Roma!!!!

It's been a little more than 24 hours since I landed in Rome, and I'm in heaven! Every second has been amazing so far.

The jet lag was a little tiring yesterday, but our group enjoyed a nice Italian lunch of white wine, pastas, and salads at a ristorante near our Hostel Alessandro and gained enough energy to sight see all night! We created our own walking tour (to save 15 euros after a taxi driver completely ripped us off and charged us 150 euros for a ride from the airport.... yes, that's equivalent to a $200 cab ride!) and saw the Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps! They were breathtaking! I immediately thought of the Lizzi McGuire movie (blast from the past!) We are staying near Termini Station, the main train station, so we are fairly central to everything. Colton and Courtney were excellent with the map, and we barely got lost! We did stop for directions a few times and met some people that tried with broken English to direct us. The worst part of the evening was my poor shoe choice. I trusted it would not rain heavily and wore flats, which were completely soaked after 5 minutes. You live and learn! We finished the evening with 2 thinly sliced pizzas from a local store and large 22 ounce beers! It was a delightful first evening of bonding in our tiny, but cozy hostel room!

Thursday morning started off just as wonderful! Courtney and I woke up at 6:30 Italy time to go running. I was a little afraid of getting lost on a run, considering how much effort it took to find things last night with a map. We went exploring though, and it paid off! We ended up taking an hour and 15 minute run (mostly because we got very turned around with directions), but we randomly ran to the Colosseum! Yes, that's right. We just found the Colosseum by chance. It was so exciting and surreal. Just a normal Wednesday run, right?

Following our run and a cheap hostel breakfast, we visited the Vatican. We paid for a tour, and it was well worth the money. We had no lines and great explanations of the Vatican Museum, Raphael Rooms, the old papal apartments (including the room Pope Alexander died in), and the Sistine Chapel. Our visit to St. Peter's was indescribable. I actually was almost brought to tears by the beauty of the Church. It was surreal to be in a place with so much history and beauty, especially being a Catholic and seeing images of the Popes and our Church's history my whole life.

We wrapped up the afternoon with a panini from a small store outside the Vatican and nutella gelato with whipped cream from Old Bridge. The lunch was spectacular and well worth every calorie. It's a good thing I decided not to pack a scale, because I'm surely getting fat in Rome. But, they say "do as the Romans do", so I am just living as a Roman for a few days :) My diet can resume in February!

Tonight we are going to try to find some good nightlife for college kids. There are many offers on the streets for pub crawls, but all the promoters are sketchy, so we are going to explore on our own! It's obvious we stand out as Americans everywhere we go, because we are always the ones they try to ploy into their restaurants with discounts! We try to play it smart and knock down the prices on souvenirs from the vendors. I've already spent an outrageous amount of money in 24 hours, but the budget and diet are on hold for now!

More updates to come, but I am having an absolute blast! It is such a beautiful city with breathtaking sites and to-die-for food! I cannot wait to see Ancient Rome tomorrow! Until then, arrivederci!