popes, peronies and potato pizza

So I've been really lazy about writing about Rome, so I'm just gonna suck it up and do a really quick post. Last weekend I went to Rome with Meg, Kelly, Kelly, Emily and Betty. We stayed at the Yellow Hostel which I highly recommend to anyone. It was the craziest few days. On Friday after we checked into our hostel, we made our way to the Colosseum. It was unbelievably beautiful and we just couldn't get over the fact that we were standing in front of the COLOSSEUM! Unfortunately it was too late to actually go inside so we just walked around the perimeter and looked through the other ruins. Then we checked out the Trevi Fountain. By the time we got back to the hostel we were exhausted (we walked all this way btw and got a little lost) After having some pizza we went to the Yellow Bar for their "lock and key party". We met some interesting characters (Benny? Steven?) but also some pretty cool people. The next day we did the Vatican. One of the guys we met the night before, Ben, asked if he could tag along since he was traveling alone. As we were about to walk into the Basilica, this woman was offering a free tour, so we decided to go with her. Our guide's name was Jennifer and she was so incredibly cool and smart. Her life story basically goes like this: she was an elementary school teacher, she got married and had kids. At some point she traveled to Rome, saw the Sistine Chapel, and it changed her life. She decided to move to Rome and is completely self-taught. Anyway, there was so much she knew that I never would have had any idea about without her. After the Basilica, she was offering a tour of the Vatican Museum, but there was a charge for that. We eventually caved and decided to take her tour. Before hitting the museum we hit up this pizza place for lunch and I fell in love with potato pizza. Anyway, so the museum was beautiful, and the Sistine Chapel literally took my breath away. Having Jennifer explain everything made it so much more meaningful. I could go on for hours about the Vatican, but this is supposed to be a quick post. Anyway after the museum, we had more pizza and some AMAZING gelato (you could say it was a fat weekend). I had a bit of a breakdown because the gelato was so big and cold and took so long to eat and it was so cold outside. After the gelato was done, we made our way to the Pantheon (none of these sites are very close together). After the Pantheon we hit the Spanish steps. Then we took the subway back to the hostel, had some pizza and peronies and hit up the Yellow Bar again. Emily didn't come because she was sick, and Kelly and I decided to head back early because we were so exhausted. So the next morning, we checked out and made our way back to the Colosseum. This time we went inside. We paid for this tour so we could cut the line, but ditched the group and just wandered on our own. It was so incredible, and those stairs could kill someone. So we checked out some more ruins and then made a mad dash back to the hostel to grab our luggage which we stored there and then had to run to the train station to make our train. We literally got on the train and it started moving. It was insane. Rome was fantastic, but the whole experience made me so happy I chose to study in Florence. As amazing as Rome is, its a pretty overwhelming city. Florence is so much smaller and I really feel like I'm getting to know the whole city, not just the area I'm living. Anyway, that was the weekend, just writing about it made me tired. Pictures should be up sometime this week (hopefully) and I'll post again about this weekend....ah craziness, there's just so much going on! I love this city, I love Europe, I'm not coming home lol!

<3 Alli