When in ROME

The saying, "When in Rome" has always seemed cliché to me.  I have probably said it more in the last few days then I have in my entire life!  Should we go see that pretty cathedral? When in Rome!  Should we go buy some pizza and gelato?  When in Rome! ;). It has become the mantra for our short time here as we leave for Florence tomorrow.  I saw SO many amazing things in the last three days and have become close with girls and boys in the group.  I also got an amazingly sweet tan line on my feet from my shoes. #hottanlines

 

Rome definitely did not disappoint. I'd say the highlight of Rome for me was probably the Colosseum.  I've seen this place in school, textbooks, and lots of pictures, but seeing it in person was not what I expected.  It really took my breath away!  The entire tour I was just wishing I could have seen it in its hay-day.  To see the Romans, Gladiators, and animals create a spectacle (usually awful and gruesome but interesting nonetheless) and see how they reacted to it all.  It would be amazing to see the Colosseum before it was taken apart for material or looted so many years ago.  The Romans were genius in their architecture and way ahead of their time.  We took a special tour that led us onto the ground floor where the races and fights would have taken place, the basement underneath the stage where animals were released from and the drainage system was, and last went up to the highest level which gave an incredible view of the entire Colosseum and the surrounding buildings.  During this tour we also went through the Roman Forum which was also amazing.  To see all of these places when they were at their prime would be quite a treat.  That is literally all I was thinking the entire time.  It is amazing how columns can still be standing despite being there for centuries!

 

The same day I did the Colosseum, I went with a small group to Pompeii. This was a side trip I paid for out of pocket and though it was expensive, it was well, WELL worth it!  I never realized exactly how big the city of Pompeii was/is.  We spent 2 hours there and only went through 1/10^th of the place!  We found a tour guide outside of the entrance and decided we all learn lot more when we have a guide so we splurged and got the tour (thanks Jim and Paula, one of our directors and her husband).  We discovered that these people were incredibly smart and efficient!  They built a brick oven WAY before Italians ever did and they served soup and stew in terra cotta bowls because that helped keep the temperature and didn’t alter flavor. The explosion of Vesuvius was in two stages.  The first one brought down ash so hot that when the people breathed in, they turned into concrete and basically became plaster casts of the positions they were in. We didn’t see many of these as we didn’t get a chance to do the museum, but the ones I did see broke my heart.  These people died very painfully and it was humbling to see where and how they lived their lives.  The mosaics and pottery were all very well preserved due to all the ash and rock that covered them until it was discovered.

We had two different pick pocketing incidents. No one had anything stolen from them because a girl named MacKenzie is a champ. She stopped it both times. The first time we were getting on the train in Rome's Termini station. A lady getting off the train tapped MacKenzie and told her to look; a girl about 15 had her hand in Macie's bag. MacKenzie quickly grabbed her hand and pulled it out. The young girl yelled at us as the doors closed. It all happened so quickly! I had always thought the pick pocketing would be more noticeable!  Like seriously? You're going to yell at us and it happened in the blink of an eye?! 

The second time was on this sketchy train to Pompeii! There was an older man who was helping his wife sit down and another man had his hand his the gentleman's pocket. MacKenzie saved the day again and pulled the man's hand out. He quickly tried to play it off and put sunglasses on. Another girl in our group, Lauren kind of gave him the stink eye for a bit of the ride until he pushed through me and a girl named Emily. He went up to Lauren and said the F word a bunch in her face along with some other Italian words we couldn't understand. It had my heart racing and my fight or flight response kicked in. I wasn't sure what to do. Luckily, he walked off to a different part of the train so we didn't have to deal with a problem. It was crazy!! Luckily we haven't had that problem since. 

The Sistine Chapel was beautiful and our cute guide, Clara, went really in depth on the different parts so we could appreciate it more.  We also almost didn’t make it in as it was closing early because the Prime Minister of Germany was coming to see the Pope, but our tour guide is buddies with the guards and they let us through; we were so lucky!

The Trivi fountain was fantastic! The Pantheon was bigger than I imagined and there are beautiful churches and cathedrals every other block! I can believe all the history of Rome. Living in a place like this may prove not to be as magical because it's an every day occurrence! It would be a similar feeling to a tourist coming to the mountains in Utah, they are mesmerized but to us, it's an every day thing. 

This blog post took me three days to write! Hahaha! I was having the hardest time figuring out how to get all my thoughts together and putting it into an actual blog post. My tablet isn't exactly working like it should but I'm determined to make these posts as some point! Enjoy the pictures even though some are sideways and others are upside down! One day I'll figure out how to blog from my phone!  :)