Roma, Italia

My trip to Rome this past weekend was unbelievable. I mean to see on TV programs where the Pope stands for mass, the Colosseum, and the Vatican are one thing but too see it in person, it leaves you speechless. Cory, Grant, and I arrived in Rome at about 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. We waited at the airport for a long time for a Terravision bus, as it's the only way to get from Rome Ciampiano to the city center. The bus finally arrived after about an hour and a half and we were on our way. Intially, our first impressions of Rome were skewed. On our way in, building after building was covered with grafitti. I mean I have been to some of the East Coast's roughest cities but Rome's grafitti was like none other. However, as we got closer to the historical areas, the city was beautiful. Our first views of old Rome were the old aqueduct systems that still stand throughout the city, although not connected anymore. After about 40 minutes, we arrived at Termini station, the main transportation hub of Rome. Our hostel was only about a 2 minute walk down the road and it was easy to find. For once, we stayed in a hostel that was clean for the most part!!!! Our first thought was to get some food, as we were starving and you have to pay for food on RyanAir flights!! A wonderful Italian restaurant was 2 stores down and we sat down for a wonderful meal. We all got a Margherita pizza, which is basically just cheese with tomato sauce. We learned that in Rome they actually don't work all the dough of the pizza with their hands (a misconception that all of Italy makes pizza the same way!). In Rome, they use a roller like they would in the United States and other cities such as Naples they work the dough with just their hands. After eating, all of us had to take a nap because we had not slept the night before at all. After napping, we wandered down to the Colosseum to see what it was like at night and it was absolutly amazing. We couldn't wait to come back in the morning. The next day, we went to the Colosseum and walked around for a long time. It was nice because we got a Roma pass, which allowed us to get into two monuments for free and unlimited travel on Rome's transportation system for three days. The Roma Pass allowed us to skip the 45 minute wait to get into the Colosseum. During the day, we were also able to see the Trevi Fountain, and the Spainish Steps. We also visited the Pantheon, not to be confused with the Parthenon of Greece. Outside the Pantheon, we wandered into Miscellanea Pub to grab some coffee. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by the owner Michelangelo. He shook all of our hands and put his arm around me like he had known me his whole life!! Anyway, we sat down and talked with us for like 30-40 minutes about him time in American and about Greece in general. He ended up giving us a free piece of cake each. Also, we got pictures from behind the bar with him and he gave us some free shots of Southern Comfort too!! He even ended up knocking off like 2 euros of our bill as well. The hospitatility of Michelangelo is something I will never forget and since it's an international students' pub, we plan on sending him some Messiah and Elizabethtown gear. On Sunday, we spent all day in Vatican City. We were able to go to the top of St. Peters Basilica (which was 550+ stairs) and see all of Rome. It was neat to see where the Pope stands for Sunday mass and we were also fortuante enough to go to the Vatican Museum as well. In the museum, we were able to see the Sistine chapel (Michelangelo's famous paintings) as well as many other famous stuff. The three of us agree that this has been our favorite city by far and we cherished our time!!! Well I'm going to go, as we are leaving again in about 12 hours for Athens!!