Rome, Italy

 

Jen Gianfalla comments on the trip...

 

Italy is an incredible place to be in the spring! We visited Rome for a week and stayed in a "convent" run by nuns right outside Vatican City. We visited many wonderful places, and were hardly able to scratch the surface of Rome!

On Saturday, we began our trip at St. Peter's Basilica, where we admired Michelangelo's Pieta. Afterwards, we climbed into carriages and rode by horse and carriage to the Castel Sant'Angelo, where we admired many works of art and had a great view of the entire city from the top. That evening we visited the Spanish Steps in Piazza Spagna and tossed coins over our shoulders into the Trevi Fountain in hopes that we will one day return to Rome.

On Sunday, we toured the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and Palatine, where the emperors once lived. We saw the place where Julius Caesar was cremated in the Roman Forum, as well as the House of the Vestal Virgins, home to a cult of very prominent women in ancient Rome. That afternoon we toured Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, and some of us attended mass at Santa Maria in Trastevere, the oldest church dedicated to Mary.

Monday morning we went to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, where we were awestruck by Michelangelo's gorgeous frescoes of the Last Judgment and the ceiling frescoes of Genesis. That evening we went to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, where we admired one of Bernini's fountains.

Tuesday we left Rome and took the train to Pompeii, the ancient city that was destroyed by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius. After spending several hours in Pompeii, many of us went to Sorrento, a town on the Amalfi Coast to see the Mediterranean and gorgeous views of Vesuvius and the coastline. The others went to Naples, where they toured a castle.

On our last day in Rome, Wednesday, we visited the Catacombs of St. Sebastian and walked the Via Appia Antiqua, the road on which St. Peter met Jesus Christ while fleeing Rome. None of us wanted to come home after such a great week!