Bella Figura!

Long time no blog! Sorry I haven't been around to update those of you who wanna see my life! But I have really been busy taking pictures, I promise! So far I have had time to cram a lot into my first week and a half of living in Roma. The sun has been shining here every day and I am graced with a very early coming of Spring. I have started to quickly pick up the lay out of Rome itself and I really have a great location for my dorm. I am about a ten minute walk from the Vatican and ten minutes away from Piazza Popolo, which conveniently was Rome decided to celebrate Carnivale this year. They have had a new popularity of Carnivale in Rome since in Venice it is so popular. Here little kids walked around in costumes and there were carnival shows and horse trick shows and fun activities going on all over! I've been able to walk from Piazza Novona  and the Roman Pantheon (where I accidentally stumbled into one of Bernini's most famous fountains!!) To the Trevi Fountain, where of course I made a few wishes. I found out that the fountain has different meanings with the number of coins tossed in; 1 coin to return to Rome, 2 coins to fall in love, 3 to sustain a marriage. I also found out that over 3,000 euro goes into that fountain everyday which is given to charity, how nice! From there I was able to find myself over to the Spanish Steps, where with a one in a million chance in the aftermath of the Carnivale parade... I stumbled right into Norwalk High's group of students who were traveling around Italy for a few weeks! It was a crazy moment to see some of Meg's buddys right there in Italy! Rome has been amazing and I'm not sure if I will ever go home.. but if I do I'm definitely coming back here!

My first Roman Cappuccino! 

Our First time seeing the sun since Paris!

Roman Judicial Building

The Judicial Building is the Roman version of the
Chicago Library, the architect forgot the books!

St. Peter's Basilica 

Carnivale celebrations!

Bernini's Four River's Foutain!

Casual. 

Borromini's Church

Looking up inside the Pantheon at its sun roof

The Pantheon.

Height that the last flood of Rome reached! (Up to my head!)

Casual.

Raphael's Tomb.

Trevi Fountain!

Louise's Wish!!

Jordan's Wish!

Spanish Steps!

Carnivale LOVE!!

NHS KIDS!!! 

Happy Carnivale!!!

The Vatican!

I've never been holier... 

Entrance to the Roman Forum!

Nick's Wish!

Ruins

Romulus and Remus original Kings of Rome and their
she-wolf mama! 

Julius Casear's Tomb.

Just boys..being boys.

The Gladiators! 

Me and the Colosseum!

Casual. 

After I had an amazing week and a half in Rome I figured it was time to put my trusty backpack on again and hit the road.. I consider myself quite the vagabond now a days! I hit the road with nine girls who are more like new sisters after living in this orphanage we have going on here. We took our chances and hopped on a night train to Venice and got there bright and early Friday morning.. guess now I can say I've seen the sun rise over Venice! Spent a great day and a half exploring the city on the water and had a gondola ride I'll never forget! Half way through Saturday we picked up and moved again on the next train to Florence. I was all over Italy this past weekend but it was a truly amazing weekend! I got to do some amazing shopping in Florence... maybe a little too much shopping (guess I'm still a girl no matter how rough I get from all this backpacking!) And by Sunday morning I had for the first time since I left an American brunch.. I ate my first cheese burger since I left the states and to put icing on the cake there was a bacon egg and cheese on top of my burger.. egg and bacon being 2 more things I haven't seen since leaving home!  The weekend was picture perfect and this blog post can't do it justice but I will try!!

Gondola Ride! 

Sun Bathing. 

Venice Accommodations. 

STJ basketball on tv during Sunday Brunch.

Sun Rise over Venice. 

My boat in Venice. B.C.B.

Good Luck Pumba of Florence!

Just another Ninja Turtle.

Duomo Cathedral. 

Till the next blog post!