Days 15-17

We had such a fun weekend. Unfortunately it started out with a crazy hard Italian midterm, but we made it through with the promise of Chinese food for dinner. For some reason this sounded really appealing. Like I've said before, I will never be one to complain about Italian food, but a change every once and a while is always welcome. Our friends Emily and Alyssa who live in our neighborhood had great take out from this place so we decided to try it out. The food was great, but the vibe was interesting to say the least. The place was really busy and obviously quite popular, but we were sitting under massive banners and pictures of Kim Jong Il...so there was that. Not really sure how that works out considering it is definitely a Chinese restaurant...but still great food so we'll probably go again....just maybe take out next time. 

After dinner we went to a real Italian discoteca which was really fun because we've mostly been going out to American places. It also forces us to use Italian because most people there are Italian. As great as it was there was a 10 euro cover charge so we probably won't be doing it all the time. A really fun experience though and change of pace. Also, side note, they are big into American music here, in particular Beyonce and Miley Cyrus, we hear them everywhere, even in cafes and coffee shops. 

Saturday we mostly hung out around the house and did some homework, not very eventful. We went with Emily and Alyssa to a restaurant next to our apartment that Marie and I found last week. It's like an Irish pub but with Italian food, and we weren't sure how that could go but the food is really pretty good (and pretty cheap) and now they love us there because Marie and I went again tonight. They gave us free bruschetta, and as I'm sure many of you know tomatoes are literally the only thing I will not eat, but here I have to say, they just taste better. 

Today we slept in which was really nice and took our time getting going. We ate at a cafe by our house and then went to the school to print out some papers we needed to read for tomorrow. We decided since we were already all the way up there we should go check out the Vatican (it's only about a 15-20 minute walk from school). I was so excited it's really the one thing I really wanted to see but haven't yet. I was not prepared for what I was about to see.

We went around 5 and there was nobody there. It took us about 30 seconds to get through the line into Vatican City. I was really excited to go into St. Peter's and couldn't wait to finally see Michlangelo's Pieta in person, as it actually happens to be my favorite piece of artwork since freshman year of high school when I first saw it in my western civ class. We walked in the door and it was immediately to our right. I walked over in complete awe, and tears started streaming down my face, which I am aware seems quite dramatic, but tt was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It looks life like, it is absolutely unbelievable. I stared at it for a while and finally looked up at the rest of the basilica. It is the most magnificent structure I have ever seen, and I have seen some of the biggest and most beautifully decorated churches in Europe. St. Peter's puts them all to shame, at least in my opinion, which I suppose makes sense, it being the center of the Catholic church and all. Marie and I walked around the basilica, mouths open in complete and total awe (and she had been there before!). The thing is, it is insanely huge. It's crazy. And there are statues everywhere. There are tombs of popes and beautiful renaissance artwork covering the basilica. We got there just in time for mass so we decided to sit down. The entire mass was in Italian (only high mass is in Latin I believe) and it was absolutely beautiful. We couldn't understand everything but we got a bit of it. The cardinal who said mass spoke with a deep passion that I have never seen before. Everything he spoke was with a quiet conviction, like he so believed what he was saying and it wasn't just routine Sunday mass. I really have never seen anything quite like it. And I just looked around me every so often and could not believe we just walked into mass at St. Peter's. Once it was over Marie and I just looked at each other speechless. We want to go back and climb the dome and see the Sistene Chapel and the Vaticam Museum, and also come for a high mass. 

It was the perfect end to our weekend. No off to do some more homework and get ready for the week!

Ciao!

xoxo