Day 4-Rome

Another old post: Today was a LONG day. Everyone of us lucky kiddos got to awaken with the sun! Okay, it was a little later at 5:15am, but come-on we are a bunch of teenage girls. We then grouped together at the lobby of the hotel, and walked to the bus stop to catch our 6:10 bus. On the bus, we traveled to the train station in order to board our 8am train to Rome. Two hours later, we all headed to the coliseum. Upon seeing the coliseum, my mouth dropped. It has always been a dream of mine to see the historic site, and seeing it was even more amazing then what I was dreamed of. It is a very expansive building, in fact, it is a lot larger than I initially thought it would be. Walking around it was a great experience as I thought how Caesar and other important historical figures used to walk the same path as I was at that exact moment. As s group, we all walked to the forum which was just a few strides over. It was much less interestin gin my opinion since literally all of the building are crumbled and all you can see are broken columns. It is hard to photograph different cuts of the same broken rock over and over again and make it interesting. By now it was around 1 and we all were starving. The leaders did not want to stop, but we forced them because 13 hungry girls is something you do not want to deal with. We ate a café on the street, and then talked in the shade for awhile which was a nice break after the hot sun. The next part of the trip was probably the most stressful situation for something that never should have even been a problem. We had major money issues. No one in the group had exchanged their money yet for euros, and we all needed too. We went to 2 or 3 banks all saying they wouldn’t convert the money, but you could use a debit card in the ATM machine (parents that is why there is a withdrawal on my card). The first ATM machine we went to would only for 3 people, so then we were forced to find another. The next worked, but some people had to try multiple times in order to make it work. After that HUGE waste of time, we were allowed to shop, but of course the market they take us to is incredibly over-priced and extremely tourist influenced souvenirs. Things like snow globes, cups, mugs, caps, printed posters, postcards, etc. that none of us wanted. Seeing that there was nothing to really purchase, the group left for the Trevi fountain. It is a gorgeous fountain with pretty blue water and amazing carvings. I threw in a coin (backwards and over your opposite shoulder, the “correct” way) which, according to legend, means I will be returning to Rome….you hear that mom and dad ;)? Our next stop was the Pantheon. I had never heard of it before, but it is quite impressive. For those of you who are clueless like I was, the Pantheon is a church that is completely a dome. The church is huge, and according to Carolyn (our NGSE leader) it is the largest, unsupported dome in the world. It was pretty astonishing to be able to see. Our last and final destination in Rome were the Spanish steps. I thought they were pretty but over hyped. I did not see them as anything that special, but a ton of people were present and enjoying their afternoon by lounging on the steps. The group then caught a bus that took us to the subway station. We all got tickets and started to navigation of the Italian subway. Once we successfully boarded our correct subway, we rode for a couple of stops and then exited at the train station. I bet you are pretty impressed that we used 3 methods of transportation in one day, right? It could even be 4 methods if you chose to count walking as well! At 8pm sharp, we boarded out train and set off for home.