Prague, Czech Republic

Alright friends & family. I sincerely apologize at the lack of posting, I’ve gotten distracted by… Europe! So this is Prague, and its going to take me a bit to pull together all the details, it seems like ages ago! It was almost a month ago actually!

So a group of us headed off to Prague from Rouen. Once we got to the train station in Rouen though, we got kind of nervous because of the HUGE crowd surrounding the flat screen in the center of the station. I asked a man next to me (in attempted broken French) what was going on? We both decided it had to be a strike, which was really inconvenient if we missed our flight. The lady at the counter then explained to me that a bit of rain had thrown the train off schedule? Fortunately, we were lucky to snag seats on the only train out of the city and into Paris and were only off schedule by about half an hour. We took 2 flights to get into Prague, stopping once in Dusseldorf, which we discovered later was in Germany. Its hard keeping up with all these European cities, and I admit, traveling has been like a real life geography lesson! I’d take that kind of learning over classroom style any day.

Once we got to Prague, we met up with Mollie at our hostel. We passed through Old Town Square, which has a huge church-like castle that mimics that of Disneyland’s infamous castle. Once at our hostel, we waited for our group – a friend Cory from school in Rouen and Jeanna also in Rouen but she goes to Cal Poly. Randomly enough, 2 of the girls in our room are Architecture students at Cal Poly of all places. Europe brings people together, I swear! For dinner, everyone had some assortment of goulash, dumplings, potatoes, and meat. Prague is really well known for that apparently.

We also made Old Town Square our home. We had to pass

through it to get anywhere and it was like an olden days Renaissance style market with food for sale and fires making chicken, potato pancakes, sweet pancakes, candied almonds, waffles, veggies, potatoes, and bratwursts. The food in the square was our absolute favorite and by the end of the week, we’d definitely had our fair share of the food there.
Prague uses the currency kroner (crowns) for their style of money. We pretty much had no real idea how much the money was worth so we’d just buy things forking over hundreds of these kroners with no real idea the translation unless we sat down and actually figured it out. For the record, $1 is about 17 kroner. So it is a tricky conversion rate, thought definitely not impossible.

So our first whole day in town, we went on a free walking tour of Prague. It was incredible. Prague is essentially the only city in Eastern Europe to remain intact after World War II as it was never fully air bombed during the wars. As a result, it has true architecture ranging from all the eras. We learned about the merging of Bohemia and Prague as well as the change from Old Prague to New Prague, the presence of communism, and the break away from Czech Republic and Slovenia. The history lesson from Prague was really educational and interesting since I’d previously had very little exposure to the history of Eastern Europe.

In Old Towne Square, we all crowded around the astronomical clock in the center of the square. At every hour, people cluster at the bottom to see its display. Its not quite as elaborate as in Munich which has an almost mini play, but this clock, the oldest in Eastern Europe by the way, simply has a round about display of the twelve apostles. The 4 characters around the edges dance and move around and at the end, the hen at the top coos. It was pretty uneventful, but for some reason, I loved it and would run to watch it whenever I realized it was the top of the hour.

Anyways, Prague was freezing cold all the days that we were there. We didn’t see sunlight once which was really sad, but we bundled up. We especially enjoyed the hot chocolate, which like in Florence, was essentially a thick, melted chocolate bar in a cup. Delicious!

One day, Mollie, Julie and I put on our warm weather gear and went on a run through Prague. Across the river on one bridge, there is a giant metronome. We never really discovered the purpose of the GIANT

metronome that ticks, but I really liked it. Prague is really rich in its musical history (classical music) and there were concerts all over regularly. I can think of a few people in my famiy who would have appreciated it very much. We ran to the top of a giant hill with spectacular views overlooking all of Prague, across the river and onto the colorful rooftops of the eastern European city. It was breathtaking… not because we ran there and were out of breath, but actually because it was such a stunning sight and unlike anything I’d ever seen before in Europe or in the US. I’d really like to explore more of Eastern Europe, plus it’s a whole lot cheaper!!

The next day, we went to visit Old Prague Castle and its attached church. I took dozens of pictures from a distance of the castle and I especially liked it at night! These were also very breathtaking, but we mostly enjoyed surrounding the guards who couldn’t move or talk with us but would let us take pictures around them. It was fun!

We saw the John Lennon Imagine Wall. No one really knows exactly why it is in Prague, but it was allegedly begun there by students trying to break free of communist rule and show their expressions and views. It then spiraled into a wall where everyone comes to tribute the Beatles but specifically John Lennon. It was the most wonderful graffiti though since it recognized the Beatles- it was even better than the mini wall at Abbey Road in London! The wall is ever changing, constantly morphing as more people come to visit and add to the wall.

The rest of the Rouen crowd left and we went to stay with a guy from Cal Poly who is actually studying in Prague. He went to class and we wandered around town to get some shopping done. That night we had some traditional Prague food again, except I can’t report back what I ordered since I told the waiter to “surprise me with something good.” Whatever I ate was delicious. The rest of the table ordered a “giraffe” which is a giant carafe (like 6 feet tall) filled with beer and it comes to your table so you can fill up your glass right there. Its kind of like a mini tap. I’m still too afraid of an allergic reaction to beer, so I just watched, but it was a fun addition to our table. We had a really great time in Prague, and the boys apartment was really nice for a study abroad program! We made our way back home trying to spend every crown we could since croner really have no use to us back in France!

Venice, Italia

After our amazing day in Florence, we packed up for the last leg of our Italian trip. We had breakfast with all our friends and hopped onto a train to Venice. It was nice because we booked a hotel there, so we had two large beds in a hotel just off of the actual Venice Island. I really wish that we had stayed on Venice Island itself because we had to take a train into town and then walk for about 20 minutes into the heart of the canals/city. Hostels.com and other sites were pretty deceptive and made our hotel look like it was in the city! Be careful, REAL Venice is small and apparently really hard to find accommodations for!

Still, we were happy to have a nice, cheap hotel to ourselves. Rachell, Nick, and Julie and I headed into Venice and were instantly dazzled by the canals that literally cover the entire expanse of city! The taxis are gondolas and boats! The bus service is just a very large ferry/bus! Gondola services are literally on every canal corner!

We walked through the streets, which are actually like narrow alley-ways with little stores all along them. The houses and buildings are all really old but have the nostalgic look of once being extremely quaint and cute. They are now corroding and rotting out from what looks like years of water damage from flooding and mold. It’s sad but I still like the buildings nonetheless.

All of the smaller canals were still really cute and had some gondolas going up and down. Still lots of smaller paddle boats were everywhere as well. Finally, we came to the major bridge /area Ponte di Rialto where street vendors literally take up every inch of space, and with whatever space is leftover, tourists take over! The vendors sell all sorts of blown glass jewelry and paper maché masquerade ball masks. My favorite was one that was shaped like a viola face because,

who would want to wear that over their FACE? The other masks were generally really fun and though quite popular, not super functional for anything other than a masquerade ball! Still, we loved the bridge despite it being crowded with street vendors! It was a beautiful site and there were even more gondolas below than any of the side streets.

We wandered all the shops, many of which were upscale and designer stores. They say that Venice is the most expensive city in all of Italy- definitely appeared to be true. Finally, we arrived at the most beautiful expanse of water. It literally took us all by surprise at the indefinite beauty of this city on the water. I personally loved the 3 pronged street light lamps!

The city at dusk fading into sunset was really incredible. Then we went to San Marco Cathedral in Piazza San Marco for mass. They only open the church a few times per day for tourist viewing, and the lengthy line usually lasts approximately 2 to 4 hours. So we decided to go to actual mass in the church. Wow, it really was a beautiful church, which glittered all over with its gild and mosaic artwork. Not to mention, it was one of the most powerful masses that I’d ever experienced. Seriously, despite the fact that the entire mass was spoken in Italian. And I don’t speak a lick of Italian… the mass was really moving. I knew what the priest was saying and what parts of the mass we were at even though I didn’t actually comprehend the words that were coming out of the priest’s mouth. After church, we had a yummy real Italian dinner of pizza and pasta to celebrate Julie’s birthday!

Julie’s birthday was at midnight, so we took her to a little pub for her birthday. Randomly enough, we met a group of people, 2 of which had graduated from Cal Poly about 5 years ago and are living in the bay area now. We met another group of students studying in Spain all of whom were from throughout California and go to Santa Barbara. It’s definitely a small world! The next morning, we said our goodbyes to Rachell and Nick. Rachell headed back to Florence and Nick was off to Barcelona for the week. It was really sad to end the trip that I would have loved to have lasted forever.

Julie and I explored Venice a bit more but through the rain that hit Venice, we pretty much just got on the train. It was sad for Julie who spent 12 hours on a train on her birthday, but we had a lot of fun all week so we called it her Italian Birthday week! When we got back into Paris, we realized that we’d missed the last train for the night back into Rouen. So we showed up on Em J’s doorstep around midnight… hoping for a place to stay! Thankfully she took us in and it was lovely as always to see her beautiful face and spend some time with one of my best friends.

Vespas through Tuscany

Before I even begin, I’d like to say this entry describes my favorite day thus far in Europe and one of my most favorite/ BEST days of my entire life. No exaggeration.

Florence is really Americanized as a lot of people study abroad there and is very touristy. As a result, there are tons of English speaking people and not as much Italian culture. We decided to escape a bit. We considered doing some wine tasting for some delicious Chianti wine. The best decision ended up to rent Vespas for the day!

As we left our hostel, we invited some of our Cinque Terre friends to join us. Some decided to head to other parts of Italy, but a whole bunch of us still went to rent the Vespas. We also met up with a girl named Rachell and her roommate, both from Cal Poly and studying in Florence. We all headed over to the scooter rental, had a few challenges finding the random warehouse, and walked a lot. In Italy, red numbers mean that a location is a business. Black numbers mean that the location is a residence. So the numbers aren’t chronological, so obviously 33 would be next to 70.

The scooter gentleman was a bit grumpy because some American boys had crashed his vespa the day before. He charged them about 1500 euros (2,200 some bucks… about the price to buy a cheap or used vespa I believe). So he had enough vespas for 3 of us and a 6000cc motorcycle for Jason to ride. Jason, one of our friends from Australia, actually had the same model motorcycle back home, otherwise there is no way he could have learned to drive and control it that day.

When we finally rented the scooters, we all had to promise we had driven a vespa before. Which was true for some, except for in my case when I learned how to drive it through the city of Florence. Which is, by the way, one of the busiest, most chaotic driving cities that I’ve ever experienced. And Italians, like all European drivers, are terrible! So I was scared out of my mind, but once I got the hang of it, it was AMAZING!! I was also really stoked about my protective gear… AKA my POWERPUFF GIRLS helmet!!

When we first got out of the city, we hit a series of really windy, twisty, and narrow country roads. It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but once we got the jist of it, it was really great!! Then all of a sudden, after our scooters climbed a few great hills, we looked over and had an entire panoramic view of the city of Florence tucked into wine country and beautiful rolling hills.

All of us were awestruck at once and let out hollers and hoots of excitement. The 4 of us were like a little pack of Harley motorcycle men rolling through the countryside having a blast. Eventually I handed over the driving privileges to Rachell and tagged onto Nick’s vespa. I actually liked this a lot because I could enjoy the countryside scenery to the fullest. We had a blast on the trip, singing songs at the top of our lungs over the sound of the wind and into the countryside. I’ve never felt so free with the wind blowing against us and the countryside disappearing beside us.

We stopped in a vineyard to take a few photos until an Italian lady yelled at us in Italian to leave her land. It was there in this vineyard that the concept of city life and the hustle and bustle of reality melted away. The vast countryside encompassed the entire expanse of my vision. For miles and miles around was just the beauty of Tuscany. A better treat was that November was about to hit (it was Halloween, October 31^st) and the leaves had just begun to change. Reds, yellows, and baby hits of green leaves were on the horizon softly touching the baby blue skies and big fluffy clouds. The scenery was unbelievable and something that I will never. Ever. Ever. Forget.

After our first stop, we headed off to San Gimignano, a medieval fortress town in the middle of Tuscany. I got to ride with Jason on his motorcycle. It was such a thrill!! It went SO much faster than a vespa and was so agile. We would lean and move with the bike, feeling completely free. I was a bit scared because the bike would accelerate so quickly, but it was still a blast. We passed a whole bunch of really small trucks chugging along with giant milk jugs in the back of their wagons. It really was the countryside, that’s for sure.

On the way, we passed tons of signs saying EMPOLI this way. I really wanted to go there, but who knows what was there, except for my people of course. But we didn’t go there. We finally got to San Gimignano, and we were all actually really cold because of the wind chill and the sun beginning to disappear. It was about 3 o’clock. Once in the town, I found a bakery that made 5 different kinds of marzipan cookies and 3 types of marzipan cakes. It was a really hard decision picking which ones to get, so I got wayyy more than one kind. J I loved the town because it literally felt like we went back a few hundred years and were hanging out in the Renaissance era. We saw a couple finishing their wedding at the church, which was really beautiful. Then we all went to this giant well ( I would have liked to get water out personally), but instead opted for a photo session to remember the medieval town.

Then we realized that we needed to hustle back into the city to return our bikes before close. We had gotten a special deal if we came back early, so off we went. I’m not sure why we decided to head back a different route, but we did. And we got really really lost. There are dozens of traffic circles in all the little Italian towns with arrows pointing to different towns. So we followed lots of arrows, turned around a bunch, and watched the sunset go down. Once we almost got on the “motorway” AKA the highway- as in vespas on a highway. Dangerous. Don’t worry, this never happened!! We encountered a spectacular sunset which is pretty much only in our memories as none of us could take photos. But it was unbelievable and almost too beautiful for words. But as the sun disappeared, so did our warmth, and we were all freezing and shaking cold. The Aussi boys were only wearing shorts so that was insane. We passed by real Harley biker men who were wearing full leather suits for warmth and protection and asked us (through hand motion since we don’t speak Italian) if we were freezing. Yes. We were freezing and all huddled against our Vespa buddies for any source of warmth! Me and Nick were chattering and Julie couldn’t feel her hands—but it was still a great drive back… until we got into the city. It was traffic hour and we were pretty lost. We spent so much time learning how to get out of the city that we didn’t really ask how to get back in. We had a few maneuverability issues, one way street issues, and driving on sidewalk scenarios, but don’t fear- we made it back in 1 piece. We even figured out how to fill up gas in Italy (a tricky scenario). Once back, the man who owned the shop was so happy! And Rachell said she’d recommend it to all her friends in Florence, so we was even more happy.

Then we had the most delicious hot chocolate of all time. The hot choco in Italy (and Prague too as we’d find out soon) is more like a bar of Hershey’s chocolate melted with a bit of milk. Pure Chocolate deliciousness and warmth.

Then we headed to Rachell’s apartment for some homemade gnocchi pesto and other pastas, bruchetta, salads, and that delicious Chianti wine. Our aussi friend made tiramisu from scratch. I watched him do it… it was yummy! We topped off the evening with the world’s greatest gelato, walked around the city, and officially declared it one of the greatest days of all time. Unanimous vote. Loved it so much that I’m actually smiling from ear to ear right now!

Pisa & Firenze, Italia

On our way to Florence (Firenze) from Cinque Terre, we stopped at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. (I like the name Firenze a lot by the way. wouldn't it be cool to name a child Firenze... they'd be a sweet person) We didn’t do much but look at it and its sideways nature. Pretty much The Leaning Tower is the only thing in Pisa. Except for a huge McDonalds in the train station with Pizza on the menu and a bar that serves alcohol and espresso.

Don’t worry, I didn’t eat at Mc Donalds while I was in Italy. .. So the Leaning Tower first tilted because the soil under its foundation abruptly shifted.

Also, it tilts even more (about 1-2 m per year) due to the number of tourists who head up its steps to the top. Currently, it is considered a stable building however, but to me, tilting/slanting/leaning while in a building is always a bit sketchy. Okay, so for your enjoyment, I held up the Leaning Tower (the 1^st tourist of ALL time to take a photo like this!! It was my idea! Just kidding, everyone was doing it) and then I kicked it over. The photo of the 3 of us I swear the guy overcompensated and made the tower straighter then it is.

We hopped on the train for the rest of the way to Florence. I was personally STOKED as we stopped through a town called EMPOli.

So cool. Took a photo. We got to our hostel, and it was a treat! It was cheap, like 20 euro a night, and it was incredible. Like a hotel for students only. It had a bar, restaurant, swimming pool, gym, sauna, and was SO clean! We were really stoked about it. We were in an 8 person dorm so we got to meet a bunch of people including meeting up with the friends we made in Cinque Terre. We went to this buffet which is really typical style in Italy where you buy 1 drink and get an all you can eat buffet dinner with it. The dinner was delicious because it was all typical Italian dishes, but not pasta or pizza- so it was like beans, veggies, salads, etc Italian Style. We ate. So. Much. Thank goodness for the hostel’s gym!

In the morning, we went straight to see the David at the Accademia Gallery. We saw a whole bunch of really interesting photography that is supposed to mimic the style of the David in modern day. Then all of a sudden we stepped out into a corridor and there he was, The David himself. Wow.

What an incredible statue; like I said before, Michelangelo was so remarkably artistic and talented. He looks like a real person in full stance. It is believed that it is the moment right before he sends his slingshot to hit Goliath, and he is deep in thought about this moment. His right hand is extremely out of proportion,

allegedly intentional. His private areas are much too small/ out of proportion for his body size, again because it represents that he was a true thinker and not motivated by sex like most men of the time (or really of all time ha). His forehead is scrunched like his thoughts are completely immersed in the moment. I personally like his hair and his torso the best because if you closed your eyes and opened them slowly, it looked like a real person. I snuck 2 pictures of the real thing, again not allowed. There are 3 David statues in Florence, 1 is real seen here, 1 is fake, and the other is also fake and made of bronze. Nick, Julie, and I took a photo with the fake one shown here.

We enjoyed wandering around Florence afterwards, stopping at the Duomo, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. Again another magnificent Dome, but the exterior is coolest- it looks like a giant shell made out of marble.

Next door are the “Gates of Paradise,” named by Michelangelo,-- spectacular gold doors with ornate scenes from the Old Testament etched into the doors. I loooved these doors and could have stared at the artwork for hours!

We walked across the giant bridge called The Ponte Vecchio, one of the 3 oldest bridges in the world!! It wasn’t destroyed in WWII and is flooded with tourists who look at the jewelry shops lining the entire bridge. I loved its view at night as well.

Today is the day we discovered the best, yes, the BEST gelato in all of Italy. It is just 2 bridges over from Pont Vecchio, called La Carraia. It was so smooth and creamy. I personally loved dark chocolate (obviously), Chocolate orange (reminded me of those orange chocolate sticks you get me from Trader Joes, Yee Ma), Cookies, and Black Cherry.

MMM. So we were in heaven with the gelato. I tell you, we went to soo many places and this really just was the best! Later that night in Florence we met up with the guys from Cinque Terre and met some of the Aussis and guys studying abroad in London in our room. It was really fun in Florence, but the next blog to come is the best part of Florence/ Tuscany. You’ll see!!

Cinque Terre, Italia!! (aka paradise)

Cinque Terre is quite possibly the most beautiful place in the world that I have yet visited. It is a series of 5 towns in the Italian Riveria that overlook the Mediterranean Sea. The towns are connected by a train and by small hiking paths alongside the edge of the cliffs that look out onto the water. The 5 towns are built into the mountainside, each building painted a bold and fun color like pink, red, yellow, or green. It is exactly how I’d imagine a little Italian village to be! As you can imagine, it is swarming with tourists in the summertime, but for the last week of October, it was not too busy.

Our hostel was interesting, since it wasn’t a hostel. It was basically an apartment with a kitchen, a bathroom downstairs and outside, and as many bunk beds as was possible to fit in that space without it being extremely awkward. We made some good friends there from Australia and also from the states, all of which we met in Florence later on either by accident or by planning to meet. Still, we had a blast making pasta with fresh sauce and ingredients in the apartment, sharing wine, and talking about our

experiences traveling through Europe. That night, we saw the world's most breathtaking sunset. In the picture to the left you can see the magnificent colors, but I personally was a huge fan of the swirling purple and red that hit the blue softly before blending into the ocean. This picture doesn't really show the purple, but you can see how I was lost for words at the beauty of the sunset.

The next morning, Nick, Julie and I got up for the 12k hike (about 8 miles) through all 5 towns. It was SO worth the hike, which was strenuous only at parts, but mostly breathtakingly beautiful as we followed the waterline and looked on into the villages built into the hills. We stayed in the first town, Riomaggiore, and hiked from there to Manarola. This first path is called Via dell’ Amore, which is basically the most romantic part of the villages hike. It is the street of love and features what’s called a lock love tree. Every couple that comes writes their names or initials on a pad lock, kiss and make a wish before throwing the key out into the ocean to symbolize their eternal love. It sounds really romantic. There were SO many locks because it is probably the most romantic place in Europe and because it is a huge place for honeymooners.

Then we got to Manarola. This was a smaller town, so we hiked to the top of the village and looked down from the church onto the ocean. This village is famous for this light nativity scene built into the winery (vineyards along the hills in the coastline) every Christmas.

There were hundreds of cats throughout the villages, and I was able to get some really cool shots of the cats in cute places. I even stumbled across one grey and one black cat, the only ones like that that I saw in the entire area, and they were together. Cute, huh? Reminded me of my Bubba Sable and Thelmy.

So the 3^rd town, Corniglia, you had to hike up a windy staircase really far to get to the top. Once at the top, the town was really small but had tons of tiny alleyways that we explored. We found a hike town to the water and the rocks where we enjoyed a bit of Nutella with cookies and watched a cute couple slicing mussels from the rocks for a tasty dinner. The hike back up wasn’t as fun as it was down, but we had the prospect of a late lunch for the next city and set off at full speed.

This next hike to the 4^th town was long, yet beautiful. Once we got to the 4^th town, Vernazza, I quickly decided it was my all time favorite town. I think some of you will be getting postcards from here, actually just you Mom I think. It had a little marina for small boats docked around it. We had ammmmazing pizza at the top of the town before heading down for what is supposed to be the creamiest and tastiest gelato in Cinque Terre. It was yummy, though the best would be yet to come. We wandered onto the rocks and just watched as dusk began to hit the spot where the sky and the ocean blend into one. We hurried to catch the last of daylight so we could see most of the sunset in the final town of Monterosso al Mare.

The last hike was the longest, just shy of 2 hours or so. A funny British family was reading about the hike at the entrance and a boy turned to his dad and said, “2 hours, do I get a metal at the end if I finish it?!” We hurried along and the path got much more narrow as this was wine country as well as olive country. We were surrounded by lush trees and plants as well as a few streams and waterfalls. It was so beautiful, I felt like we were in a forest in the Amazon or something. Nick tried an olive off of the tree, which was apparently, really really gross. It was bitter and disgusting, he said. So we have no idea what exactly people do to make real olives delicious, but I’m glad they did make them delicious. We actually got a bit lost on this trail as there was a fork in the road and ended up in a vineyard but our 3 heads put together figured out the right way. We passed this seriously intense Bear Grylls status Italian guy who was hiking the trail with a giant stick and no shoes. I thought of taking off my shoes too. Just kidding.

We finally saw the sunset right before we hit Monterosso. The views onto the water were like reflective mirrors with sun just barely peaking around the last of the mountains. Beautiful. We hit town just as it got dark and had fun wandering around the city.

It was light up with huge lanterns, which remind me of Venice looking back on both. We hit up this delicious dark chocolate gelato place, and none of us really wanted gelato, but then we tried it and couldn’t resist. It was the perfect end to a long hike!

Then we took the train back, relaxed with the guys in our hostel (who took a midnight swim in the Mediterranean… pretty chilly I think.), and made some dinner. Riomaggiore at night is a spectacular sight as well. The beach we went to was really cool, made out of huge perfectly round stones. The moon had an ominous reflection onto the ocean too since it was almost a full moon. It reminded me of all the times I used to find the moon when I was little with you Dad.

It was an incredible day, one that I’ll probably never forget for the rest of my life. I feel so lucky to have been able to visit this picturesque village and hope to go back one day!

Vatican City, Italia

The next morning we woke up really early, around 6am to head off to the Vatican City. We were the first in line, but had to wait around an hour for the gates to open. Once inside, we all shared an audio guide (something we actually did for almost all of the museums and such) to hear about the exhibits.

When you first walk in is a giant courtyard featuring a large pinecone, designed (like almost everything famous in Italy) by Michelangelo.

We passed through years and years of Catholic history from Pope’s artistic collections to their actual apartments designed with beautiful artwork all around the walls. I really enjoyed the hallway of the Maps which featured tapestries and maps of ancient Italian territories from long ago.

At the end of the exhibit, which takes about 4 hours to walk through at a pretty brisk pace with enough time to see everything relatively thoroughly, we found ourselves in the magnificent Sistine Chapel. I was completely mesemerized by the beauty that Michelangelo created with this chapel. At the base layer surrounding the building is a giant painting that creates the illusion that you are standing next to a wall covered in drapery/curtains. The next layer depicts the major stories of Jesus’ life from the New Testament.

Then a series of 6 windows per side with portraits of the most famous Popes (up until around 1500) in between. On the ceiling is the greatest part of which I stared the longest… a series of Old Testament stories including God creating Man (Adam and Eve) and Moses. The back wall, okay I take it back, I stared at the back wall the longest, shows Michelangelo’s depiction of the Last Judgment. The detail is incredible. He painted the ceiling around age 35 and the wall around age 60, and you can see how his ideologies and religious view points morphed and matured through the years. There were angry Italian guards who ran around saying “SHHH, no talking. And NOOO PHOTO. NOO PHOTO!” So, no photos were allowed, but I sneaked one just of the ceiling. So enjoy that!

Afterwards, we went to Old Bridge for gelato. MM and met our friend Leslie to visit Saint Peter’s Basilica. This is the most magnificent church in the entire, no exaggeration, ENTIRE WORLD! I absolutely loved every moment of it, and why shouldn’t it be the best church in the world, it is the center of Catholicism in Vatican City, Rome! It is where the Pope himself gets to perform mass. I would have loved to see him perform mass, but sadly we weren’t able to. The lines are unreal when he does too. Anyways, we climbed the Dome up to the top. It was quite the trek but we had breathtaking, panoramic views of all of Rome.

We could see St. Peter’s Square, where the Pope makes weekly addresses, the Colosseum, Vatican City, and all the surrounding buildings. I loved the view, however the climb itself was interesting… It was very narrow and wind-ey, or as some would say, claustrophobic.

We spent hours in the actual Basilica, staring at the dome and the ornate carvings and paintings around the entire church.

There was a stream of light coming in over St. Peter’s tomb and hitting his Papal Throne (St. Peter is the first Pope of the Catholic Church, named by Jesus Himself), which felt unrealistically holy and beautiful. The only word to describe this church is utterly majestic. I was completely awestruck and taken aback by the beauty of this building and the holy sense that reverberated from every wall. We headed downstairs to the Papal Catacombs, which was weird.

They’re the tombs of the deceased popes, each of which above ground and greatly decorated out of huge marble slabs. Pope John Paul II’s tomb was the 2^nd largest to St. Peter’s, and had a huge surrounding of spectators, followers, people praying, and many crying. I really enjoyed St. Peter’s tomb as it looked up from the basement catacombs and into the above dome, altar, and throne.