Roma

Sorry for not updating, guys. It has been a long, long, LONG few days in Rome. I'm going to try and recap starting at Tuesday, which is when we moved to Rome.

Tuesday: So we got to Rome in the afternoon arriving to our Villa called Buon Amici. We spent the afternoon at the Vatican City and then headed back to the Villa for the night. We spent the rest of the night playing soccer on the awesome soccer field on the property but that's where things started to get out of control. Tuesday night we started hearing beeping down in the lounge from around the security system.and it was all just a little shady. We went to sleep and around 2:30 the fire alarm went off. I sat up in bed thinking this can't possibly be happening... I don't want to get out of bed just to do some damn fire drill. Nathan and I crawled out of bed and into the hallway to see smoke pouring up the stairs. This was a legitimate fire. We grabbed as many people as we could from the rooms and rushed out of the side stairwells to meet up with the rest of our group. The lounge area below our rooms was lit ablaze and we had to evacuate the area. Mind you, this was five hours before the Papal Audience we were attending. It was a VERY long night that I will never forget, especially after a resident a few doors down from me jumped out the window to escape the fire that was nowhere near her.

Wednesday: The fire didn't keep us from going to the Papal Audience. It was absolutely awesome. I even got a professional picture from the Vatican with part of our group and the Pope driving by. It is one of those experiences I will never forget.

Thursday: On this day we went on the Scavi Tour which are the ruins below St. Peter's Basilica. This was really cool as well. Sadly we couldn't take pictures underneath it, but we got to see the Tomb of St. Peter as well as the tomb of John Paul II. After our tour we visited Piazza Novana, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Piazza Popolo. It was a great day and the pictures from all of this will be up soon.

Today: Man, today was where I got to see everything I've wanted to see since I was little. We went inside the Coliseum, which was amazing, and visited all of ancient Rome. I saw the Roman Forum and the old palace ruins. It was unbelievable. I really can't put into words because it's one of those things you're going to have to experience. After this great experience we visited St. John Lateran and I went up the Holy Stairs (the stairs Jesus walked up to see Pontius Pilate) on my knees. It was a very surreal experience.

Tomorrow? I have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow, but I can safely say that I'm now ready to go home. I miss all of you guys and can't wait to see you. Only five more days and I'll be back in the states. Love you guys!

God bless!