Rome!!!

           Becca, Bri, Kendal, Stephan, Shelly, Mary, Kiersten, Heidi and I went to Rome for a short weekend trip. We left Vienna at 7:30pm and rode a train all the way to Rome. It was a long ride, but we didn’t have to umsteig (change trains), so we didn’t have to worry about anything until we arrived in Rome. Six of us were in the same compartment on the train so we didn’t have to worry about being with strangers. We put the seats down and played a card game called scum for a long time. We arrived in Rome around 9:00am. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel then walked around. We could hardly believe how nice the weather was. We didn’t have to wear a jacket which was nice because it was freezing in Vienna. We went to the Roman forum and walked around in them. We saw the colosseum from the forum ruins then walked around inside it. It was so exciting to see the places we learn about. We had pizza and gelato for lunch. The gelato was great just like people said it would be. We walked to the pantheon and got to go inside. We had dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hostel. We all got pasta for only three Euros! It was so cheap! After dinner we were tired from wandering around all day so we went right to bed because we were going to have an early start the next day.

Bri, Camille, and Kiersten at the Colosseum

Colosseum

Mary, Kiersten, Camille, Shelly, Becca, and Bri at the Pantheon

Eating italian gelato!!!

roman ruins

Stephan, Shelly, Kendal, Bri, Camille, Becca, Kiersten, and Mary

Catching the train to Rome!

Good morning... we're in Italy!!

waiting for our pasta

            The next morning we left our hostel at 7:00am. We went to the Trevi fountain first and were the only ones there. We then went to the Vatican. It wasn’t full of people because it was so early in the morning. We first visited St. Peter’s Basilica. It was huge. A few of us climbed to the dome at St. Peters. The stairs were super steep and little so it was scary to climb at some parts. After a tense experience trying to buy a ticket to see the Sistine Chapel I wandered back alone to the fountain in front of St. Peters. I met up with Bri and Kendal later and tried again, this time successfully, to get a ticket to see the Sistine Chapel. It was not what I expected, but still cool. The three of us then walked to the Spanish steps and saw three girls from BYU on the way. We knew they were from BYU because they were wearing the study abroad backpacks like ours. We talked to them for an hour about their experiences in Spain. I love seeing other BYU students because you have an instant bond with them. We caught the 7:05pm train back to Vienna. We arrived at 8:30am the next morning and got home by 9:15.

Camille at the Trevi fountain

St. Angelo's

sweet columns at St. Peter's

St. Peter's in the background