My Roman Holiday

Today I had to say Arrivederci to Rome and be on my way back to Holland. It was a very bittersweet goodbye! There's no way I can put into words how amazingly wonderful Rome was, but I will definitely try my hardest to paint a picture for you!

Day 1:

Our flight took off around 11:30, so we didn't land into Rome until 2:30ish. I can't believe I managed to sleep at all on the flight there because I was beyond excited! When we landed, we waited for a bus to take us into the heart of Rome so we could find our hotel! The best way I can describe the bus ride is like a rollercoaster. The feeling you get when you're chugging up to the tippy top of the hump - the nervous/butterflies in your stomach/so excited you're about to scream kind of feeling.. well that's the feeling I had the whole time on the bus. And then everytime we saw something huge, like the Colosseum or a ginormous beautiful church - that's when the "drop" happened. I honestly squealed with excitement a bunch of times. :) Once we got to our hotel (which was very nice compared to the last hostel I stayed in) we put our things down and hit the road!

By the time we left the hotel, it was already dark outside! Our first stop was the Santa Maria Church since it was the closest thing to us!

 

Then, after the Church, we made our way to the Spanish Steps, Fontana di Trevi (where we had ourselves some AMAZING pizza and delicious gelato), and then to the Colosseum! We decided that although it was night time, it was our first day there so we still wanted to see as much as possible! And even though we would go to these places again the next day or two, now we could see them at night as well :)

 

 

And by the time we walked to all those places, our feet were so tired and it was pretty late so we headed back to our hostel, all ready to go to bed so we could get started on our first full day in Rome!

 

 

Day 2:

We started off our Saturday morning with some nice hot chocolate and chocolate croissants before heading out on our adventure! The first thing on our agenda was Vatican City!! On our way to the underground Metro, we walked by the Santa Maria Church again, and boy... it was more beautiful in the day light!

 

We took the metro to Vatican City and went to the Vatican Museum. The line was extremely long. I'm pretty sure we were in line for an hour - so you can imagine how anxious we were!

 

We finally went in and it was soooooo beautiful. Every room was just out of this world spectacular. If we had more time, we could've spent hours and hourse there just staring at the ceilings!

 

At the end of the museum tour, we got to walk through the Sistine Chapel. I almost cried. I've seen so many pictures of the iconic ceiling... but to see it in person - there are no words. I was upset we couldn't take any pictures, but the memory is embedded in my brain. We just stood and looked up for such a long time - I didn't even want to leave! It was unreal. After we left there, we made our way over to Sant'Angelo's castle! It was so beautiful, I can't believe someone actually lived here!

 

And THEN we went to St. Peter's Basilica which was beyond amazing. Looking at it from the outside is one thing, but being on the inside is a totally different world. The ceilings, the walls, the floors - I definitely think this was my favorite place. There was one part that was closed off to visitors from taking pictures so people could actually go in there and pray - I asked if it was okay if I went in to pray and the guy who was guarding the area let me. We sat there in silence for a good amount of time just admiring everything around us, and then of course I said a couple prayers for some people close to me who may have needed it. The feeling of being inside there was just astounding. It was amazing.

The rest of the day was left for us to do basically what we wanted! So we walked the streets of Rome until our feet were so tired we wanted to fall over and die. It was so amazing though. Painful, but worth every step!

 

Day 3:



We reserved our last day in Rome for, of course, the Colosseum. I can't believe I got to see it and touch it and be in it. The feeling was so surreal I couldn't even believe where I was. I'm glad we saved this for the last day because it was the cherry on top of a great big delicious gelato :)

 

So... overall, I'd say my trip to Rome was awesome, and since I threw a coin (make that 3) into the Fontana di Trevi, my chances of coming back to this lovely place are so high I know it will happen again. Until next time, Arrivederci Rome :)