EATALY

Hope everyone back home had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I wish that I could have been there but I really can't complain because I spent my weekend in Rome with my friend from high school Morgan!
I arrived in Rome on Friday afternoon. It seemed that one thing after another was going wrong for me. My debit card wouldn't work at the ATM, I stood in line for almost an hour and half waiting to get onto a bus into the city center, and I didn't really know what i was going to do with myself since morgan had class and wasn't flying in until later that night. But I got to the hostel safely, checked in, and claimed by bed.
I did a lot of walking around that evening. I went to the Spanish Steps, Piazza Popolo, Piazza Navona (sp), Trevi,  and crossed the bridge to see the massive court house. Once it started getting a little darker out, I decided to head back home since I was all by myself. I went back and met some really cool kids in my hostel room. We just hung out, talked, and drank a bit. They were mostly from Indiana, and Colorado State. I was SO happy when Morgan finally made it into town! There was a bar underneath our hostel that we went and got a drink and mapped our day for Saturday!
Boy, did we pack A LOT into that day! We mapped it all out on Sunday and we walked 8 miles just on Saturday and then another 5 on Sunday.  Anyway, we did all the hotspots! The colosseum, ancient ruins, the forum, palantino, shopping on National Ave, the Castle, the Museum of Rome, Spanish Steps (again), Trevi, plaza after plaza! We just kept on moving! Of course we made plenty of time for Italian pasta, PIZZA, and gelato.

one coin to return to Rome and another to one day get married

Sunday we woke ourselves up early to go stand in line for the Vatican Museum.  It is free on the last sunday of every month so we had perfect timing but we knew we had to beat the crowds. We actually only ended up waiting for an hour and half. Not too bad!

Famous Adam & Eve inside the Sistine Chapel

I also saw the Pope! He gives a prayer every Sunday at noon in St. Peter's Square. After the prayer we went inside the basilica and climbed the 321 steps to the top of the coupe! It was raining out but I still got some awesome views of Rome.

After the Vatican City, we did a lot more walking around Rome, stopping at some plaza's and eating amazing pizza! 

Monday morning I had to wake up at 630 to get back on a bus to the airport. It was hard getting off the plane to snow after spending a weekend in chilly but sunny Italy. I think that we went at the perfect time of year. It wasn't nearly as busy as in the summer months. The weather really was perfect (minus some rain on Sunday).