Emily Out Of Water: October 2013

So last week was a very busy week and then on Thursday Marta asked me if Ida and I would like to go to Rome with her the next day because she had an exam there! It was so amazing because it was all of a sudden and we had no idea it was going to happen. Saturday was one of the best days of my life! I can't even explain how I felt, it was i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-i-l-e.

We left on Friday after school and went on the train which took around 5-6 hours. The scenery was beautiful! We arrived in Rome in the evening and bused to the place where we were staying which was a nunnery very close to Vatican City. When we were on the bus we passed THE COLOSSEUM! It was so amazingly, incredibly, unbelievable. It was just so casual and everyone else on the bus, being Roman locals, didn't even look up from their phones or newspapers it was just Ida and I going crazy over it. The Colosseum was humongous and so much bigger than I had ever imagined.

That evening we had dinner at a nice restaurant not far from the nunnery. I had pizza of course and it was so yum, but different to the pizzas in Cesena. Apparently each region does their pizza differently so it was interesting to try one from Rome. It was really oily though and I personally prefer the ones in Cesena, which apparently are more similar to Naples. After dinner we went back to the hotel and Marta went to study while Ida and I stayed up until the early hours of the morning listening to music, talking and having some of the funniest moments of my life. We went to buy hot chocolates from the vending machine in the middle of the night and it was so loud hahaa.

The next morning we left the hotel at around 6:20 and walked to a cafe for breakfast. Afterwards we walked along the river, Marta found the place for her exam, and Ida and I continued on to find Vatican City. It was strange because we had to walk through an underground tunnel to get there and it was full of nuns and priests and then just Ida and I hahaha. When we came out of the tunnel is was POURING down with rain so we found a cafe to grab another drink and a bite to eat before heading for St. Peters.

The church was amazing! So huge and to be honest neither of us really knew a thing about it which made it all the more amazing. It seemed like every corner we turned there was a whole nother church - it was just massive. Also full of nuns and I don't think I'd ever seen a nun before this but there were so many in there. When we came out the line to go in looked like it must have been in excess of an hour and when we got there we just walked straight in. Good thing we got up early!

After Vatican City we went to the Colosseum which was one of the best things I've done in my entire life. We got off the bus about 10 minutes walk from the actual Colosseum but there were ruins of the old Roman City and it was incredible to see it all. It was just there so casual with new buildings next to it, I couldn't believe it. At school in NZ we never learnt about the Colosseum so I didn't really know anything and I learnt so much. We walked around for about 2 hours and I don't think we even did the full loop of the top! We were also able to go to the undergrounds part and see where the gladiators actually fought. It was crazy to think people actually killed each other there... also we were thinking there would have been people our age back then going and watching it, so crazy.

We met Marta for lunch and rode the metro to the bus station where we caught a bus back home. The whole trip was just so amazing and I can't even believe it myself that it actually happened. I've always dreamt of visiting the Colosseum and now it's actually happened wow!!