My Roman Holiday

A couple weeks ago, I embarked on my last big adventure of my study abroad experience. How crazy is it that all this is coming to an end? A month from today, I will be getting on a plane home to America - a place that seems otherworldly at this point. I've become so acclimated to the lifestyle here, that I think it's going to be a bit of a challenge coming home and readjusting to what used to be almost 5 months ago.

So my last major travel took me to Rome, Italy for a few days. It was the absolute best time - full of unexpected surprises! Izzy and I flew out of Brussels on a Sunday morning to land in Rome in the afternoon. I've always wanted to go to Rome. After visiting, I've never been to any place like it. There is just so much art and history jam packed into one city, it's spectacular. 

The only aspect I truly didn't enjoy were the amount of tourists there. It's a good thing I'm heading home soon, because this is when families start taking summer vacations. Rome was so crowded and full of people all over the place. There were so many vendors trying to sell you things, Izzy and I reached a point where we were about to tell of the next person that tried to sell us a selfie stick. 

When we arrived Sunday, we hit up a couple major sites - a walk by the Colosseum and a visit to the Trevi Fountain. Both were just astounding. I've never had the opportunity to see a structure so old and historical. Then I had another jaw-drop moment at the fountain. It is just absolutely stunning. The amount of detail and craftsmanship that was put into the fountain is amazing. I made a wish and threw a coin in, so fingers crossed that comes true someday. 

Afterwards, we met up with one of Izzy's friends who actually stayed with us back in February to grab dinner in the Trastevere neighborhood. She ended up leaving just 2 days after we arrived to come home to the States - it was crazy for us to think that we still had another month and a half to go. She also took us for our first gelato where I had the most delicious little cup of the sweet goodness. You wouldn't think blueberry cheesecake cobbler and strawberry would go together well, but both flavors were amazing. 

The next day, we fit in as much as we could. We originally planned to go into the Colosseum, but by the time we got there, the lines were extremely long, so we decided to do some other things. We stopped by the Trevi Fountain again (because it's just that amazing!) and then made multiple stops to the Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. On the way there, we ended up running into a Hanover class that was taking a spring term trip here unexpectedly. It was the funniest and best thing. So nice to see some familiar faces! 

After stopping at both these places, we made our way to Il Gioliti which Jill had recommended us to go to for some more amazing gelato. Here I tried Oreo, Stratiacella, and Strawberry flavors. Izzy and I took a breather before we were off to meet up with one of our favorite professors who was taking a class from Hanover to Rome for Spring Term.

Originally, we intended on meeting her in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Long story short, we waited almost 2 hours baking in the sun. Eventually we left only to find out she got caught up with an issue she was having with her class and couldn't get in contact with us to let us know what was going on.

At this point, we were so exhausted that we just took the metro back to our hostel where we took a breather. Some of our sorority sisters ended up being in Rome with another class, so we met up with lots of people from our school that evening for dinner and drinks. I can't tell you how lovely it was to just hang out with Americans. We didn't have to worry about language barriers, we didn't have to explain ourselves, we could just be, and it was so refreshing.

Our last day, we crammed in so, so much. Because the Colosseum was packed the day before, we got up bright and early to make it there right as it opened. We ended up practically having the place to ourselves. It was so nice. The Colosseum itself is just amazing. It's hard to put into words how cool it is to stand in a structure with so much history, spanning over thousands of years. After, we made our way to the Roman Forum which is located right next to it. Also spectacular.

After, we made our way to the Vatican, where we spent a couple hours walking through the museum. I even got to see the Sistine Chapel. I feel like I'm being so redundant when I describe all the places I've been to, but it was hard to put that place into words either. Hundreds upon hundreds of years ago Leonardo da Vinci painted that church - how neat is that?!!

Then, we made our way to St. Peter's Basilica. I'm not Catholic, but boy was that place just beautiful. At this point, Izzy and I were wiped, so we ended up lying down in a park and relaxed for 2 hours before we were to meet with our professor for dinner after making our way through the church.

We spent our last night dining with Uschi, our study abroad advisor who as I said before brought a class here. It was so great to catch up with her as well. We told her all about our experiences (and how we're freaking out about finals being so soon).

A fantastic Roman Holiday it was. I apologize for the lack of blog posts, but I'm spending every day (until I come home ultimately) for the next 3 1/2 weeks studying hardcore for exams. I'll try to fit in little updates here and there, but thank you for keeping up with my journey throughout this semester!

Enjoy some photos from the trip below!

Living out my Lizzie McGuire dream!

First bites of gelato

Trastevere Neighborhood

The best reunions are Hanover ones.

Phi Mu reunited in front of the Trevi Fountain.

Piazza Navona 

St. Peter's Basilica

Roman Forum

Reunited with our study abroad advisor.