An Unforgettable Trip to Rome

BY SARA WINTERBURN
Last weekend, I busted a mission over to Italy!!! It was the most amazing place I have ever been too.  Definitely my favorite place in the whole world :) I went with my friend Amanda.   We decided that we were going the weekend before we went and booking our flights on Ryanair was a breeze, and it was pretty cheap compared to many of the flights to Italy.

We left on Thursday night at 9:30 on a bus from Salamanca to central Madrid.  The buses here are pretty awesome; they have WIFI while they are driving you. I was quite impressed. So once we got to Madrid it was 12 o'clock and we had a bit of time to spare so we did the most sensible thing, and went to McDonalds for an hour to waste some time and use the WIFI! Ha ha.

We then tried to make our way to Madrid Airport so that way we could just sit and relax and wait for our plane in the morning.  So right outside of McDonalds was the Metro station. I had remembered that my Spanish teacher had told us in class that Madrid has the best Metro stations in all of Europe.  So we decided to go on the Metro all the way to the airport.  By now it was about 1:15, so we got on the Metro and rode it for about 20 minutes, got about halfway to the airport, when the Metro station CLOSED! We didn't know that the station closed at 1:30 when we started our mission.  

When we finally arrived to the airport it was smooth sailing. We went through security and found our gate, fairly easily.  We started boarding our airplane around 9:15, and then we were off to Italy!  We arrived on time at 12 o'clock and we got a bus ride to the metro in Rome.  Once we got to the Metro we took it all the way to our hotel which was conveniently located, 5 minutes away from the Metro Station.  We checked into our hotel and then CRASHED because we had been up for 40 hours!  

After our 2 hour nap, we woke up and headed straight for the Colosseum, which was only a 15 minute ride from our hotel, also extremely convenient.  We took about a billion pictures in front of the Colosseum, even a few with our school mascot Alfredo (the frog)!  I think the Colosseum had to be my favorite place in Rome, just because it is so famous and well known.  Plus knowing all the history about the gladiator fights inside; something about that just made it the most amazing experience ever.  I truly hope that everyone gets to go there and experience the feeling of being in front of that famous monument at least once in their life because there is really nothing like it.  

After our hour long photo session, we went to a nice dinner where we had pizza and pasta. And on our way home there was a gelato place, so of course we HAD to get some.  And it was GREAT! Then we went back to the hotel and planned our whole day for Saturday and went to bed.

On Saturday morning we woke up fairly early, and got started on our big plans!  We took the Metro to Termini Station, the main train station in Rome, and we found a bus tour of all of the biggest Landmarks in Rome.  The tour was awesome; it was about 2 hours of driving around and seeing/hearing all of the amazing history of every landmark we could see.  I highly suggest that if you are ever in Italy you take a bus tour first, it was really helpful in hearing about all of the history, plus it showed us around everywhere and we were able to remember how to get back to some of the landmarks that we wanted to see more in depth. Definitely a good decision.  

After our tour we went to lunch where we again enjoyed some awesome pizza, and then headed back to the hotel to get refreshed and ready for a great night at the Fontana Di Trevi (Trevi Fountain).  When we got to the fountain, of course it was extremely busy, but  we were able to take some cool pictures and toss our coin in the fountain and make a wish.  The fountain was my second favorite place in Rome, it  was just so beautiful at night, made it even more magical than it already is.  Definitely have to go there too if you're ever in the neighborhood.   AND OF COURSE we got some AMAZING gelato at a place right next to the fountain. There were just so many flavors and colors and AHHH I just didn't know how to choose which one I wanted, so I got 3! :) After our Trevi Fountain adventure, we went back home, got some sleep and prepared for Sunday, but honestly I don't think ANYONE could really be prepared for the Sunday we were going to have!

Sunday morning we woke up late, so we didn't get a great start like we had done the previous day, but I did get a little shopping in. Then we headed over to the Vatican and on our way to the Museum we noticed that something HUGE was going on in St. Peter's Square.  So we stopped by there first to hear no one other than the POPE giving a speech!  We were SO lucky that we got to hear the Pope speak!  That was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we seized it completely! Then we headed over to the Vatican Museum, and after the half hour walk over to the Museum, it was CLOSED! Ahhhh, we were so upset.

After that we decided to get to the airport and get ready for our flight home.  It was lucky that we had PLENTY of time, because when we got back to the bus station we got on the bus to the airport, it was the WRONG airport!  Ha ha ha, what are the odds?! 50/50 to be exact.  So, we rode the bus back to the bus stop to get on the CORRECT bus and we got to the airport, with no problems after that.

All and all Rome was my favorite place in this world, and I cannot wait to return and my trip was unforgettable to say the least! :)