Ciao, Roma

venerdi, 24 giugno 2016

Today was our last time in Rome!! We decided to end it by going back to the Vatican! If this surprises anyone, please get help.

We arrived around 6:45 to catch mass at 7. There was hardly anyone there, and St. Peter's actually felt like a church instead of a tourist attraction. Our Christianity professor has told us that the priests celebrate mass on all the altars at 7, but when she said all the altars, we didn't really think she literally meant all the altars. But she was right!! There was mass being celebrated everywhere!! It was the coolest thing!! We got adopted by a nice family from Nashville, whose son was a seminarian studying in Rome. We followed them and got to go to mass in Latin. It was special. Again, being in St. Peter's and surrounded by the celebration of the mass was probably the most amazing thing we've experienced. So. Cool.

6:59am- Waiting in line to get in... time is ticking!

7:00am- Hooray for open doors!!!!

What St. Peter's looks like without a bunch of crazy tourists

After our private mass, we wanted to climb the cupola (the dome of St. Peter's). Allison humored me in turning down the elevator and climbing all 551 steps. It wasn't actually that bad though! The view from the top was absolutely marvelous. You could see all of Rome, and the sun was still working its way through the mist.

I'm sensing a difference in excitement levels...

Halfway!

Still halfway, but now you get to see our lovely faces!

Dude. Curved doorways!! #science

From the top!

HOT DANG

On the way down!

Accomplishments before 9am: Private Latin mass and 1102 steps

We cool.

We headed back to our apartment for the last time to finish packing and check out. Bye bye, apartment!!

To the train station!! We had to be checked out by noon and our train to Venice didn't leave until 3:40, so we had a lovely time camping out in the hot station. I did, however, brave my irrational fear of restauranting and returned triumphantly with lunch!

Our home for the next 3+ hours

Lunch.

Losing it.

We had bought tickets for first class this time (they were the same price as 2nd class so why not), thinking we would have more space and such, but it turned out that our train car's air conditioning was broken... It felt like 100 degrees in there and everyone was dripping with sweat. (I hope you appreciated that visual.) Finally, the train peeps let us move to a different car, which was still hot, but not as miserable. Then the train got behind and our 5 hour trip turned into 7.... Shaving time off purgatory.... We were so happy when we finally arrived in Venice. Once we got to the hotel, we immediately took showers and hit the hay. We decided we liked the hotel because it had nice air conditioning. We'll see what adventures tomorrow brings!!

Hot, sweaty, exhausted

Sperimentare gli estremi,

Kelsey and Allison