purple, green, and yellow: Roma!

Here's the troop. 30 girls. 1 guy.

Yesterday we packed, weighed our bags, and left for the airport. It was a 1.45 hour flight from Athens to Rome (which I already knew because my second layover on the way to Athens, was in Rome...been there done that!) The only bad thing about the flight was that my ear wouldn't pop for the next 2-3 hours, it was painful! That had never happened to me before, and I hope it doesn't happen again.

It was a 40 minute cab ride from the airport to tour apartments. We have apartments here in Rome, instead of a hotel. I guess getting hotels is more expensive than apartments in Rome. It was like a hotel though, the room service was amazing! If we had left our pajamas or any clothes laying on our beds we would find them folded on our beds when we returned. The apartments also had a kitchen in them - meaning I got to cook myself eggs for three days straight! I love eggs in the morning!

We went to the local pizzeria for dinner as soon as we'd gotten settled in. It was really good, not too expensive, and the father and daughter who ran it were very nice. The only downside to eating at a restaurant here in Italy is that you have to pay for water and to sit, in addition to your food. We got so that we wouldn't even order water if we could manage without it. We got a lot of weird looks from the waiters when we did that. Also, here in Italy they expect you to stay for a three course meal every time you came. Sometimes I felt bad, but it wasn't worth the extra money to put those weird looks to rest.

All of us at the local Pizzeria down the street from our apartment - I'm way in the back!

Our first full day in Rome was a Sunday. We had to take the metro and then walk another 20-30 minutes to the chapel. It rained all night and most of the morning, so we got really wet walking to church. The building was small and the Bishop looked really young (no offense Dad). Only a few of them spoke any English, so one of the Elders there translated everyone's testimonies. One of the girls in our group has taken Italian, so she got up and gave her testimony in Italian as well. It was an amazing meeting the the spirit was so strong. I think it's amazing that the spirit can speak to us through any language, whether we understand the speakers or not. The gift of tongues is real! The Elder who translated from Italian to English and visa versa had really good Italian from what I could tell. He could have fooled me. The only thing he did that made him sound American was his 'ums' between sentences. Only adding to the great meeting I'd just experienced, was the young man I found standing at the back of the chapel. One of my little sister's friends and my good friend, Joey Flitton!

Could this day get any better? Church was wonderful, I was having a great time in Europe and I was able to reunite with an old friend. As I walked away from the chapel I thought my face was going to split because I was smiling so big! After church we went into the city to do a walking tour of the biggest landmarks in Rome, like the Spanish Steps, The Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon!

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

Yep, that's the Pantheon

The water in Rome was SOO good!

This is where we tried our first Italian Gelato - can I saw heavenly? There are also like 200 churches here in Rome, one on every corner...kind of like church buildings in Salt Lake. They are all beautiful! My feet have never hurt so badly, but it has never been so worth it!

I was also blessed to spend my 22 birthday in Rome! Happy Birthday to me! It rained almost all day. Now, you may be thinking that's a shame that it rained, but I love rain, so it couldn't have been more perfect for my birthday gift from Rome. We toured most of the Roman Forum that day. We saw the Arch of Titus, the Arch of Constantine, and the Colosseum.

Maren and I in front of the Colosseum/Arch of Constantine

This not-so-flattering picture of me shows everyone what I looked like walking around the streets of Rome - protecting my camera in my front-facing backpack/baby. It was NOT pretty!

Arch of Titus - I wrote a paper on this arch

Again we toured some more Roman churches before it was time for dinner. It was only like 10, but when you've been on your feet that long, it feels like 35! And to make my birthday even better, we had a program-funded dinner out on the town! Where I was sitting we could see down into the kitchen and watch the chefs cook!

My view into the kitchen Happy Birthday to Me!

We had some fun appetizers, pasta, more pasta, and dessert! No, it wasn't Gelato, but it would have been better if it had been. Then we caught a bus back home. My feet where so happy! We visited the Borghese Gallery, Palazzo del Barberini, and the Capitoline Museum the next day.

The Laocoon and Apollo from the Capitoline Museum

For those of you who don't know Art History, these museums have some of the best sculpture, painting, and mosaics in the world! Amazing sculpture! For those of you who do know your Art History I'll name a couple of the works we saw. First sculpture: Bernini's Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Persephone. For painting: Caravaggio's Bacchus, David with Head of Goliath, and Judith Beheading Holofernes. We saw The Calling of St. Matthew and Martyrdom of St. Matthew in some Baroque churches later in the same day. At the Capitoline Museum we saw Dying Gaul, Commodus as Hercules, the Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, the Capitoline Wolf with Romulus and Remus, the Laocoon and Apollo. Later we did some souvenir shopping and got some more Gelato - one can never have too much gelato.

I tried Banana and Chocolate together, I don't think it can get any better!

James lecturing to us before heading into one of the many cathedrals in Rome

Candles from one of the many churches...I couldn't get enough pictures of them

The next day we went to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican includes Raphael's

School of Athens, and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling and Last Judgement. It was really crowded in the Vatican that day - if you can't tell by the photo below.

Me in front of Raphael's The School of Athens (fantastic!)

We snuck a picture in the Sistine Chapel....Shhhhhh.

After getting lost by myself for a scary 15-20 minutes in the Vatican Museum, finding 6 more lost students, and finally being reunited with the group, we headed over to St. Peter's Basilica. St. Peter's Basilica was CROWDED!

Me in front of St. Peter's Basilica - We are standing in line to get inside

This was as close to the Pieta as you could get without elbowing a hundred people to get there

My professor said she had never seen it that busy before. While we were moving from one side of the church to the other, we lost a couple students and one of the professor's children in the stampede going to Mass. After going into ''search mode'' for about 20 minutes we found them. Then we all went to get Gelato from the Old Bridge Gelato Shop - did I say banana and chocolate was the best? I lied! This was the best I've ever had! I got Mango, Strawberry, and Chocolate Chip all on one cone.