Roma

Rome Rome Rome.  I loved Rome.

It was such a pleasant surprise to walk off the train and have beaaaautiful warm weather upon our arrival.  Our last visit to Italy (Florence) was quite the rain filled weekend, so it was nice to see a warmer side of the country.

Our first stop was the famous Sistine Chapel.  Located in the Vatican City, we trained over right after checking into our hostel.  The inside consisted of incredible architecture and wall paintings frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists.  We walked through the entire building which was more like a museum making our way to Michelangelo's famous ceiling painting, completed in 1512.  It was incredible.  All of the colors and detail put into the painting - it is hard to believe it was completed in only four years.

That night we had fun in the bar in our hostel, then decided to head across the street to grab some dinner.  Ashley and I walked in then decided we just really wanted pizza so we went back out and across the street to a pizza place we had gone to earlier in the day.  We had some fun making pizza with the chefs in the back and things got pretty aggressive.  The night ended shortly after and we went back to our Yellow Hostel next door to call it a night.

In the morning we woke up and went to see the Colosseum.  We got off the train, walked up from under ground and BAM it was right there, the huge, semi circle, stone, fortress.  We were attacked by faux gladiators on our way in and then decided to join a tour group to see the inside.  It was huuuge!  Everything seems so much bigger in real life.  I really enjoyed the Colosseum.  We learned that back in the day when the gladiator fights used to go on there they would let huge lions, tigers, cheetahs, rhinos, and other large animals loose within the colosseum to run around and kill people for the upper class's entertainment.  Scary to imagine.  Palatine Hill, Roman ruins, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, and Spanish Steps were next.  We had lunch at a cute little cafe.  Shared a moment with our waiter, got gelato, and went home to get ready for the night.

After wandering the Roman streets we stumbled upon a Colosseum Crawl and partook in the events.  We began with some sketchy shots in an alley... then went to two dance clubs.

Sunday morning we enjoyed lunch outside with a surprise visit from some Sig Eps from home, Brian, Judd, and Broughten, in the Campo De Fiore, then hopped on train back to Lugano.  Successful weekend, and Rome might be my favorite Italian city!