spring break in italy

I am sitting in my hostel lobby in Florence after spending 3 days and nights in Rome, and this afternoon in Pisa. I'm kind of exhausted.

Rome was beautiful. So interesting! They call it the layered city for many reasons, and boy was it ever. Our first day there happened to be International Women's Day and all admission was free for women, woo. We walked through the Ancient City and the Colosseum.

I loved the Ancient City, and lectures from last year's Western Civ class were coming back to me in droves. We were almost done, when we stumbled upon a free tour being given by what seemed like the most knowledgeable man in Rome giving a free tour. His name was Jason Spiehler and he has a master's degree in Theology from Yale and gave the best tour ever. So much for the 6 euro we wasted on the silly audio guide.

We met up with him again the next day when he was giving a (not free) tour of the Vatican. Again, such a good tour. Lasted three hours and I feel like I should have written an exam after. The Sistine Chapel was incredible. I loved it. And St. Peter's Basilica was more enormous than I ever thought a church could be. I think that was the most shocking thing to see. You expect the Colosseum to be big, but I had never seen any pictures of the inside of St. Peter's (not like any would justly show you how huge it is).

We spent our third and last day in Rome hanging out on steps and around fountains. Sat on the Spanish Steps, saw the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, and finally the very pretty Trevi Fountain.

Today, we checked off another stereotypical tourist activity by taking cheesy pictures ''leaning'' on the Tower of Pisa. It's so bizarre looking at it though... it just leans. It looks so funny and out of place. But it just nonchalantly sits there... leaning.