The last main leg of our trip was Rome! The big, busy, and crowded city was a shift from Florence and Venice, but we still loved it. Plus, the weather was amazing - so sunny and very warm. We also walked so many miles each day, so I suppose it made all that pasta, pizza, and gelato okay. Our long weekend in Rome was spent exploring the ancient Roman sites, Vatican City, and beautiful old churches, as well as walking around the squares and twisting streets.
Our first stop was the Colosseum. Kristen and I are both really interested in ancient history, so spending hours in the Colosseum and later in the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill was a great way to start our time in Rome.
After a long time walking around the Colosseum, we crossed over to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We walked so many miles this day, largely because of this start to our trip as we walked around what remains of the ancient buildings.
When we were finally done over there, we stopped for lunch and then headed over to the Pantheon, the former temple and now church with an oculus at the top of its dome.
Piazza Navona
We went to the Trevi Fountain after dinner, where it was packed and difficult to get to the edge of the fountain. We made sure to throw a coin in according to tradition.
Our next day was also a long one: we got up early and took the metro to Vatican City. Luckily, we were early enough that there wasn't much of a line for St. Peter's Basilica.
After spending a long time at St. Peter's Basilica, we ate paninis on the sidewalk before walking over the Vatican Museums. We wandered through, trying to find the Sistine Chapel, where I snuck a few secret pictures in the middle of the crowd while the guards yelled at people for taking pictures and that everyone had to be silent in the chapel. Sorry, guys. Couldn't help myself. I did spend a lot of time in the chapel, craning my neck to look up the Michelangelo's ceiling frescos and The Last Judgment on the alter wall. Seeing these works of art was one of the most incredible moments of my time in Italy and abroad in general.
Walking around Rome, past the Castel Sant'Angelo and over Ponte Sant'Angelo.
One of the churches we visited was the Santa Maria della Vittoria, a beautiful baroque church where Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa resides.
On our last day, we went back to the Trevi Fountain during the day. After we discovered another museum we had hoped to visit was sold out for the day, we spent the afternoon in the Capitoline Museums, which overlooks the Roman Forum and ended up being a great choice as well.
Most importantly, the best gelato we had in Rome, so good we went back the following day. I'm still thinking about it... and how I ate gelato every day for ten days. I miss the Italy diet.
We went to Pompeii the next day and stayed in Naples overnight, but I don't have any photos from that last day of our trip, so this is the last blog post (finished at last!). It was the best spring break I could have asked for. Italy was a dream, full of amazing food, art and architecture, and fun adventures. Take me back, please.
Florence
The second stop of my spring break in Italy was Florence. After taking an early morning train from Venice to Florence, we figured out how to buy bus tickets and get to our airbnb on a nice quiet street... with some difficulty. But then we headed back out to check out the city (and eat pasta and my daily gelato).
Read MoreVenice
My roommate Kristen and I decided to go to Italy during our spring break, escaping the London winter that was stubbornly hanging on as we approached April and heading to a country with weather that was increasingly warm and sunny with each city we went to. We spent the whole break - 10 days - in Italy so we had plenty of time to explore and enjoy our time there. The first part of our trip was three days in Venice, a place I had been dying to visit for years. After a 3:30 am cab ride to the train station and a 6 am flight from Stansted, we took the bus from the airport to our Airbnb, and then, finally, got on a bus to cross the water. When we got off the bus, we stood beside a canal with Venice's narrow and twisting streets ahead of us, water taxis and gondolas cruising down the canals, and crowds of people crossing the bridges and pushing down the sidewalks.
Read MoreEmma
Near the end of our semester in London, I took some photos of Emma, a friend from my art history class, on a beautiful spring day. We swapped our usual museums for some of the streets and parks of central London, meeting in Piccadilly Circus, walking up Regent Street, wandering through St James's Park, and ending up at Buckingham Palace and Green Park.
