Jour quatre-vingt deux

...began with our last day at church in France. It was a bit emotional, and we stuck around after church until the last possible moment.

Then it was time to face the cold harsh reality that we hadn't studied during our entire sejour to Italy and our art history final was going to take place the next day. So we studied ALL day and night.

And we went a little crazy.

A demain,

b

Giorno ottantuno

...began with St. Peter's Basilica, the largest Christian church in the world, capable of holding 60,000 people, and the place where the Pope himself speaks to the church.

Then began the most hectic and stressful journey back to France. Running through Rome for 6 miles due to total closure of the train stations, running to the hostel, running to the shuttle, missing the shuttle, waiting for the next shuttle, taking the shuttle to the airport, waiting for the flight, taking off, turning the plane around 30 minutes in, due to technical problems, taking off again, landing, taking the shuttle to the metro, taking the metro to the RER, taking the RER to le Pecq, and walking home. A.d.v.e.n.t.u.r.e.But worth every second.

The biggest surprise of all, was leaving the warm weather and landing in Paris, covered in snow! But it was wonderful all the same.

Ti amo, Italy. Grazie tanto for an incredible week.

A demain,

b

Giorno ottanta

...began with our travel out of Rome and into amazing Città del Vaticano! (The Vatican, of course)

Vatican City, the residence of the Pope, is technically the smallest country in the world, only .9 km. It has 9 miles worth of museums. So we had to pick and choose.
real person, real old. There were thousands of beautiful, ancient statues and paintings.Taking a sneaky picture in the Sistine Chapel. After leaving Vatican City, we went to the Forum and Paletine Hill to see the ancient ruins.

Thousands of years ago, the Forum was the center of Roman public life. All of the the temples and government buildings were built here many years B.C.

People have lived on Paletine Hill since 1000 B.C. Of course nobody lives among these ruins now, but this is the site where emporers, including Augustus and Domitian, ruled from and lived. It is even where Augustus built the Temple of Apollo.We could overlook the entire magnificent city of Rome.Then to make Taylor super happy, we went to Circus Maximus, which was the largest racing stadium for chariots in ancient Rome. We decided to have a little race of our own.

Later tonight, we walked to Campo de Fiori and Piazza Navona and found a wonderful place to eat some handmade authentic pasta.After more gelatto, we finished off the night with wishes in Fontana de Trevi!! And if you do this, it ensures you a return trip, which is nice, because I'm already excited to come back.

It was the most meravigliosa day in Italy...

ci vediamo domani,

b

Giorno settantanove

...began feeling a little bit better. Because I only had a few days in Italy, I decided to suck it up go out today. We spent the majority of the day at the Colosseum. Incredible.

On our way back to the hostel we encountered these two Greek girls pushing their suitcases (with broken handles) up the road appearing completely lost and pretty pathetic. We offered to help, made the boys carry the suitcases, walked with them to find their hotel, and ended up with two new hilarious little friends just on vacation in Rome.

Our hostel made us Thanksgiving dinner tonight because of all the Americans staying there. So kind.
We then went on a night walk to the Spanish Steps and just wandered around in the lovely Italian night air.

ci vediamo domani,

b

Giorno settantotto

...began around 4 a.m. to catch our flight to ITALY!

We were obsessed with Italy from the moment we stepped off the plane into the sunlight, an old friend we'd been missing in Paris. After settling into our hostel, The Yellow on Via Palermo 44...We made our way into la città eterna!I read about everything about every place to everyone, no matter how annoyed they got.We immediately found the one hundred flavor gelatto shop we'd heard so much about.We found the Pantheon and ate dinner nearby.
Unfortunately, our night pretty much ended there because I got really sick. I sat on these steps for the next two hours with Spencer until I felt like I could walk back to the train station and then to the hostel. My good friends, especially Shae, took care of me the entire night as I was miserable.

Don't worry, tomorrow will be better.

Ci vediamo domani,

b