Buona sera all! This last weekend was another of travel to the amazing city of Rome. We did this with our school as we thought there would be no way for the two of us to find everything important in a city of 3 million, and we were right, we hardly fit it all in! We left early Saturday morning as the sun was still rising, rushing our taxi driver to hurry through the small winding streets of Florence as, big surprise, kris and ash were running late . We made it to the train station right in time and hopped aboard a fast-line train to Rome, which took about 2 ½ hours. When we arrived we climbed aboard some random subways with our group of about 20 people from our school and one advisor. We then dropped our backpacks off at our hotel and headed over to Vatican City with our tour guide. Our guide was about 4’8” with short wavy hair just starting to gray, a tiny little lady who cracked us up the whole time. She handed us all little walky-talkies with earpieces that we would proceed to wear for the next two day listening to her explanations and following her little waving flag wherever it might lead us, looking like the typical tourists that we so often laugh about, yeah go ahead laugh at the picture you have in your head right now. To our surprise when we arrived to the gate outside of the city there was a line about 3 hours long! Not to worry though, we are easily entertained and had a great time waiting in line, most of the others laughing at us. When we finally got inside our breath was taken away as we entered not to return to us until we exited the city. We viewed gorgeous museums and saw so many ornate pictures painted, mosaic, and sculpted. We can’t even describe it, we heard a figure that there are 1,200 rooms in the Vatican and if you viewed each picture for 45 seconds it would take 30 years, it is impossible to see it all and needless to say it felt like a sprint through all of it. At the end of the Vatican we went into the Sistine Chapel that is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been, it is so ornate, not an inch of the chapel not painted. There were 12 pictures on top depicting the days of creation and parallel pictures of the life of Moses and Christ along the walls and final judgment along the front wall. It was all so amazing. From there we had free time and we along with our two roommates started to wander around the city, crossing over a beautiful bridge and stumbling onto Piazza Pia which is a square with a huge ornate fountain in the center, older than the country of America and a sort of market of artists trying to sell their pieces, some just sitting painting. Musicians were heard all around trying to earn money and a comedian was at another corner entertaining a crowd of about 35 and restaurants all around with people sitting outside laughing, enjoying each others company. All creating a whirlwind of the arts, something so overlooked in the states and the means of living for the culture over here. It was quite an experience. Ashley and I then hopped aboard a bus and headed back to our hotel as it was becoming dinner hour. We ate dinner with our group at the restaurant, it was chicken and soup also known as mashed potatoes, it tasted great tho! The next morning we got up early again, put our earpieces in and were ready to go! We went and saw the Colosseum, and toured around other historic sites, that would take forever to describe. Such as the Pantheon which is the widest dome in the world with a hole in the center for the sun to shine down on each of the Saints as the sun moves throughout the day, and a gorgeous fountain that started the tradition of throwing money into foundations as they ran out of money to build it in the 1400s and so the people threw money into it to pay to finish the sculpture, and so many other amazing sites! After we finished our guided tour Ashley and I wandered around the city, walking through the ancient remains of Rome thinking of the fact that we were walking some of the same paths looking at some of the same things that the apostle Paul did years before as he wrote his letters. We then hiked up to a huge museum that overlooked much of Rome, again breathtaking, and then finally had to pry ourselves away to head back down to our hotel and head back to the train station. It was a great weekend, we wish you all could experience it with us, thanks for your love and we love you and miss you!