Roma! Roma! Roma!

January 29 - Woke up at 5:45, showered, and we all had to meet at the Piazza della Repubblica to take the bus to Rome. It was a 3 hour bus ride and I slept most of the way. I woke up that morning feeling like I had a cold coming on (which sucks, because I just got over my other cold not even a week ago). As we were coming into the city my ipod was playing "Pocket Full of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield. Perfect song, it was like I had my own soundtrack =) We got to our hotel (Hotel Arenula), unpacked our stuff and we had about an hour to go get lunch then meet back up to go on a tour. I didn't eat, I drank a coke zero (I had almost a whole box of Ritz on the bus!) We went to the Roman forum, colosseum, and the pantheon. Pantheon was my favorite!


January 30 - Felt WORSE today. Woke up so achy, felt like I had a fever and this was the day I was most excited about. I ate an orange and a kiwi for breakfast and brought along with me a huge water bottle. We left at 9:30 a.m. and the first thing we went to see was the Vatican museum, then we walked through the grottoes, its where every pope that has died is buried. There were so many people praying and crying around the tomb where the most recent pope that died had been buried. It was so eerie. I didn't like the feeling I had after walking out of there.

Then we went to St. Peters Basilica. This was my absolute favorite of the entire trip. I walked in and just stopped in awe. After learning about the Gold and Bronze keys from Nero and learning about the story of St. Peter and Jesus and how this breathtaking church came to be, I was just awestruck. Everywhere I walked, there was another section to walk into . It just kept going, and going, and going. I saw pictures of it from the lecture, but never imagined the extravagance of it. The altar in the very center of the church was HUGE and made of all bronze. Right underneath it is where it's said that St. Peter's bones are buried. They're underneath the actual church. I walked by the Blessed Sacrament Chapel (a room dedicated to only prayer), the confessionals, St Peter's statue (his toes are completely gone from people touching them - people pray and ask that he be merciful and open the gates of heaven for them). I went to the altar, took a couple pictures then felt compelled to pray. After researching, I found that where me and Peyton chose to go pray was called "St. Joseph's Altar" - Here's a link that talks about it: http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Info/PrayerPlaces.htm This site talks about the Top Prayer Places in St Peter's and it shows a picture of the tomb of Pope John Paul II I was talking about earlier.

The day ended with a trip to the catacombs. It was only about a 25 minute tour, not very exciting though. I was ready to get on the bus and sleep my sickness away...As soon as I got home, I showered and went straight to sleep.

Today, I literally was in bed all day resting. Im trying to get better by Saturday for Carnivale in Venice and then Super Bowl on Sunday. Supermarket in the a.m. and school tomorrow. Then hopefully skyping with dad and Jer at some point.

BUONA NOTTE.