Ciao from Roma!
The only words that I can use to describe Italy and Rome are breath taking. The buildings and the sight seeing that we have done so far on day two of our overseas journey has just blown me away with how beautiful it all truly is.
Today was an amazing day with our first stop of the day being the architecturally beautiful Vatican. The Michelangelo paintings in the Sistine Chapel, the gardens of the Vatican, and the many marble monuments, frescos, and mosaics were enough to complete any day with a smile. I thought as we were walking up a set of stairs past a set of marble pillars and I thought that all of these columns, statues, and monuments were all hand carved, placed, and made with the help of no machines and it made me appreciate the Italian culture and everything as a whole so much more. The Vatican was a wonderful place to visit and it was a great way to start off the day even though the jet lag from the plane rides is still hitting me hard.
The next place we visited were the Catacombs of San Callisto where we had thirty minutes to walk through a small section of level two of the catacombs. After a hot day out in the sun in the Vatican, the coolness of the catacombs was a refreshing feeling for all of us. you know that the Catacombs of San Callisto consist of four levels and take up over 37 acres of land? Well, when we heard it as a group we all gasped as our guide told us about how the catacombs were like a labyrinth underground and could get easily lost. Having the chance to see the catacombs was an amazing experience as well and knowing that 500,000 people were buried in the catacombs and over forty percent of them were children was very shocking news.
The final place we visited for the day was the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is probably one of the more amazing things that I have seen in the city so far because of the immensity of the fountain and just how phenomenal the marble statues are that are placed around it. We had time to shop while we were at Trevi Fountain and we had a very relaxing time eating gelato, shopping through the small souvenir shops, and some of us walking the two miles to the Pantheon. I am so glad we had the chance to visit Rome and very sad to see it go tomorrow night but, I threw the coin into Trevi Fountain and did not look back so I WILL see Roma again before I die! If the legend holds true that is. Tomorrow night, we are off to Germany and I will finally get the chance to meet our host families!
Buona Notte Roma!
