Roman Holiday- day 1

First sights of Rome

CIAO! I just got back from Rome last night and what a weekend! So, we booked our tickets on Monday to leave Thursday morning and were sad to hear that the Pope was chosen Wednesday night. We wanted to be there for the Conclave, but it's a good excuse to go to Rome anyway. Thursday I left with two friends, Sarah and Greg, and we made it into town in the afternoon. While the Conclave was already over, the city was still buzzing and there are posters everywhere that say, "Benvenuto Francesco!" that I loved seeing.

We got in, dropped our things at our hostel, and got started. No plan in mind, just start walking and see what we come across. First, we found the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Piazza Venezia which just dwarfs everything around it.

The tomb at Piazza Venezia

 We explored it a little before continuing on and finding arguably my favorite thing in Rome: the Pantheon. It's just so incredibly beautiful, not to mention revolutionary in terms of architecture. I couldn't look away from the ceiling with it's gigantic coffers and huge oculus opening the entire room to the sky.

The Pantheon

Oculus

Next we continued to cross Rome on our way to the Vatican. We saw Piazza Navona, which was full of vendors selling art, and the Tibur river, strong and brown.

Piazza Navona

The Tibur River

We didn't spend much time at the Holy See the first day (as we would return Sunday), but we wanted to at least see it. So many people and a really gorgeous place to see. 

The Vatican

The sun was setting as we left and we made our way back into the center to find somewhere to eat. I had lots of amazing pasta and we drank gallons of Chianti. And as a treat before going back to the hostel, we stopped by the Trevi fountain to watch the hordes of tourists around it.

Fontana di Trevi

My favorite part of the day was when we returned to the hostel, resolute to stay in for the rest of the night. Instead, we met some of the other people staying in the room we were in and ended up hanging out with them. We all got to talking, making the awkward first introductions and then one suggested we go walking and grab a drink together. I wanted to be social, so I voted yes and all three of us joined them. There was Thomas, the Frenchman, Shun, the Japanese man, Barbara, the Argentinian, and Pamela the Columbian. Together, we followed Thomas who told us he know of a good area close and somehow walked for around an hour just to realize we had made a huge circle. It was great though, getting to know them and seeing Rome at night.