La Città Eterna
Rome is called the eternal city for a reason. Florence is a renaissance city and Milano is a very modern Italy city, but Rome is something else. Everything is different and there is no way of putting my thoughts into words that could describe that city.
We arrived on Tuesday morning after almost missing our train and we headed out to our air bnb. It’s pretty ironic that a bunch of hospitality students were staying in an air bnb, which the lodging industry compares to Lucifer, but you gotta do what you gotta do when you’re a college student. Plus it’s helping the local economy and small business owners, right?
Anyways, our air bnb was nicer than my entire apartment back in Kent and it was only $30 a night per person. You cannot beat that, plus it was a 10-minute walk from the Vatican. We got settled in and made our way to the Vatican. Everything was chill until someone said “wait, is that the Vatican?” we looked up and it was the dome of the St. Peters Basilica and we were all in awe. We finally got to the square and it was incredible.
We did not waste anytime because we wanted to see what the basilica had to offer. It was just as incredible as you would imagine it to be. I’m not even catholic but the fact that I was standing somewhere where millions of people make a pilgrimage to every year was extremely humbling.
The Vatican museum was extremely overwhelming and it completely defeated us. This was until we walked into the Sistine chapel. I realized how stupid I was being when I was trying to sneak a picture of Michangelo’s ceiling. I was in a room that holds so much historical significance and all I was trying to do was sneak a picture. I finally looked up and I took the masterpiece in. The room was very quiet, and for a good reason; everyone was speechless and in awe.
We then ventured to the Castle St. Angelo. The main reason we decided to come here was for the view, and it did not disappoint. We finished up at the castle and after 40 minutes of us trying to hail a taxi in the pouring rain, we finally got one after fighting a few other Americans for one.
Day two was insane. We saw the pope. Like not just from a massive TV screen projecting his speech but we were about 10 feet away from him as he drove by on his “pope-mobile”. I am still not over it. We then went on to see the usual stops you see when you’re in room i.e the Pantheon, the Coloseum, the Trevi fountain (where I channeled my inner Lizzie McGuire and made a wish), and the roman forum.
Rome was something I will never forget and I am extremely grateful to had visited the eternal city.
