SPRING BREAK PART:1 Rome 

       For spring break Paul, Italian Mike, and I made a diagonal path through Europe. Our first stop was Rome, then continued on to Florence, Venice, Munich, and then finished the trip in Dublin. Seeing as how we managed to visit all these places in 11 days we were on the move. Also because we did so much in each of the places I have decided to break up spring break into a blog post per location. 

       I must say that we conquered Rome. I don't know how it would be possible to do/see more than the three of us in in two days. I have to contribute this to the fact that I was traveling with two other guys who "make moves". 

       We left Thursday night, and arrived to Rome around midnight. This was my first time flying with the infamous Ryan Air, and it was quite an experience. As Davis (my brother) likes to joke, "the wings are held on by Duct Tape". This is because it is the cheapest way to fly in Europe. However they nickle and dime you. When you go to book your flight, at the end when you click book now they have a series of web pages it takes you through before your transaction is complete. They try and sell you "the official Ryan Air travel bag" (60 euros), travel insurance, priority seating, text message confirmation, hotels, and rental cars. This is only the beginning. They then require you to check in online at least four hours prior to your flight and print your boarding passes, they then charge you 50 euros if you don't. If your bag is not their dimensions or more than ten kg, 50 euros. To be honest it's a real pain in the ass. Luckily, I managed to work the system and not incur any of these fee's. So beware if you are flying Ryan Air.  

Ps- they sell things continually on the flight over the PA.  Including cigarettes. which is ironic to me. 

So, we arrive in Rome at about 11:15 pm (23:15 in their time) and we get on a bus from the airport to the bus station close to our hostel. After getting off the bus, our hunt for our hostel began. We have the address and found the street that our  hostel was on. However, it wasn't there. Weird. So, Italian Mike started asking around in Italian where our hostel is. Every response we got was that it was just around the corner. After making three laps around the block we finally find someone who knew where our hostel was... The reception was on the fourth floor of a differently named hostel. Classic. So after checking in, the guy says that he will show us where our room is. He puts us in a really old elevator, one in which has the sliding mesh door that closes, and we go down in the elevator as he takes the stairs. (their elevators are really small in Europe). When we get to the ground floor, he takes us outside. Then around the corner. Then down and alley. Then down another alley. We all started looking at each other and thinking he might be taking us to a place where we are gonna get killed. Then we passed a Russian embassy, which was guarded by jeeps and men holding SMG's (automatic sub machine guns), which made us feel better; and then finally he opened the door to our "hostel". It was a run down old apt. building.  This was the conclusion to our night one in Rome. 
       The next morning we got up real earlier to make the most of our time in Rome. First stop was the colosseum. So we bought our subway tickets (4 euros for 12 hours was a great deal) and headed that way. We got off at "Colosseo", and the first thing when you walk out of the subway is the colosseum! 

       We didn't go inside because the line was ridiculously long, and we still had a lot to get done; but we did walk around it and take some pictures. Next we headed over to the Forum and the Emperor's Palace. It was awesome! I feel like there was so much to look at that if you walked through three times you still wouldn't be able to take it all in. Here's some pictures: 

So Beautiful!

      From their we left and headed over to St. Peter's Basilica, to meet up with some Legionaries. Thanks to Cristina and Mr. Costa, who helped us set up the meeting, we had a private tour of St. Peters by Brother Jason and Brother Michael. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Not only were we in the most beautiful building in the world, as well as the biggest church, but we had a private tour! Brother Jason and Brother Michael were extremely knowledgable and passionate about St. Peters and could answer all of our questions as well as tell us the history, symbolism, and significance. 

       While we were on our tour, a mass began in the front of St. Peters and so all the guys and the brothers got to go to mass in St. Peters! Also and amazing experience! 

       There are no words to describe St. Peters so heres some pictures:

View from the entrance

The Dome

View from the dome

The Famous "Pieta" sculpture by Michaelangelo 

St. Peter, I rubbed his feet for good luck!

Me on top of the cupola 

View of St. Peters square

The next two photos, theres a mark in the square and if you stand on it it makes everything look like it is being held up only by the front row of columns. Anywhere else and you can see all the rows of columns. 

Random spot. 

On the mark. 

Can you see the difference??

Video of St. Peters square. 

On sunday we came back to see the Pope give his speech!

From St. Peters we took the brothers out to dinner at one of their favorite places and then grabbed what I consider the second best gelato in the world. (I'll get to the best in a later blog, sorry Cristina Grom is better).

       After Gelato we grabbed some wine and headed to the Trevi Fountains. 

This ends day 1 night 2. 

       The next day we got up and went back to St. Peters. It was so beautiful that we had to go back! This time we climbed the cupola (I put all the pictures earlier in the blog), and then headed to the vatican museum. There we saw the Sistine Chapel and hundreds of works or art. It was mind blowing to see how many pieces of art they could have in one place. 

This is only one hallway that is what I guess to be 200 yards long. 

       From the vatican Museum we went to one of the creepiest places of my life. We went into the crypt of “Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini.” Here we saw displays of... capuchin friars bones. Each of the bones you see in the following pictures are bones of a capuchin friar that has died. Creepy I know. 

The most disturbing part was in the last display there was a plaque that read: 

What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be.


After that experience, we went and had a drink to try and shake it off, followed by an amazing dinner. And as always ended the night with some wine at the Trevi Fountains.

The next morning we got up and saw the Pope give a speech (pic above) and then got on a train to florence.

I'm sorry this was so long but I didn't want to leave anything out. Thus why I am going to have 5 post for spring break.