Italy and the Vatican: Non Parlo Italiano

By the time we got to Italy, I was pretty tired of being a tourist, but I'll be the first to admit that Italy was probably my favorite country to be a tourist in. The landmarks are very close together, and for some reason I liked them better than the ones we'd seen in other countries. (That said, this was also the one country where no one in our family understood or spoke the language. We still managed to get through it, and we didn't even have any trouble with pickpockets.)

We spent our first day in Italy at the Vatican. The museum was awesome, and the tour was fantastic, but it was a two-hour tour, so everyone was pretty tired by the time we got to the end. However, the Sistine Chapel was absolutely amazing - I could have spent all day in there. (The Raphael rooms were awesome too.) We ended up wandering through St. Peter's Basilica, where we found an open gate and ended up in one layer of the catacombs. Actually seeing the tomb of St. Peter was pretty awesome and not something I was counting on seeing. (I'm not Catholic, I'm Protestant, and even though I'm not super-religious as it is, Peter figures prominently in many variations of Christianity, so seeing his tomb was very cool.) I sent a postcard to my boyfriend from the Vatican and had an interesting discussion with my parents about how you'd get your passport stamped there (the answer: you wouldn't). The Vatican ended up taking the whole day, but it was very fun and I got some fantastic pictures.

The second day in Italy was all things in Rome. We started at the Colosseum, which was AWESOME - ancient stuff is definitely some of my favorite stuff. After a couple detours that didn't get us anywhere, we made it to the Pantheon. After we toured the Pantheon (and let me tell you, it was amazing), we stopped for lunch. Then we went to Trevi Fountain (yes, we did the standard coin-throwing - Eric almost took out a seagull) and the Spanish Steps. After stopping once again for ice cream (gelato!), we decided to call it a day. The next morning we flew to JFK and then to SFO.

We walked about a hundred miles in two weeks, and we averaged between fifteen and twenty flights of stairs per day. It was a crazy trip, but I'm so glad I got to go. (Waking up the next morning and going to a college event wasn't my favorite thing to do, but that turned out pretty okay too.) Now I'm on to other things, and I have to admit I'm excited to see what the future holds!

Love you all,
Megan