Italy

Rome

October 25-28, 2007

There were too many things to take pictures of!!!

Day 1
Jessica, Victoria, and Priscilla and myself left Reutlingen University at 11:33 and headed downtown. We went to the HBF first to check our train situation, because once again Deutsche Bahn was on strike. Once we figured it out and bought tickets we had some time to kill, so we got food. We took two trains, an S-bahn, and 2 buses to get to the Baden-Baden airport! I'm not sure if it is worth saving a little bit of money to do it like that! Anyway, we fly Ryanair so of course it was a little crazy and unorganized, but we made it too Rome safely by around 7pm. We found a cheap bus to get us within walking distance of our hostel for 6 euros. We checked into our hostel, dropped off our stuff and headed out for dinner. We ate pizza at an "okay" little bistro, and then took Priscilla to the train station to meet up with her friend. The rest of us went back to the hostel and played cards in the hallway, then went to bed.



Day 2
We woke up at around 9am and had our free breakfast that consisted of bread, coffees, jam, butter, and oh more bread! After that, filling meal, we took the metro to the Colosseum where we were meeting up with Priscilla. Jessica went inside, but Victoria and I waited for Priscilla, and killed time by playing cards. From the Colosseum we just wondered around hitting up almost everything including: Arco di Constantino, old Rome, Arco di tito, Vittroiano E Piazza Venezia, Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza di Spagna, Colonna Traiana, Mercati Traianei, Santa Maria Maggiore, Repubblica, Piazza Navona, Campo de Fiori, San Carlo Quattro Fontane, Fontana del Tritone, Villa Medici, Piazza del Popolo, Palazzzo Montecitorio, Palazzo Chigi, and Teatro dell Opera. Basically everything and anything we could walk to! Later that night after we rested, Vic, Jess and I at dinner then dropped Jess off at the train station to meet up with Pris. Victoria and I had an Opera or actually an Aria at 8:30pm to attend at San Palo Church. The aria was amazing and we had a really good time. After that we meet up with Pris and Jess and hung out with some of Pris's friends and then went back to the hostel.

Day 3
We spent a bulk of the day at the Vatican (see below). When we were done with the Vatican, we went to Castel Sant Angelo and Palazzo Giustizia, where we sat and waited for Pris, but killing time, by once again playing cards! We went back to the hostel to relax and change before heading out for dinner. We got ready, then meet up with Priscilla and her friend at 8:30. We were a little late but we found them and went to a nice restaurant near Piazza Tritussa. After the dinner we headed home, because we were tired and had to check out early the next morning!

Day 4
We woke up at 9:15am, checked out, ate breakfast, then hit up the bus to go to the airport. We arrived at the airport at around 10:30 am. We had originally thought that our flight was at 2pm but it was actually at 2:45 so we were even earlier than we needed to be. We hung out, played cards, read our books and waited. We are literally the stupidest people around. It wasn't until we thought that our plane was really, really late that we realized that it was daylight savings time. So we were actually there an hour earlier than we thought. So we technically woke up at 8:15 and didn't have to check out until 10 nor be at the airport until 2:45!!!! How annoying! Anyway, we got into Baden-Baden took a 9 euro bus ride to Karlsruhe, then a 9 euro train ride to Reutlingen. We finally got home around 9pm. AHHHHH such a long wasted day!!

Rome was a 3. There were a ton of tourists, it was kind of dirty, and the food was okay!

The Vatican City
October 27, 2007

The Vatican was so packed and crazy, it was hard to enjoy it.

Day Trip

We decided to wake up early and go to the Vatican. Its a good thing we did too, because we found out later that everything was going to close at 1:30. We ate breakfast took the metro and was at the Vatican around 10:30am. I cannot even begin to explain how crazy the Vatican was. The main reason, I think, was due to the fact that the next day was going to be the last Sunday of the month and the Pope always holds a sermon then. So there were a lot of tours and people visiting that weekend. Anyway, we waited in line to enter the basilica for only 30min. Which was surprising considering it wrapped almost completely around the inside circle of the Vatican!! We went inside the basilica and it was free, thank goodness. There were so many people I could barley keep track of Jessica and Victoria. It was really quite amazing inside the basilica. After we finished with that we decided we needed to see the Sistine Chapel. So we waited in another line, this line however was about an hour wait. But the time flew by because we decided to play cards, yet again!! We make it to the front, payed 8 euros, and began the biggest, and most annoying maze of my life. There were, once again, so many people that I could not enjoy the beauty of the place. It took us an hour to get through the entire Vatican Museum just to see the Sistine Chapel. You can't go any other way, but through the entire thing in order to see the Chapel. AHHHHH! It was really terrible! Anyway, after that fiasco we decided to get the hell out of there. So we left, and went to this amazing Gelatto place. All in all i would never go back to the Vatican!

The Vatican was a 2. I was really pretty, but there were too many people!!