Italia Part I: Veni Vidi Vici

¡Hola!

I know it's been a while but I've made an Easter resolution, if you will, to blog more frequently now.  So get ready for some serious bloggin'.

Last week was our Spring Break here (or Semana Santa, which is Holy Week in Spanish) so my travel buddy Becca and I figured we should seize the day and try on the boot that is Italy. 

My lovely travel companion.

First up, Rome.  As you can imagine, Holy Week in Rome is a bit crowded.  The two of us weaved our way through the throngs of tourists on the streets and hit up most of the major must-see spots.

Each of us threw the obligatory two coins into the Trevi Fountain, the first to return to Rome and the second for love.

We signed our names in the Pantheon, although I still couldn't tell you why, the Italian lady at the book tried to explain it to us...something about an homage to the people buried there?  I saw it as a guestbook, or a type of "Carly was here" marker.

We have some great memories of wandering neighborhoods near Circus Maximus trying to find somewhere to get lunch ("Why is it so hard to find somewhere to EAT in ITALY?!") 

Wandering

And we hit up the Colosseum, saw the Roman Forum from the outside, the Vittorio Emanuele II monument, and various piazzas, fountains, and the Vatican Museums.

 

Piazza di Spagna

Vittorio Emanuele

View from the top of Piazza di Spagna.

Just a Roman windowbox.

Oops. Sorry.

 

Vatican Museums

 

Arc of Constantine

Interior of the cupola inside the Basilica, incredible mosaics.

Inside the cupola.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica, from above.

Inside the Vatican Museums.

Cupola at the Vatican, our last view of Rome.

But for this Catholic girl, the highlight of Rome was definitely Palm Sunday mass with the Pope in St. Peter's Square.  We got ourselves out of bed at 6:30 and were in line by 8:00 for the 9:30 mass.  I use the word "line" VERY loosely here, a more accurate term would be mob or horde... Becca and I just laughed, I just wanted to tell all the people pushing and shoving, "YO, let's maybe try to be nice to each other?  Pretty sure Jesus is watching."

We finally made our way through and I can't say that I didn't tear up a little in St. Peter's Square.  It was another one of those moments (I've been having a lot lately) where I just couldn't believe I was actually there, I was actually about to go celebrate mass with the Pope in Rome, when did my life get so cool?

After mass Pope Francis rode around in the pope-mobile, smiling, waving, kissing babies, and you know, Pope things.  I tried my best to get a decent photo, but sometimes those kind of moments are best remembered without a picture.

I would say I liked Rome, but I didn't love it.  I'm so grateful for the chance to have gone, and I'm glad that I saw it, but I think there are a lot more places I want to go before I fulfill my Trevi-coin-toss and make my return.  In a city where there are already thousands of daily tourist activities, we were quickly worn-out of the constant "Buy this! Eat here! Look at my flashing and spinning miniature model of the Colosseum!"  It's safe to say that by day four we were ready to say arrivederci to Rome, when we hopped on the train to Florence....

...This story to be continued in Part II, which I promise is coming soon.