04 • 23 • 16

EUROPE | ROME

Chow, everyone!! I am officially back from my amazing trip to Europe with dear friends from college. I will be breaking up my posts by location so they are not overwhelming. I took close to 3,000 pictures so it is quite necessary to share my trip with you through this order.

Bethany, my college roommate, and I, flew out of Chicago around 5 p.m. with a direct flight into Rome (just under 9 hrs – highly recommend direct flights so you can sleep as best as possible). Because of the time difference, we arrived around 8:45 a.m. Monday morning. We had a full day ahead of us. First, we had to learn the train system quickly. You instantly realize you are in foreign country and a moment of “what in the world do we do now?” came over me. Bethany & I did not have a specific to-do list, so we found the train and went into the heart of Rome.

Among the first sights we saw were the Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, Colosseum, Church (tons of churches), and St. Augustine ruins. After carrying around bags in 80 degree weather with multiple layers on, we had to stop for lunch. We were dying & could not check into our hotel until at least 3 p.m.! We found a place to eat our first Italian Pizza, but I think we found the ‘touristy pizza’. I was not too impressed & knew this could not be what all the hype was about. After lunch & learning that you have to pay about 3-4 euros for water (never again), we grabbed our bags and continued walking. Our hotel had a free shuttle for us, but we actually were waiting for it in the wrong spot…. for 1.5 HOURS!! At this point, it’s day 1 & we do not have a grasp of things yet, we are drenched in sweat, sore from walking, blisters, and I can no longer bear the weight of my bag. We could not believe when we found out we were in the wrong spot & wasted about a good 2-3 hours of our day.

FINALLY, we found our shuttle, rode about 20 minutes from the heart of Rome and arrived at the most luxurious hotel of all time. Bethany had points through her Hilton Honors that allowed us to stay in this hotel for the night. We learned it had a legit spa below the first floor & because she was a card holder, everything was free to us. We had so many options to enjoy & it could not have been better timing because I could hardly move from carrying my bag for 6 hours. Before the spa, we walked a block away from the hotel to find dinner, but had no luck… Gelato it was!!

DAY 2 in ROME: We woke up & headed out for the day. We decided to walk to the Vatican + St. Peter’s Basilica from our hotel, which was about 1.5 miles of up/downhill. Before we saw the famous sights, we stopped for breakfast, my favorite. Something to learn is EVERYTHING is a bar in Europe. There are pizza Bars, Coffee Bars, Gelato Bars… It literally means they stand up at the bar & enjoy whatever they ordered. It was kinda fun!! I’ll caption some pictures so you can see what’s what.

We hiked back to the hotel & packed our bags. Then, we took our shuttle back into Rome to see the Trevi Fountain + Spanish Steps (which were under construction so no luck). We stopped for lunch on our way to the train station before we said good-bye to Rome.

As for the rest, I will allow the pictures to speak for themselves of our hotel stay & Rome!
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