Ciao ragazzi!!!!

My spring break was awesome :) It was so great to see my family and Matthew.  I loved having the time off from school, and I really enjoyed Rome.  I also liked being a little tour guide and showing them around Florence.  I was also able to tour Matt around Rome because my family and I did tours on the previous days.

I did the basic Florence sight-seeing with my family and Matt.  They came at different times, but I took them to see most of the same things.  I brought them to see the david, ponte vecchio, piazzale michelangelo, palazzo pitti and the boboli gardens, gustapizza, leather market, san miniato, and I even brought them by to see my schools.  We also got to see the duomo and climbed it.  But, there were things that I hadn't done that I got to do with my family.  On the first day while my brother and Dad were napping since they were very jet-lagged, me and my mom went to San Lorenzo.  San Lorenzo is a church that is attached to the Medici Tombs.  It was very plain but it was pretty, and there was a nice green courtyard with an orange tree in the middle  There was a bunch of restaurants that we went to that I had never been to.  Also, we went to a bar called Fiddler's Elbow that I had never been to.  It was very relaxing and cute.  I had been to the boboli gardens before, but I saw a whole other section with my family and it was really cool.  The gardens are so huge; I don't know if I'll ever actually be able to see the whole thing.

Rome was really really cool and I enjoyed it a lot. We left for Rome on Sunday, and for some reason our train was an extra 40 minutes which was weird.  We got to Rome and we decided to take a cab from the train station to the hotel.  It was only a 15 minute walk but we had a lot of luggage.  The cab was 33€ which was a total rip-off, and I think that's when I realized that Rome is much more expensive than Florence.  The first day we just mostly walked around the city.  It's a very large city and you could use the metro, but I was nervous about that since I heard some of my friends were pick-pocketed on the metro.  Throughout the week, we did all the important things in Rome.  We saw the Spanish steps, which I didn't find that impressive, but maybe there's a cool story behind it that I don't know.  We saw the Trevi fountain, which I thought was pretty and I threw a coin in over my right shoulder, which means I will be back to Rome one day.  Another cool fountain was the moses fountain.  I enjoyed the Pantheon, which is a church, built like a cylinder with a sphere in it.  The coolest part about it was that there was an actual hole in the top and when it rains, there's a drain at the bottom of the church.  We saw many, many churches, they seemed to be on every corner.  Saint Maria in Trastevere was beautiful, an incredibly far walk but it was very pretty.  We also saw Santa Maria degli Angeli, which on the outside looks as if it is tiny and ruined since it looks so old, but then you walk in and it's incredible.  We saw many piazzas, one of my favorite being Piazza del Popolo, which was the ancient entrance to North Rome, and the doors were really cool.  The church in the piazza was called Santa Maria del Popolo and it had the Chigi chapel which was painted by Raphael.  There were a few things that we didn't go in but were cool to look at. One was the Borghese villa.  It was pretty but we were tired of art.  I wanted to go into the Medici Villa but it's used as a French school now.  Also the Castel Sant'Angelo was really cool looking.  It actually has a tunnel that connects to the Vatican to keep the Popes safe in case of attack.  I think that was used a long time ago but it still stands.

In Rome, we had two tours.  The first one was of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel.  I loved the Vatican.  St. Peter's Basilica was beautiful, and I didn't think it was that big until I went in.  It was an optical illusion because it's actual bigger than your eye thinks it is, which is crazy because I think it's huge.  It's so gaudy and beautiful.  The altar inside is made of solid gold and bronze and it's just crazy how awesome it is.  Michelangelo built the church for about the last 15 years of his life and he stopped working on it only 3 days before he died.  Bernini built the square which is actually an elliptical, which is supposed to symbolize Jesus's arms welcoming people into the church.  The church has about 300 statues, 11 chapels, and it is has biggest dome.  We went to see the Sistine Chapel which was in the Vatican Museum.  It's interesting that they make you pay to see it, which is pretty controversial.  I think it was very impressive, but I only spent about 10 minutes in there.  The second tour we did was the colosseum and the roman ruins.  The colosseum is cool because it used to be so much bigger and prettier than it was, but because of the fall of the Roman Empire, people came to the city and took things from buildings to put on new buildings, and that's why the colosseum has so many holes in it.  We learned that the gladiators were slaves of the rich, and made their owners money, although it was quite an investment to train them.  The first act of the show was exotic animals and gladiators fighting and there was lots of killing, and then a lunch break.  The second act was two gladiators dueling right up until the point of death, and then the loser would ask the emperor to spare his life.  Most of the time, the emperor saved him because he gave his best and it was a good show.  I got a lot of great pictures at the colosseum.  After, we saw the Roman ruins, which was really cool.  There was an awesome church built into an old ruined church.  It's funny because people back then knew that there was stuff sticking up from underground but they never excavated it.  Now it's all excavated in one area and it's really cool.  There was a memorial to Caesar in there.  Also, there are only two metros in Rome because every time they try to dig, they find more ruins and can't build there.  Matthew got into Rome on Wednesday, and we all went out to an awesome dinner.  I hated saying bye to my family because I already miss them but I will see them soon and I had a great time with them.

After my parents left, me and Matt did Rome all that day.  Rome wasn't built in a day, but we saw it in one (well the important parts anyway).  We went to see St. Peter's Basilica, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and the ruins.  It doesn't sound like much but they're all so far away from each other.  We tried to see the Sistine Chapel but it ended up being closed the day after me and my family saw it.  They closed it to clean up and get ready for the conclave.  I was bummed for Matt, but I think the church is much more impressive.  We caught our train at 4 and we were absolutely exhausted.

Like I said, me and Matthew did mostly the same stuff in Florence as my parents. We also did a few different things too though.  We also went to boboli gardens and I found new things with him too, like this cool island fountain.  We went and saw Santa Croce, which is a beautiful church that I had always wanted to go in.  It has the star of David on the top but it's a Catholic church, and it's the huge mystery about this church.  When we were in Rome, our tour guide said Michelangelo and other very famous people were buried here, and I had no idea.  We saw Michelangelo's, Dante's, Machiavelli's, and Galileo's tombs.  They also had some cool paintings in the church.  On our way to piazzale michelangelo, we saw a garden and it's another way up to it, so that was fun to explore.  I had been on ponte vecchio before, but with Matt we actually looked at all of the jewelry and I don't understand how people afford it, it's so crazy.  We got a lot of pastries and cappuccinos and I think I might have gotten Matt to like the cappuccinos. We found a really great place to eat lunch across the river, and they only spoke Italian so that was pretty cool.  We also put a lock on the ponte vecchio, so hopefully it doesn't get cut off!  I had a great time with Matt, we relaxed and took our time to see Florence.  Saying goodbye to him was also hard.  I had a great time though.

It still feels like a dream.  I am so lucky to have a family and boyfriend who were able to visit me.  I think they really enjoyed Florence and Rome and I'm glad I got to show them around.  I had an amazing time and it was incredibly hard to say bye to them.  I'm glad I got a little taste of home, and it's only about 7 more weeks until I'm home!

Tomorrow night I am leaving for Barcelona!!!! I'm really excited, and it definitely snuck up on me.  It's supposed to be decent weather there; I'm hoping it's warmer and less rainy than Florence right now.  I can't believe I'll be in Spain in less than 24 hours, it's so unreal.

Buonanotte,
Katie