When in Rome

For Spring Break I went to see the centers of two ancient civilizations: Rome and Athens and this blog will cover the first half of that trip.  Our journey began very early in the morning March 9th when we all left to go to the train station at 2am.  A couple trains later we arrived at the Dusseldorf International Airport.  From there we looked around for our check in gate and when we couldn't find it asked an airport worker only to find out that we were at the wrong airport.  We were 45 minutes from the right airport and our flight stopped boarding in an hour. So, without panicking, the eight of us loaded into two taxis and sped off for Weese Airport like we were in the Amazing Race.  We ended up making it on our flight just in time (with several big bumps when we arrived at the new airport) but deciding that we would never use RyanAir again because the pain they put us through was not worth the cheap ticket price.

When we finally made it to Rome we were all relieved and decided to walk around the city center by the train station and look around.  During our meandering we stumbled upon a basilica whose interior (second picture) no one would have every guessed from looking at it's exterior (first picture)

Later on that day we went on to tour the Colosseum, and see the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, all of which were incredible.  Rome is now one of my favorite places I've been to because of how the beauty of the city can be seen by just strolling through the streets.  When we were at the Colosseum we had an interesting run in with a representative from a Houston news station.  We had taken out our Texas A&M flag to take a picture and were approached and asked if we would meet her on Tuesday to be interviewed (more on this later)!

 

Day two began with a trip to the Roman Forum where we walked through while listening to our Rick Steves audio guide.  Next to the forum was a small church with an even smaller prison, Mamertine prison, beneath it were it is believed that Paul and Peter were imprisoned and where Peter wrote 2 Timothy.  We then moved on to see the Pantheon and were amazed by architecture and extravagance of the famous dome.  We ended the day with a trip to what we termed the "Cat Colosseum" because it is an area of ruins that is still being excavated but has dozens of cats that live there (which are all taken care of and vaccinated). 

The third day we visited Vatican City for the first time and toured St. Peter's Cathedral (we couldn't tour the Sistine Chapel because it was closed for the meeting of the conclave).  Inside the cathedral was some of the most extravagant statues and paintings and architecture that I have ever seen.  Afterwards we wandered around some more and found a "park" with an incredible view of the city and took lots of photos.

 

On our final day in Rome we returned to Vatican City to be interviewed by KPRC (a Houston news channel).  We talked and took pictures with our new BFF Bill Balleza, the news anchor, and they asked us to return with them that night to watch for smoke after the first vote of the conclave.  When we went back the smoke was black but we had a fun time talking to Bill and even talked to a couple other aggies that we found! Our interview can be seen here: http://www.click2houston.com/news/Texas-A-M-students-take-trip-to-conclave/-/1735978/19289132/-/format/rsss_2.0/-/11h1x3j/-/index.html

 

Overall our time in Rome was an absolute blast and I can't wait to go back with my family in a few months so that they can experience this gorgeous city that is full of so much history.  And even though we missed the white smoke by less than 12 hours the trip was totally worth it and I have tons of great memories!