Day 3: Art, History, and more food and drinks!

     Day 3 was the earliest day so far. We had to meet in the lobby at 8 a.m. to depart for the Vatican. We happened to be visiting the Vatican on a Wednesday, which is when the Pope does a blessing and anyone can gather in St. Peters Basilica to hear him speak. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make it due to our scheduled tour, but at least we can say we were there. The Vatican was as beautiful as you'd expect it to be. So much amazing artwork and history right before your eyes. One of my favorite statues that we saw was the Laocoon. The statue is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology. He was a priest attacked with his two sons by serpents sent by the gods. I have a picture of the statue below. My mistake was not bringing a water bottle with me. The tour was about 2 hours and it was hot and there were tons of people.

Laocöon Statue

Inside Vatican tour

      After seeing everything, we went to St Peters Basilica. As we arrived they were emptying out from the Pope’s blessing and weren't allowing anyone in for an hour because there were so many people trying to leave. We split up to grab lunch and the group I was with found this awesome restaurant not too far away. We had the best bruschetta I’ve ever had, for only 2.50 Euros! We also had pizza and it was probably the best pizza I had in Italy, but to be fair, I didn't have much pizza during my stay. Our servers were awesome; An older gentleman with a good sense of humor, and a younger guy who asked us where we were from. After we said New Jersey, he talked to us about the Jersey Shore (the show), which was pretty funny. We made sure to tell him that New Jersey is nothing like that show :)

Amazing Bruschetta!

       St. Peter’s Basilica was incredible. It was huge, and there was a line circling just about the whole square, with people waiting to see the inside of the church. The line was probably about 3 hours long, so we took a lot of photos and enjoyed the warm weather and atmosphere. Couldn't have been a more beautiful day to visit the square. 

        Later that night, we had dinner on our own so the group split in half and went our separate ways. Being in such a big city with so many amazing places to eat can make for a tough decision- how can you decide where to eat when theres so many places every corner you turn?! We finally settled for a restaurant that seemed to catered to Americans. The best part was that they had Italian beer on draft! We asked the server what the lightest beer on draft was, and almost all of us ordered it. It was nice to have a cold, refreshing Italian beer with dinner. After dinner we stumbled upon a Gelato bar that had wifi and played fun oldies music. It reminded me of an American Diner. It was the first place we went to that gave us a shot of lemon cello! 

       One of the best parts about being in another country is socializing with locals. You can read about things, have guided tours, but sometimes the best way to learn is just to socialize with the people who live there. So after the gelato, my roommates and I decided to find a wine bar where we could try some wines and socialize. After looking around, we didn't find anywhere we wanted to go, so we started to walk back. We came upon a HardRock, and we thought, why not check it out? HardRock’s are known for being all over, so it was cool to say we went to one in Rome. We sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. The bartender was friendly and made fun of our girly drink choices. There was a couple next to us that could tell we were American (they were American too) and they began to talk to us. They asked us about our stay and we found out that they are touring all of Italy, as well as some other countries, for the next couple of months. It was nice to talk about our experiences in Rome so far, and we warned them about the Trevi Fountain, since they hadn't been there yet. The couple left before us, and we decided it was about time for us to leave too. Before leaving, our bartender talked to us some more and gave us some tips on local places to check out. We asked if we could get a picture with him, and he told us to come behind the bar. When in Rome right? I was happy that we got to experience some night life in Rome.                                  

One more day left in Rome and it was the one I was most excited for- our tour of the Coliseum!