¡Viva la vida Española!: if I were to fall in love in Europe, it would have been in ROME;

Semana Santa, Holy week, which meant no school! 6 hour overnight bus and a night in the airport later we landed in Rome :)

Katie and I were very tired but too excited to really sleep in the airport. You could tell there were some real professionals who have done it before, they had come prepared. We hadn't ha but it was an adventure for sure!

This is the Republican Square, biggest plaza I've seen! Our first day in Rome we just went and saw the smaller attractions as we waited for Katie's friend from school, Jemima, to land in Rome too. Rome, it has SOO much history, just about every corner you turned you were running into another amazing sight, some roman ruins, just awesome history.

We just couldn't help but go to the Triton Fountain our first day, I didn't realize it was the real beginning of tourist season, but I think Italy is just always flooding with tourists, it was nice little walkt to the fountain and then BAM! crazy amount of people around!

The fountain was AMAZING! Its so huge and sort of tucked away in a random spot but just so beautiful.

Everything about it was just perfect, the marble so smooth, so intact, so detailed. It was just breathtaking.

You know we just had to throw in some coins, we're cheap college kids so we just threw in our 2 cent pennies ;) haha we don't use them ANYWHERE so we had too, it was hard to claim a spot at the fountain but we got in there and made our wishes. First Roman tradition, check!

Tra la lala la, just walking from the fountain and BOOM the Pantheon, another just incredible work of art. It's the place to worship the Gods.

The Pantheon is something like one of the largest domes in Europe, the hole in the top is the unique part, it represents the passage to where the Gods are.

There are seven Gods that are shown in the Pantheon.

<---- I'm not really sure where this one went...

This is the state archive where we found many aspiring artists drawing the building

Can I just point out how hilarious I think the Triton statues are, they just seem to be very comical to me. It seemed at every fountain there was at least one funny Triton in the gang.

Mine and Katie's deal was to try and avoid gelato as long as possible because we knew we would love it, yepp that lasted about 5 hours into being in Rome. It was DELICIOUS!!!!!

I don't know what I'm doing in that picture haha

Rome is definitely not car friendly, but the streets were gorgeous! MY guess is that Mopeds were invented for Italy haha they REALLY favor them more than bicycles or cars, I was just hoping to find a cute Italian to give me a ride on one!

Katie was smart and bought some Italy travel guides on her kindle and so everywhere we went she could give us a little history!

Capital Hill

So that was day one in Rome. Jemima was suppose to come in at midnight and we were going to meet her and walk her to her hostel, she wasn't able to book ours. Me and Katie had gone to bed at about 10pm because we were so darn tired but set an alarm for her. Next thing I know is my alarm is going off and first thing out of Katie's mouth is "Jemima never called?!" I'm not a morning person so I was just like smeerrr ok call her, wake me up at 7:30 haha. Then we had gone to the meeting place and Jemima never showed up, after trying to get ahold of her, we had to beg the owner of her hostel to go wake her up! Ha the guy was like "are you Jemima, you have a call from America" ha but finally we all got together to go to the Vatican City!!!

St Peter's Bascilica, where the Pope comes out every Wednesday to make his adress.

Look at that line to get into there!!! Buttt, it only took about half hour to get in.

Of course when we finally got there, they stopped me and said I wasn't aloud in because I was in tights, TIGHTS?! I was wearing a dress and scarf and jacket and black tights, really? All of the holier places have a strick dress code, I can dig that but really, I say girls in shorts getting in.

So if first you don't succeed try try again! Second time around, I got in no problem of course.

No pictures aloud, but of course we snuck some tehee

Everything, so detailed, so beautiful. --->a ceiling.

& below, the floor!

I'd like to introduce Jemima, Katie goes to school with her back home. She is studying in a small town an hour out of Paris, she was really a sweetheart. AND she said I can come to Ghana and see her in Africa, HOW COOOOL!

We had some time before our tour time in the Vatican Museums so we went to see this cool castle, can't be a city without a castle right lol It had great views of the city.

Katie & I infront of St. Peters Basilica, I'm still a tad burnt from the beach.

a Castle complete with history, views, a restaurant, and catapult. Neat-o

We just had great karma this trip, we got our tickets early we just got to skip the 2 hour long line to get into the Vatican Museums and 16th Chapel.

Just doing it like the Romans do!

Just click on these and see the true beauty of how they did it back then, its incredible how little of tools they had but created something so beautiful.

Again, the funny Tritons.

This one is famous (above right). Its the Laocoon.

Isn't this stained glass just awesome, woah talent.

Adam & Eve painting

The exit from the museums. We went into the 16th chapel as well, but you couldn't take pictures. It was a lot smaller than I thought but still awesome, it was busy with grand paintings covering the whole place.

Yepp, found the best gelato place ever. Old bridge: huge gelato, cheap & cute boys working ;) what is there to complain about there.

I loved these trees that lined the streets and more.

The twin churches, which aren't exactly twins

The busy busy Spanish steps

The Republican Square at night

Day 3: The Colosseum, Forum & Plantino. Busy busy with tourists but it was a great day to go. We got REAL lucky again because for some reason it was FREE to get into all 3!

So before I went to Rome, the hilarious & insightful Katelund told me about how sometimes the gladiators that stand outside to take pictures with people will steal your camera and charge you a ridiculous amount to get it back. So what happens to Sadi first thing when we get to the colosseum? I didn't get anything taken buttt a gladiator shouts "HEY Barbie!!" at me and wraps his arms around me and its like "yeahh look this is my new wife" to my friends. All I was thinking was I better not be getting pick pocketed right now which a death grip on my camera. He tries to get me to take a picture with him and Jemima goes "Excuse me?! She is MY wife" and pulls me away. Haha it was pretty hilarious

Inside the Forum & Plantino

I just liked the picture, I'm guessing do not enter?

This foot is famous for when people touch the toes it brings good luck. I can't imagine what the whole statue looked like because it was a huge foot!

Augustus' house

Because we had taken the shorter line into the Forum and Plantino, we already had our tickets for the Colosseum and again, skipped a long line! We just walked into it without any problems. Well, except a "gladiator" called me Barbie and grabbed me and claimed I was his wife, I laughed, but just hoped I wasn't being pick pocketed (I didn't) & Jemima got me away from him haha..oh adventures.