Wednesday - Dec. 10
Well, the day started off wrong when I dropped my keys in the toilet and then stuck my entire thumb in a pack of butter. After telling Sara about it while Dr. Green was in earshot—who made a comment about fishing out keys in toilets—I took my British Studies final and who knows how I did. I used 2 of the 3 hours given and wrote a lot. But there is only so much that I can do and so much pain I will endure (my hands were cramping really bad)! Anywho, people that were going back to the States were leaving to head towards the airport at 11pm, so we hung out with Merrissa as much as possible. We were so sad that she was leaving, that we basically avoided the subject. So, we played cards for a while and even asked Professor Green if he wanted to play with us…he declined. He was probably ready to get rid of us and have a new set of annoying American’s to teach a month later.
However, at 9pm, we went back to the refectory for an evening breakfast. All the staff, including the professors, served us. It was kind of nice but weird at the same time. Just an hour later, everyone started hugging each other, crying, and saying “bye” to all the friends that were leaving. Jessica and Meghan probably cried the most out of our group. Dr. Green and Dr. Owen (who are two peas in a pod…basically they don’t go anywhere without each other) stood by and watched, as some students came up and gave them hugs, saying their goodbyes. There were tons of students in the reception area, taking up every free space available, trying to see everyone and give last minute hugs. Doug (the shuttle driver who everyone LOVES!) came and gave me a big hug, picking me off the floor! Then Merrissa had to leave, and we all teared up a little bit because we didn’t want her to leave. We even ran outside after she left, chased her down and gave her more hugs!
After everyone was loaded into the coach, all the people staying went outside to wave off everyone. Merrissa started crying again when she saw us all standing outside. Right before they left, Sara Hilber ran off the coach screaming “I don’t want to go!” and ran to give us all hugs. Everyone of us told her to get back on the coach and to quit making a scene. A few minutes later, they were on their way. The coaches did two loops around the front and then they were gone. Very gloomily, the students walked back into the manor with unsure expressions. We weren’t really sure what to do next…. People were gone…. It didn’t seem right. Who knows if we’ll ever see them again?
I went up to my room, and just laid around for a little while. Then I decided I should finish packing for Italy and packing up the rest of my stuff to go home. Savannah decided to sleep in our room since her roommate was gone, and it was only Colleen and myself in our room. A littler after midnight we decided to head to bed.
Thursday
Thursday morning we woke up at 5 a.m. and got everything ready to go. It was a little sad, looking at our empty room for the last time. Colleen and I both glanced around the room, remembering the past 4 months, before we finally left room number 514 behind us, once and for all. We headed downstairs and checked out. Once again I was hit with the sadness that came with leaving Harlaxton as I turned in my keys and various forms. I went to place my backpack and purse in the lounge before eating a quick bite at breakfast when I started freaking out about my luggage. Most people were bringing an extra duffle bag, or something they could check when we arrived at the airport. I didn’t want to because I already packed all my belongings into my huge suitcases. There were a lot of weight problems with mine so I didn’t want to worry about all of that after I returned from Italy. I was planning to spend 8 days in Italy living out of a backpack. Talk about a great packer! Anywho, I began to freak out because my backpack was HUGE, especially since I was bringing my laptop and unfortunately no one had any extra space to help me out. I thought the airlines would end up checking my backpack because of the weight of it. Finally a few friends calmed me down and said we would worry about it when we needed to.
We ate our last breakfast in the refectory and then everyone began loading the coaches. It was nice to see Professor Owen walking around, saying goodbye to everyone at 5am. Dr. Green, on the other hand, wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Oh well for me giving him a goodbye hug…
After loading up, we set off for 2 hours towards London for the airport. We were flying on Alitalia, a little bankrupt airline. Why we would ever fly with someone bankrupt is beyond me…but that’s who the travel agent picked when they planned this whole trip for us. Our plane wasn’t scheduled to leave until 11:40, so we had a little time to kill, especially since the lines weren’t even open for us yet. Fortunately, Kinsley (our president) was able to get them to open just for the Harlaxton students so we could go ahead and get back security without any problems.
My group of friends went though just fine (they even let me keep my backpack). We found a place to sit, dropped all our stuff, then went in shifts to find food for lunch. Without much time passing, it was time to board. The one good thing about Alitalia was they gave you your seat number unlike RyanAir and EasyJet where you had to make a run for it in order to get a seat.
A few of the students switched it up a little bit and chose to sit elsewhere which created a little confusion. In the end, I ended up sitting next to Adrienne and Bethany (both WKU students). It was a good ride because we just talked about different trips we had all taken and how sad we were about leaving.
Finally, we arrived in Rome, or should I say, a little outside of it. We all hopped into another coach and drove for a little over an hour to actually get into the city. By the time we arrived, it was already dark. The place we stayed at was the Hotel Pacific. It was pretty nice..and of course had spiral type staircases (I hate those things) but thankfully, they also had an elevator! Kingsley gave everyone their room keys (which was actually just one, and we had to turn it in every time we left the hotel) and Meghan, Jessica and myself headed for our room. It was decent, with three single beds and a bathroom. Not a lot of wiggle room, but it would suit sleeping and bathing just fine. Automatically we became obsessed with the Bidet (sounds like Bah-day) and trying to figure out how it works. Just to clear things up, none of us actually used it…partially because we had no idea how! Hehe.
We freshened up a little and then went downstairs about 6:15 to wait for a group of people. Unfortunately the hotel didn’t have any internet because their service was down…so I couldn’t let Mom know we had made. We waited until about 7 and got a little frustrated because all the people we said we were going to meet, never showed up, and so we went ahead. There was a little Italian place really close, so we just stopped there. It was nice having just the 6 of us girls again, without any males around. We all ordered our first Italian meal and had a great time talking and enjoying the surroundings, even though our server looked less than thrilled a group of Americans were in his restaurant. We were courteous, mind you. We had left that loud, obnoxious, American way of acting behind.
After dinner, where do you think we went? To get Gelato! The most amazing ice cream ever on the face of the planet. If you don’t care about traveling the world, go to Italy just for the ice cream, you will understand why. We had to walk a little ways to find a place (especially since we walked one way for about half a mile, didn’t see one, then walked back). When we reached the place, quite a few other Harlaxton students had beaten us there. We all sat, talked about the plans for the next few days, and enjoyed gelato. Finally, we departed and headed back to the rooms so we could plan what we wanted to do the next 2 days. We learned, after being in Paris, that planning is key when there is a larger group of people and there are tons of things to do. The reception gave us a huge detailed map, and we circled the main places we wanted to see, then decided which days to do them.
Finally, everyone dispersed and went to their respected rooms. Meghan, Jessica and I listened to a little music but finally went to bed…although we weren’t really tired. It turned into a night wrestling match for a few minutes before we finally gave up and fell asleep before midnight.
Friday
Well, on Friday it was supposed to rain to entire day so we were a little discouraged. However, we got up around 8, went to eat breakfast by 8:30 (sugar croissant, juice, and cereal) and then got everyone together. We decided to hit up the Vatican Museum first. That thing is full of sculptures!! It cost 8 euros with my wonderful student discount. My main desire was to see the Sistine Chapel. However, no one informed me that you had to go through about a billion rooms to get to it! Gracious, it took forever. After a while, all the pictures and paintings seemed the same and I got really bored. I love learning about this history of things, but I get soooo bored when I have to walk through long museums. I prefer castles or old cathedrals.
Anywho, we wandered through each room, and pretty soon we started rushing (until we lost Sarah and Adrienne somewhere) and then we took a short break. After waiting for about 15 minutes, with no sign of them, we pressed forward. Finally, we reached the chapel and I was little caught off guard. I didn’t think it would be so…spacious. I’d envisioned some huge church type area with pews and alters and all sorts of things. This was different. There were paintings that covered the entire ceiling and just a bench that ran along the entire wall. We had been warned that we weren’t supposed to take pictures within the chapel, but as I glanced around, everyone was. What do you think I did? Pulled out my camera and started snapping some too! They weren’t the greatest though because I was still trying to be sneaky; therefore, I didn’t use my flash. Most of them were blurry. However, I still have the proof that I saw it! Plus, a few of my friends said they went the next day and no one was allowed to take pictures. Security was really heavy apparently and was telling everyone to keep their cameras in their bags or pockets. So we lucked out!
We sat around for a decent amount of time on the pews, waiting for Sarah and Adrienne to show up. Finally they did. We let them take pictures for a few minutes and then we all left. After we exited the museum, a few of us were hungry. We walked across the street (which was next to impossible and our walking became running since no one would slow down!!) to a little café. I ordered a little baguette type sandwich, some others got a slice of pizza. We got it to go, though, because it was cheaper, and that way we could continue on towards St. Peter’s Basilica. We weren’t really sure how to get there, so we decided to follow the huge wall that separated the Vatican from the rest of Rome. Finally we reached it! By the way, it wasn’t raining yet so we were pretty happy. As soon as we reached the area in front of the basilica, excitement took over me…they were putting up a huge Christmas tree and nativity scene right in the middle! It was awesome. It took a couple minutes for our surroundings to really soak in….
When everyone finished their food, we walked towards the entrance. There was a short wait, but the line moved fast. Since we had to go through metal detectors, etc, it held up the wait a little. While we were standing around talking, these three guys standing in front of us turned around. They noticed Chelsea Kasten’s Oxford sweatshirt and asked if she went there. We told them no, that we only visited and that we were studying abroad some place different. A few more little exchanges were made and finally they asked where we were from. When they said Kentucky, I almost killed over. NO ONE was ever here that we’d met randomly from KY. So, I asked them what part and they said Lexington!! It was sooo weird! Of course, I told them I was from Frankfort. Two of the guys (who were twins) got pretty excited and asked me if I knew Claire Poh and Houston Hardy. They used to play basketball against Houston because they went to high school at Sayre. Then, they knew Claire because she goes to the same college as they do, now (High Point). It was crazy! Small World…
Finally, we entered the Basilica. It was also a lot different than I’d imagined. Chairs, pews, and other items didn’t clutter the center of the room. It was spacious. Wide open. We started taking pictures and wandered around. There were different alters and statues for different reasons. Jessica became absorbed in everything. She’s Catholic so it was really neat for her to see some of this stuff. (I realize my family is Catholic, but I have chosen the nondenominational path). After looking around for a while, we decided to head down towards the crypt. That was pretty interesting to see all the famous…well not necessary famous, but important tombs. I really wanted to see Pope Clement the IV or VI, I can’t’ remember, because he was the pope when the split with England and the Roman Catholic Church occurred, or when it was taking place. However, no such luck. When we reached Pope John Paul II’s tomb, it was beautiful, and it was clear that people loved him just by its beauty. Then we reached St. Peter’s tomb. Apparently it is the remains of Peter, from the Bible. I wasn’t exactly sure if that was true, but if it is, then hot dang! That was flippin incredible and unreal!
After walking through the crypt, we ended back upstairs in the basilica but decided it was time to move on. Once we walked outside, it started raining a little. Boo! Our next stop was Piazza Navona, because it was supposed to have a wonderful Christmas market. We walked around a little, and since we have become excellent map followers, we made it there fairly easily…with a little second guessing, hehe. As we were walking towards our destination, we had to cross over a river by bridge (shocker there). I didn't realize just how high the water had been until we were passing by some flags. We looked down towards the water and all we could see was barely the tip of a long line of flags. Dang, that water was high! One of the bridges was blocked off too because some kind of house boat or something similar and apparently floated down the river and rammed into the bridge. It was a big deal.
Anywho, the market wasn’t very good. It was more like a carnival instead of a market. Some rides were up, and they even had carnival type food. As soon as we got there, this guy came up to me asking if I wanted a bracelet. Immediately, I said NO. they never back down that easily though. He goes, “C’mon, you have none like this. Stick out your finger” I didn’t look at him but kept walking and said NO, very sternly! (I was a little surprised at myself to be honest). Once again he tried to get me to, but I told him NO, go away! The man walked around muttering unkind things about me. I didn’t care though. I’d heard about them, they are sneaky people. They act nice and sweet but as soon as they get those bracelets on you, its “20 Euros!! 20 Euros!!” and you can’t give the bracelet back, they won’t take it. It’s a huge scam. So, Chelsea and I were impressed by my “’no’ saying skills” and watched him prey on a few other tourists. It wasn’t long until another guy came up to me doing the exact same thing! No one else from my group of friends was bothered by them, so that was completely unfair. Well, I just told him, “no” before he had a chance to say anything to me and finally he got the message, too. Some of my friends found this little food booth that sold some kind of doughnut. It was huge and kind of flat, which nutella chocolate smothered on the top. I had a bite and it was amazing!!
Behind some of the booths were stores; I noticed a tobacco place. So, I made a beeline towards it. I really wanted to get Josh Hicks some cigars because I couldn’t think of any other gift to give him. Jessica went in with me, and we asked the man at the counter for some suggestions. He took us to a little room in the back with all his best stuff. Well, he explained some of the different ones and I finally picked two of them. It came out to be about 11 euros. After I’d bought them and started looking at them, I realized they were Cuban cigars. The freaking out began. I didn’t know what to do!! They are, of course, illegal in the States. Daniel told me to stop flipping out and that he would carry them in his luggage as long as I took off all the papers and separated the tube from the actual cigars. So, I did. Even though I was freaking out about the fact that at customs in the US airport, some officer will find my contraband and end up locking me in federal prison for the rest of my life, I was a little excited by the fact that I had 2 cuban cigars in my possession.
Our next stop was the Pantheon. We wandered around trying to find it, because the roads on our map weren’t really leading us in the direction we thought we were going in. Finally after taking a chance on one windy road, we made it! We stood in front of it next to a fountain for a while because there were a lot of people walking in and out of the building. The fountain was interesting because it had goofy faces and the animals/fish looked funny. After taking a few pictures, we decided to go into the Pantheon.
Once we entered the building, it was a lot different than I had expected…even though I didn’t know what to expect! It was sort of an open room, which things along the walls, nothing really in the center except a rope, blocking off a big circle. We glanced up and there was a large round hold in the top of the building, and since it was raining, water was coming through. There were seats on the other side of where we were standing, so we went and sat down for a while because our feet were sore. We didn’t stay too long because Jessica really needed to use the bathroom.
We whipped out our maps and picked a direction to go in…however, we started to get lost. Along the way we stopped by some souvenir places and then found this huge gelati/candy shop. Even though Jess was about to pee her pants, she let us all go in and get some ice cream! It was the biggest selection of ice cream I had ever seen, and it was marvelous! Everyone paid for their gelati and we rushed out the door, still eager to find a bathroom for Jessica. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize just how far we were from our hotel. It took forever! It probably took us over an hour to get back. It was rainy and nasty, turning dark, and Jessica was in some major pain.
We whipped out our maps and picked a direction to go in…however, we started to get lost. Along the way we stopped by some souvenir places and then found this huge gelati/candy shop. Even though Jess was about to pee her pants, she let us all go in and get some ice cream! It was the biggest selection of ice cream I had ever seen, and it was marvelous! Everyone paid for their gelati and we rushed out the door, still eager to find a bathroom for Jessica. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize just how far we were from our hotel. It took forever! It probably took us over an hour to get back. It was rainy and nasty, turning dark, and Jessica was in some major pain.
Finally, we made it back and she jumped in the bathroom. We all sat in the room for a while and rested from the activities we participated in earlier that day. It was a good day. Our feet were throbbing with pain and our shoes/socks/pants were wet. We couldn’t just sit around forever, though, so we decided on a place to go eat: the same restaurant Daniel ate the night before. It was pretty close to our hotel so we didn’t mind walking there. I ordered a Penne dish that was apparently cooked with Vodka (that’s what the menu told me anyway), and it was amazing. Everyone was fairly happy with their meal, other than the bread they gave us. I’ve come to realize that Italian bread is not so good. After dinner what do we always do? GET ICE CREAM! So, we walked to the same Gelati place (and those people were less than happy to see our smiling faces). I ordered the Straccatelli, which has become my new favorite. We ate our ice cream and headed back to the room where everyone relaxed and talked. Finally we all departed and went to bed. Somehow a night wrestling match erupted again between Jess, Megs, and me. I definitely dominated…and Jessica lost terribly! Hahaha. It didn’t last very long before we all drifted into a nice, restful sleep.
Saturday
Well, we all woke up and low and behold, the sun was shining! We didn’t think that was possible, considering the lady told us at the front desk that it was supposed to be rainy every day we were there. By 8:30, we were downstairs and eating breakfast. It was the same thing as Friday, so it wasn’t very appetizing. However, I ate it anyway because I knew I’d need my strength and who knew when we would be eating lunch?
Since we had decided which places we wanted to go on Thursday, no time was wasted determining where to start first. We headed towards the Metro. Their Metro system is seriously lacking compared to the Underground in London, but it’s understandable since there is so much history in Rome that they had to build the Metro around them. Naturally, we were limited in the amount of stations available, but we were lucky because most of the stations built were fairly close, if not right next to, our destinations!
Our first stop was the Coliseum because it was the furthest away from our hotel. We thought we would go to the farthest point and work ourselves back up. It was pretty nice that the station was literally right next to the Coliseum, so there weren’t any chances we would get lost. Words cannot express the excitement and amazement I felt after seeing the Coliseum for the first time. Wow. It’s huge…a lot bigger than I could dream of. The sun was still shining which made those feelings multiply. It was awesome!!
We started to walk around it, noticing all the dressed up Roman soldiers and the horse drawn carriages. Some of those soldiers approached us asking if we wanted a picture, so all the girls said, “Yes” and we jumped over on their little platform while the guys took our pictures. Little did we know it was some sort of trick/scam and after we jumped off the platform, they bombarded us with “5 Euros, 5 Euros!!” They were pretty mean about it, too. Well we were all pissed because they didn’t tell us it cost anything! Everyone reached into their wallets and pulled out the money they were asking for, and we walked off pretty heated. At the same time, we had to laugh at ourselves. DUH! Of course they weren’t going to do that for free. We felt pretty stupid, but decided it would add another crazy, goofy, embarrassing story to our European adventures.
Thankfully the line to enter wasn’t long, so we were able to pay and get our tickets quickly. We walked up a flight of steep stairs and finally made it to the top. Wow…again. It was magnificent. Truly. It was big, too, and was able to hold at least 50,000 people at one time. I’m not sure why I loved it so much, but I think it had to do with the history of it. The coliseum is OLD! We could see the original stairs that thousands if not millions of people had walked on before me, a really long time ago! They were corroded, and looked more like a ramp than actual stairs. And cats were running around carelessly, as if they owned the place. It was fabulous.
We took a lot of pictures. Seriously, I probably used half of my memory stick of just the Coliseum. We walked around for a bit, and then decided to head upstairs to a different landing. The stairs leading towards the top were steep! Once we made it, it was set up like a museum almost with artifacts everywhere and then a little description of that certain item. We looked through the different artifacts and then walked out onto a landing. Gosh, I loved being there. There were a few flat stone type surfaces, so we all jumped up there individually and posed like a statue. Then Chelsea Kasten joined me and we took a picture like warriors battling hundreds of years ago.
I decided I wanted a picture of me jumping in the air, looking fierce. So, Chelsea sat on the ground a little ways away from me and waited for me to jump off the stone. After jumping, I seemed to have lost my balance because I jumped right on top of Chelsea. It was hilarious. I just rolled right off of her while all my friends watched and laughed. I didn’t want to get up. It was rather embarrassing, even though I was laughing at myself. Finally they picked me up off the ground, exchanged a few more giggles, and went about our business exploring.
After we had spent quite a while soaking up all the history associated with the Roman Coliseum, we decided to head towards the Forum, which was right next to it. We had to walk for a little bit to find the actual entrance though. We had already bought our tickets for the Forum when we paid for our admission into the coliseum so we didn’t have to wait in line (yay!). Once we entered, it split in two different directions. We decided to go right. We wandered around for a while, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery.
Pretty soon we had seen all that we wanted to see and we needed to head on because we had other things on our agenda. Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain. We got there without any problems (thankfully) and decided to each lunch before taking pictures. There was a little fast food joint right next to it, so we all plopped down to eat. A few of us had to use the bathroom, which was used by both men and women. Let me be the first to say how disgusting that thing was. There was no toilet paper, paper towels, soap, nothing. It smelt disgusting but beggars can’t be choosers. I had to deal with it.
After lunch we wandered down a little alley because I was on a mission to find some biscotti and tomato paste for Mom. I found some biscotti with the help of a very nice saleswoman but no tomato paste. Then we popped into a few souvenir places. After browsing the selection, we headed back towards the fountain to relax and enjoy. It had grown a little cloudy by this point, but it wasn’t raining so we were glad. We sat down and started fishing out coins to throw in. I threw in 2 coins at first, but then later I threw in one more, haha! It was fun. The fountain was a little crowded but it wasn’t too bad, so I didn’t mind acting a little goofy. Me and Daniel sat down on the edge of the fountain and were talking, but got in a little bit of a play argument, but were making faces at each other. Well, little did I know, Adrienne was taking pictures of the whole thing and it turned out to be really funny. It captured me hugging on him, and then our argument starting, and how our facial expressions changed from happy and goofy to pouty and frustrated, then both of us turned out backs to one another and were ignoring each other. It was hilarious.
We sat around for quite a while, just enjoying our surroundings and soaking up the fact that we were in Roma! But, we still had at least one more place to visit so we decided to move on to the Spanish Steps. When we showed up it was really crowded and there must have been some kind of show or event about to happen because they were setting up something. There were people everywhere and by that time the clouds were a lot grayer and less inviting. We all grabbed a seat on the steps, like the 5th one (we didn’t walk too far) and watched all the festivities. We did see Savannah, Kelly and Sandahl, so Daniel went and grabbed them. So, they all came over and said hello. By the time they left it had started sprinkling unfortunately. So we started to move towards the Metro so we could head back.
However, everyone wasn’t ready to go back in to the hotel, so we decided to walk to a market that we had seen on our way to the Vatican the day before. I was a little grumpy and didn’t want to go because it was raining by this point and my pants were getting wet. Not wanting to be a party pooper, I trailed behind. We wandered around the market for a little while but I got bored pretty fast and didn’t feel like buying anything. So, Jess, Megs and I went back to the hotel to relax before dinner. Boy, that was not fun walking back in the rain with soaking wet jeans. Blah! We just sat around and listened to music in the room for a while which was nice.
When it was time for dinner, we weren’t sure where to go because there weren’t a lot of places close by and I didn’t feel like walking very far due to the rain. So, we went back to the same place we went our first night in Rome. The waiter seemed less than thrilled to have us back at his restaurant and put us in a little side room, so it was out of the way of the actual restaurant. Well, it wasn’t long before another Harlaxton group of students arrived and they were placed in the same room. Again, shortly afterwards, there was a larger group of people show up that we didn’t know. They were also placed in the same room as us…after a few minutes we recognized the accents as American. They were typical Americans too: loud and obnoxious. It was really funny that these waiters were throwing every single American into the same room, which was out of the way of everyone else. Since we had been in Europe for almost 4 months by now, we were pretty quiet and weren’t loud like we used to be. After a few minutes, the noise level began to increase because of the Americans we didn’t know. They even staged a fake engagement, with screams and laughter. It was really annoying and at that point I was annoyed and embarrassed to be considered American. When it was time to order I got the Penne w/ Vodka, because it was wonderful at the place we went to the previous night. About half way through our meal, another group of students came in our American filled room, and low and behold, they were American’s too. By no means were they as loud and obnoxious as the other group. So, we had a full house of Americans, all shoved into one little room to keep away from the rest of the Italians. Nice.
When dinner finally ended we walked to get some gelato from the same place we had been getting it. It was yummy as always. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel to hang out and relax. It had been a long day! We propped our large window open to let the breeze in, and we heard some fellow Harlaxton students’ voices. Looking out the window, we saw Scott and Jeff standing on a balcony a few floors higher. We started talking (it was about 9pm) but we had to raise our voices so they would carry over to each other. Then, some man popped out from a floor below us and yelled at us to be quiet because some people were trying to sleep. Feeling bad, we shut our window and Jeff and Scott decided to just come over to our room. It was so funny because as soon as they came in, they went straight to the bathroom to check it out. It was really weird. They didn’t need to use it; they just wanted to see what it looked like, lol. We all talked for a while and then the boys left so we could go to sleep.
Sunday
The next morning we had to check out of our rooms, so we packed up everything and headed downstairs. The hotel was setting aside a room in the lounge so we could put all our luggage since our coach wasn’t arriving until about 2 pm so the students would have the chance to go to Mass at the Vatican. After dropping off our luggage, we ate breakfast. We were planning to go to the Vatican, but I felt bad because I didn’t pack any church clothes. I only had my jeans and hoodie. Jamin, Jeff, Cory and Scott came downstairs and ate right next to us, so we were chatting a little. Some of them were going to the service as well, so we decided we would tag along with them. We picked up a few other Harlaxton students along the way.
Sunday
The next morning we had to check out of our rooms, so we packed up everything and headed downstairs. The hotel was setting aside a room in the lounge so we could put all our luggage since our coach wasn’t arriving until about 2 pm so the students would have the chance to go to Mass at the Vatican. After dropping off our luggage, we ate breakfast. We were planning to go to the Vatican, but I felt bad because I didn’t pack any church clothes. I only had my jeans and hoodie. Jamin, Jeff, Cory and Scott came downstairs and ate right next to us, so we were chatting a little. Some of them were going to the service as well, so we decided we would tag along with them. We picked up a few other Harlaxton students along the way.
It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining with very little clouds to get in the way. We made the journey to the Vatican just fine, and had a few minutes before the next service started. They had roped off a section of St. Peter’s for the individuals wanting to sit through a service, so we had to wait until the service before ours was finished. Finally, they were letting people out and allowing us to go through. We had to push through the crowd and rush over to the chairs so we could get a good seat. The service we were attending was going to be spoken in Latin, so I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any chance of me actually following what was said. They did have little sheets of paper for the service in a few different languages so we could follow along, or try to anyways.
The service was good, even though I didn’t know exactly what was going on. Since I had grown up Catholic, I could follow along the best I could, but it’s still difficult when you don’t know Latin. Our group gathered and met up with a few people before heading outside. Once we did, there were a ton of people standing around. We didn’t know what was going on, but it was crazy. People were chanting, holding up different signs, some people were singing, others were yelling. It was crazy. It seriously looked like a rally or a protest almost. If only we knew what they were actually saying, I think we would have realized it was nothing of the sort. We decided to walk on and try to avoid everything that was happening. That’s when we saw Jon Harvey! We all got really excited because he wasn’t traveling with us. He didn’t go on the school’s Italy trip, he was traveling alone for a while and hopefully going to meet his Italian family. It was a pleasant surprise to see him, so we stood in the back of the huge crowds and talked to each other for a while, still wondering what was going on. Then someone mentioned that maybe the Pope would appear at 12 since there was a banner looking thing hanging out of a window, so we decided to wait until then to see what happens.
I was very glad we waited!! I got to see the Pope! It was marvelous. Of course he looked like a little dot standing in that window, but I still could see him. He blessed everyone in six different languages, so we got to listen to him speak English and bless us! J It was awesome! Afterwards, everyone was trying to get out all at the same time which is always fun. People were everywhere! I can only imagine it would be like running with the bulls in Spain, only it was people. hehe. We all started walking down the road, in a different way we came, so we could maybe find some place for lunch. However, since it was lunch time and there were like a billion people out, everyone was thinking the same thing. Everywhere was full and it would take forever to eat, so we didn’t think we’d have enough time to make it back to the coaches by 2. Jessica and I got really tired of sitting there talking and wasting time, so we bought a little snack for our lunch (a canister of Pringles and a Sprite) and went on our way. Everyone else stayed and decided to find somewhere to eat.
I’m glad me and Jessica decided to go on, it gave us some quality time together. We stopped by a little market that was selling shirts and various other items for a few minutes. She was looking for a shirt for Mike (her boyfriend) but we couldn’t find one his size because Italian sizes are different than American. For instance an Italian Large is only an American Medium. I had made that mistake already when I bought a hoodie, thinking it was a large but instead it was only a medium. Oh well, it’s a cute hoodie so I still wore it, but it was a little tighter than I wanted.
We made it back to the hotel and sat in the lounge for a little while, waiting for everyone else to show up. Jess and I both decided to read. When the coaches arrived, we grabbed out stuff and loaded it into the bottom of the coach. We started to get a little worried because Adrienne, Meghan, Chelsea, and the rest of them hadn’t shown up yet. We picked out our seats and waited. They still weren’t there but everyone else was! It was getting a little ridiculous. Finally they showed up, and they were running to the coach. At least they weren’t abducted!
Once everyone was loaded into the coach we took off! I was able to sleep a little which was great because I never get to sleep on coaches; it’s just awkward. After a 4 hour ride, we finally arrived in Florence about 6pm. Everyone received their room keys and we took off to find our room. Meg, Jess and I had a room together again. Once we opened the door, I about fell over. The room was so nice and big! We had a ton of space, there was dark hard wood, and the bathroom was very modern and well done. It was awesome and definitely not basic!
BUT this is where this blog ends because the next blog will be about Florence!! All in all, Rome was amazing and a wonderful trip. I can’t wait to get back there!
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