Rome!!!!! That was by far the most amazing thing I have ever done in my entire life. We left Friday morning, which was Christmas Eve, at like five in the morning. We waited for like ever for a taxi to show up and of course nothing did. I guess whoever was supposed to call the taxi didn’t or something. We went with two groups. Ours that was going to Rome, and the other that was going to Florence. But oh well. We ended up getting to the train station eventually although we were late for our train. We had to take the bus, but whatever. We took the train to Balogna, which is the closest place on the way to Rome that we could buy a Eurorail. I’m not sure that it was exactly the most cost effective thing, but someone said it was and all. So we got on the train from Balogna to Rome, and finally arrived there around like two. It was soooooo rainy when we finally got there! It was horrible. Like raining so hard my comfy boots were soaked all the way through and my socks were wet for the rest of the night. When we got there we bought hop on hop off tickets, which was where for 48 hours, we could get on and off this tour bus at the different stops all throughout the day. It was absolutely perfect because after we got it at three, we were able to use it until three on Sunday, which was about when we were leaving. So we got off on the stop that was nearest to our Hostel/hotel, which was at the Piazza, well one of them. There are like a thousand of them in Rome. And then we walked to the Pantheon, which was right next to our hostel. We ended up walking around literally in circles for like 2 hours trying to find our hostel. Circles around the Pantheon. It was so horrible. Puddles covering my feet, and we were just walking in circles. The streets like don’t make sense either. They are just all twisty. They start in one place and then go in a circle and then cross the street and go to the other side of the road. It is so weird. So we walked everywhere and asked so many people if they knew where it was. Finally I saw this little tiny tiny sign. That was on the side of a building that was for our hotel. Natalie and Jessica went up to check us in since we only registered for two people. The hotel in this building was actually only on one floor. Which was like three floors up. So they went up and dropped off our bags so we could go to dinner. Everything was really pretty since it was Christmas and stuff, and there were lights and everything everywhere. It was so lovely. We ended up eating outside, and they had heaters out there at this restaurant. It turned out that the lit up Pantheon was right in front of us while we were eating. It was so increadibly gorgeous. The food there was so good. Like amazing. And we each had a glass of this great wine. We went right to bed after dinner. We were so tired. It was so hard to sleep that night though because one, Natalie snored like no other (She was sick), two, midnight mass got out and there were screaming people all over the place, and three, the beds were basically like rocks. Horrible!!!!! Rock, rock, rock. But oh well. I woke up in the morning and got ready to go out for the day! It was Christmas! It was raining again, but more drizzling and absolutely nothing like the horribleness that was the day before. It was Christmas in Rome! We got on the hop on bus and were just riding it around on top and taking pictures of the beautiful city. I could literally ride around on it all day long. We ended up stopping at the Vatican and then I remembered that there was the life size nativity in front of it so we got off to look at it. Then we saw people all around the steps. And I remembered that on Christmas at noon the pope was going to give a Christmas message. We went and got some food really quick and then we got back to the steps where we kind of pushed our way to near the front and were waiting for it to start. After waiting about an hour, a gate happened to open right near us and we got to run and get seats. We were so excited! Jesa, Jessica, and I were linking arms so we would stay together. We got to be in the second row! We were one of the first ones in line that got to see the fricken pope! It was amazing! He gave the message and then did the prayer in every single language. I was on the verge of tears because I just felt so incredibly blessed to be there. Oh, and it was raining up until the pope came out to give his message, but as soon as he started to speak, the sun came out and it was shining on the whole St. Peter’s Bascilica. It was the first time we had seen the sun the whole weekend. And the sun stayed out until he was done. I couldn’t even believe it. It was completely divine. There were these super cute girls from a Mexico boarding school there behind us cheering the whole time about the pope. I loved it so much. After we were done we went around the tour and kept on going. The collessum, old ruins, and everything else was amazing. The treve fountain too. Absolutely everything was just so great I can’t even stand it while I’m thinking about. It. I used to want to have my honeymoon in France, but now I don’t know how I could not come back to this amazing place. That night we went out to dinner again, except this place definitely wasn’t as good as the place the previous night. It was cute and had orange all over the place, but the waiter didn’t seem to like us very much. We called our families for a little while while we were there which was really nice, and I got to talk to Dillon also and say Merry Christmas. Then we went back to our hotel and slept again. The next day we got up really early so we could go around again. The sun was shining on that day so we went back and took more pictures, which were just even more beautiful with the sun! And then we hurried over to the Vatican so we could see the inside of it. My jaw about dropped when we went inside. So amazing. I was so sad when we had to leave and hurry on to catch our train while eating McDonalds. I loved Rome more than almost anything and I loved every moment of it. Such a great Christmas
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