When in Rome

Wednesday May 26 started off by catching a train to the Liverpool airport to spend the night there until our flight to Rome in the morning. When we got to Rome our real adventure began. We started off spending a good couple hours trying to find and make our way to our hostel, Peter Pan. That night we wandered around the city, eating our first real Italian pizza and getting lost within the crowds of people. The very next day we spent the day at the Vatican, roaming around the Vatican Museum and Basilica. Apparently you aren't suppose to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, so I was escorted out because of my behavior=/ oops! It rained for most of the day and we were bombarded my vendor after vendor to buy an umbrella from them. Saturday was much nicer weather, almost too warm and we saw the Colosseum and many other ruins around the area, including the Pantheon and Plazza Navona. At the Colosseum we got convinced to take our picture with 5 gladiators, who kept trying to impress us by flexing and posing. After we took our picture with them, they immediately demanded 5 euros from each of us. Most expensive picture Ive ever taken! We stopped to get gelato after a hot morning and made our way to the Pantheon. It was amazing to think that it was built way back in 27 BC and that it is the largest unsupported building in the World! As we walked toward a place to eat dinner we walked through a plazza, Plazza Navona, full of vendors selling their artwork as well as many street performers. It was a really neat place and we spent a lot of time walking around, taking it all in. We ate dinner at Pizzeria Da Baffetto, known for having the best pizza in Italy, and it was actually really good! After dinner we walked to a lookout at the Piazza del Popolo that overlooked the city and made our way back to the Colosseum to view it at night. Our last day in Rome we went to the Trevie fountain where there were people crowding everywhere, trying to get close to the fountain to throw in a coin for a wish. I eventually made it up to the fountain and made my wish, throwing the coin over my shoulder into the fountain. We then made our way to the Spanish Steps spending time sitting my the nearby fountain and enjoying the view. We left not much longer after that to catch the train to the airport to begin our adventure to Venice.

Venice was like nothing I had ever experience before. We stayed in town and took a bus both Monday and Tuesday to the center of Venice. We spent both days walking around, enjoying the beautiful canals, with every corner a new perspective. We ate lots of gelato and pizza and definitely got lost walking over multiple bridges, down alleys, and zig zag roads. We made our way to both San Marco and San Polo, experiencing both atmospheres. I really enjoyed Venice and loved the large bridges that crossed over the Grand Canal. On the Ponte dell' Accademia bridge there were locks attached to the bridges with couples initials engraved onto them. Those that did attach a lock to the bridge threw the key into the Grand Canal to symbolize eternal love. It was a really neat idea! I would love to go back to Venice some day because it was so hard to take in all its beauty in one trip. I had a great time in Italy with the girls and it was definitely one of my better trips this semester. I'd say I ended the semester pretty well;)