Buon Pasqua!

One thing that I was absolutely lucky to experience in the beautiful city of Rome was Easter weekend. My parents flew in at this time to visit. Easter is so important especially in Vatican City with the Pope! I was fortunate enough to receive tickets to Easter Sunday with Pope Francis. So it was a very eventful weekend to say the least.

The weekend started on Good Friday with Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum. It was such a beautiful thing to see with the cross lit on fire. Another thing that really stuck out to me was the involvement of the community. Whether it be reading a station or carrying the cross to the next area, it really showed the commitment of religion from the Romans. One downfall was the amount of people who were there. We weren't able to get into the Colosseum to where the event actually took place, but there were big screens set up around the streets surrounding the area. It was such a beautiful experience.

The next day, my parents and I headed to the Vatican to pick up our mass tickets. Unfortunately, when we got there it was PACKED! The line to get into the Vatican was wrapped around San Marco's Square. So to skip the line, my parents and I got a guided tour with one of the best tour guides I have had in Europe so far. She was such an informative spit fire who went above and beyond to make the tour memorable. After the tour, we had to make our way to the big bronze doors with the Swiss guards. Unfortunately, when we got there, we had an hour and half to wait until we were able to receive our tickets. After the wait, only one of us was able to go inside to get the tickets, and since the reservation was in my name, I was the one to go. I was guided into this small room with Swiss guards sorting through tickets. After receiving my tickets, my parents and I got dinner, and called it a night.

Easter Sunday finally arrived, and we were up at 5am. We had the ability to get seats, so we made sure we were prompt and on time. After getting there around 6:30am we waited until the doors opened at 8am. After experiencing a stampede of people, we made it in and found our ways to our seats. We ended up getting seats in the tenth row. It was one of the most incredible things I have been able to experience. The mass was mainly in Latin, but different parts of the mass were in other languages. For example, the first reading was in English, the second reading was in French, and the intentions included languages such as German, Chinese, Korean, Hindu, and many more! After mass, we made it to dinner, and went to bed somewhat early.

On Monday, my parents and I went to Capri for the day. We spent the day on the boat, and saw the breath taking views from Anacapri. Our boat driver was young and took us to amazing places. My mom and I also had the opportunity to take a 20 feet jump off a mini cliff. It was a great day, but a very long one at that. So after the long and exciting weekend, I was ready to sleep!

This was honestly the most memorable experience, and it has helped shaped my study abroad experience. It's things like this that has helped me realize that Rome was the right choice for me. I am really getting sad to see this experience end, but I have enough memories to last me a lifetime. Rome is definitely where the heart is!

Assisi

I went on my final school trip this past weekend to Assisi. It was a day trip, and we spent the time we had wandering around the beautiful town of Assisi. It was beautiful, and definitely cool to learn about how much religious history is there. Here are some pictures from the day! :)

Lemons, Lemons, and more Lemons

So if not all you knew, the Amalfi Coast is a massive producer of lemons. I got the pleasure of learning this when taking my school sponsored trip there. It was one of the most incredible weekend getaways I have had so far. It really showed me how beautiful Italy can be.

The weekend started off with us getting soaked while walking to school at 6:30am through a thunderstorm to meet up with our group. That was probably one of the most discouraging things to wake up too. The weather forecast had predicted that it was suppose to rain all weekend while we were there. The first stop we took was to Vesuvio. We got the incredible opportunity of being able to climb Mount Vesuvius. This in itself was an AMAZING experience, but it would have been better if we were able to actually see something. Unfortunately while we were there, it was raining and fog was everywhere. After a long and wet climb, we finally headed to our hotel in Sorrento. Everyone was exhausted, so we all mostly slept until dinner. That night, we had a very good dinner at the hotel, and we ended our night getting drinks with friends who were on the trip as well.

Day two had a very educationally packed itinerary. Our day plans were to go to the excavated city of Pompeii and then off to Naples to eat the best pizza in Italy. First off, let me say that being able to walk through and hear the stories of Pompeii and the great explosion of Vesuvius was an experience in itself. It was probably one of the coolest things I have been able to do on this trip. After a very nice and informative tour, we then had a few hours to spend in Naples. My roommates and I went to a Pizzeria, got some coffee, and then walked along to Promenade by the ocean. It was a very nice day, and we were very fortunate that the weather stayed nice and sunny the whole day. We headed back to the hotel to have dinner, and then spent the night out in town.

The final day of the trip started off with an extremely early wake up call. We proceeded to walk down to the port while navigating through the beautiful city of Sorrento. We then proceeded to take a ferry, and spent the day in Capri. Capri is by far one of the most beautiful places I have seen. It has the typical coastal look with the city in the hills overlooking the ocean. A group of us took a nice hour and half boat ride around the island stopping at the well known spots such as the Green, White, and Coral Grotto. After, we took a cable car to the actual town of Capri, and got some lunch. Before leaving the island, my roommates and I shopped around, and then found the most beautiful place to relax and really take in the beauty of the day. I have been more than blessed when it has come to this study abroad experience, and I couldn't be more happy!