Then we took a walk around the square near our hostel where the capitol building, Campidoglio, is located. That made for a good night and a good sleep. The next day, Tuesday, we woke up early to get a head start on the day only to be welcomed by cold showers. Our water heater went out sometime during the night and we were forced to take freezing cold showers. It was truly wonderful. After that refreshing wake up we headed out for St. Peter's Basilica. We stood in line for only a short 20 or 30 minutes. Once inside it was amazing. Absolutely huge. Apparently, you could fit 2 or 3 smaller basilica's into St. Peter's, it was just huge. We also downloaded the Rick Steves podcast tour for the basilica. One of the smartest decisions I've made yet. I was able to learn so much more about St. Peter's. Specifically one part, Michael Angelo's sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding her deceased son, Jesus. The sculpture was brought to life while listening to the podcast. Rick described the specific sculpting techniques used and what they meant. Apparently, Mary was made to be larger than Jesus to represent that she is still the mother figure. Also, fun fact, the statue is behind bullet proof glass because one man broke into the church and attacked the sculpture with a hammer. Just a ton of cool information that I would have otherwise missed. Then we were off to the Vatican. Thank goodness we bought fast pass tickets to bypass the line. We would have wasted at least 2 hours waiting in line. Once inside it was basically a huge museum. Everything was amazing and interesting, but seemed to get a tad repetitive. Although, my favorite part were all the ceilings. All of them had numerous paintings and patterns. Pretty sure I took at least 20 pictures of just ceilings. The last stop in the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel. Immediately, walking in we were all surprised on the size. It is a rather small room. Tons of tourists were packed into this small room all will their necks cranked up towards the famous ceiling. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I managed to snap a few... I couldn't resist and, in my defense, others were taking pictures too! We all downloaded the Rick Steve's podcast for the Sistine Chapel and yet again, I am so thankful we did. We were able to learn that all the bright colors that were visible today were once not there. There were two corners that still remained with the original colors and it was so dark you couldn't even make out the figures. We also learned cool things about certain characters in the murals. Definitely one of the highlights of Rome. After that long tour we got back to the apartment and made dinner again. This time spaghetti with meatballs. Gotta get our pasta fix! After dinner we decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. The Trevi Fountain at night is beautiful, plus there weren't so many people there. We were all able to easily go up to the fountains edge and toss in our coins with wishes. After a relaxing half hour there we all walked back to the apartment for another good night of sleep. The next morning, Wednesday, Molly and Jesse had to head out early to catch their flight to Malta, because those two had separate flights than the other five of us. They made it to the airport safely and we headed out on the town for the last part until our flight at 7pm. We decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain during the daylight. It was insanely crowded and we only stayed for a few pictures. Then we went off to the Colosseum. Now that was a structure to remember. We did not get a chance to go inside, but the outside was incredible. Just thinking about the history that it held was indescribable. Then we walked off and walked past some old Roman city ruins and the chariot/racing park. Of course on the walk back we all made sure to grab our favorite gelato before packing up to leave Rome for our flight to Malta! We got back to the apartment so excited to pack and get to warm weather and the beach! However, that feeling only lasted a few minutes until we figured out that Molly and Jessi missed their flight to Malta. At first we didn't believe them, but as time went on and we didn't get a response we realized it was real. We were all so upset and hoped that maybe there was still a chance they'd be at the airport when we got there. So we all continued packing up and we headed out. Boy, oh boy do I just love the trams in Rome... So ridiculously packed. My face was jammed right into someones backpack and we all got separated. We weren't sure what stop we had to get off to get to the train station, but thank goodness to some American aboard the tram. He guided us in the right direction and we found our train station easily and got our ticket to the airport rather quickly. We arrived at the airport and reality sunk in that Molly and Jessi really didn't make their flight. It was sad and we were upset, but we couldn't do anything about it. So we all just were thankful to make it to our flight. After only an hour wait we were all aboard the plane ready to head out to Malta!