What's up, Pope?

Hello, Rome! I was blown away by the history, art, and architecture that this city holds. I loved exploring it's streets, although I quickly realized how much I missed having my family there for special trips like this. It was weird not sharing this with them. This is also the first BIG traveling that I've done with just myself and some friends. It's weird not having the security of my family right by me. Despite some stressful travel moments and confusion, we still ended up making the most of our two and a half days in Rome and got to see some incredible things. I wasn't able to put up all of the pictures that I wanted to, but here are some highlights from our trip:

Things we experienced-- it makes me tired and so thrilled just thinking about it all!

• Vatican City
• listening to the pope give his Sunday blessing from his apartment
• St. Peter's Basillica
• climbing to the top of the dome of the Basillica
• Vatican museum
• Sistene Chapel
• Trevvi Fountain
• Spanish Steps
• The Colloseum
• Palatine Hill
• Roman Forum
• Piazza Novano and the Fountain of the Four Winds
• Pantheon

Standing in Vatican City outside St. Peter's Basillica. Absolutely breath-taking!

What's up, Pope? Yeah, I got to hear you speak...in Italian and English! Thanks for making an English shout out!

Preparing to climb the Spanish steps with Lauren.

The Trevvi Fountain! So surreal to actually be here. It's something that you see in movies and hear about a lot, and there it was! It was just sitting in the middle of a neighborhood. I think my favorite part of seeing all of these famous things is realizing that they are normal to the people that live there. It's just something that's there...something real. It's no longer a story; seeing these wonders in their context really puts things into perspective.

Seeing the Colloseum and the Vatican were the highlights of the trip. I could have wandered around here for hours! I love to imagine what it would have been like to experience the Colloseum in action. It's crazy to think that those things really happened! It was also amazing to see the level of architecture and skill that went into designing this building that was made so long ago!