Day 3
ROME. I had only ever dreamed of visiting this magnificent city, so actually being there, and on Holy Saturday & Easter Sunday nonetheless - was incredible! The first stop on our 2 day tour of Rome was the Vatican Museum. The Museum was pretty impressive filled with old artwork and sculptures, but the highlight of course was the Sistine Chapel. It wasn't very "chapely" for a chapel, but then I suppose most chapels don't have 100's of tourists in there staring at the walls & the ceilings. The artwork was absolutely stunning. I cannot imagine how they painted the images they did on the ceiling like that - talk about an awkward position to be in! After the Vatican Museum we ventured over to St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square. We had to get in line to go through security & the metal detectors - who would have thought metal detectors to get into a CHURCH of all things. The inside of the Basilica is beyond words! I can't even wrap my mind around the way they could build back in the day. It's like nothing you find that has been built in modern times and far more impressive! There was supposed to be a door leading to where St. Peter was buried, but I couldn't find it. I was disappointed; that would have been cool to see. After St. Peter's we set off to find somewhere to have lunch. We were really hungry, but didn't want to eat anywhere too expensive. It was probably a mistake to walk down the street we did, as it was clearly a tourist trap. And we got tricked into sitting down to have a sandwich - which cost 3 euro more simply because we sat! I was mad & vowed to learn from that lesson. However, afterwards I did try a cannoli from the restaurant which was pretty great! I LOVE italian food. Definitely the best with pasta, pizza, pastries, & gelato... yum!
Next we wandered in the direction of the Pantheon & Ancient Rome, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc... On the way we discovered this cool looking castle on the river. It's so cool to just stumble upon things so ancient and grand. We wound our way through the streets and found the Pantheon. Just as we entered, my phone rang. I answered, not having any idea who it was & it was a good thing I did because it lead to what was probably the biggest highlight of Spring break. It turned out it was Ryan Stark, a friend of a friend from back home who was studying in Rome for the semester. He is in the seminary, so it turned out his group got 2 extra tickets to the Easter Vigil Mass in the Vatican, presided by the Pope! He wanted to know if we wanted to go & wanted to meet us in 1 hour! Being on vacation, we had no set plan so we said OF COURSE and walked over to meet him - stopping for the "best gelato," according to Rick Steves, on the way.
We ended up having to stand in line for like 3 hours, but during that time we met a bunch of Ryan's friends who were studying in his program. It was so cool to meet these people from the States all the way over there in Rome. They were truly some of the nicest people I have ever met and made us feel welcome right away. At one point some of the guys went off to a pizzeria and brought back 3 pizzas for us all to share! We also met of the girls who was asked to do a reading during the Mass - she was so nervous, but did an amazing job! We finally got in and sat down waiting for the Pope to arrive. The Basilica was even more incredible the way it was lit up and filled with people. The Pope finally arrived and the Mass started. He is just a little short man with the whitest hair ever! The coolest thing about the Mass was that all the readings were done in different languages, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc. It lasted about 3.5 hours & then we maneuvered our way out of the church. The Vatican was really pretty at night all lit up - so picture perfect! The group invited us back to their house for cupcakes, so we decided to check it out. On the way we stopped for gelato; Ryan bought because we were the guests! So nice! Then we walked back to their house. I was impressed that they lived in this nice house, in a more residential area of Rome. It was really cozy and had everything they would need! When we got our cupcakes there was supposed to be a prize baked into one of them. I started eating my cupcake & felt something hard in there - I had the prize! I then had to redeem it for a chocolate candy bar! It was pretty cool, but I felt bad winning their prizes as I was only a guest in their house. By this point it was pretty late, so Ryan helped us get a taxi and we went back to our hostel.

Day 4
On Day 4 we knew we wanted to stop by the friends we had made yesterday - house at 2 PM because they had invited us for Easter lunch! This meant cramming the Colosseum, Spanish Steps, & Trevi Fountain into the morning. We started off that morning by heading towards the Colosseum. Lauren had already been inside, so she didn't want to pay again. I didn't really want to pay the money, or go in alone, plus I wasn't sure we had time, so I checked it out from the outside. Nearby the Colosseum is the Roman Forum, which Lauren was sure was free, so we tried in vain to find the entrance. After awhile though, we came to the conclusion that we would have to pay. In the end we took a path around to the top and got kind of an aerial view of the whole area. It was a pretty cool sight - all that history in one area. We continued walking through Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II onto the Trevi Fountain. That is definitely the most magnificent fountain I have ever seen, although the square it's in is a lot smaller and less impressive than the movies make it look. That is where we met Ryan and he walked us back to his house. On the way we stopped at the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo. The lunch they made at their house was truly an Easter feast! I couldn't think of a better way to spend Easter while abroad!
After lunch, we stopped back at the hostel & picked up our bags on the way to the train station. We caught the next train down to Naples - our next destination. We arrived safely in Naples & tried to follow the directions the hostel had posted online. We got on the metro - which took forever to arrive, and got off at our stop. But of course the exit we needed to take was closed, so we ended up walking around in the rain, cold, and darkness for a good half hour trying to figure out where we were. Thankfully I eventually took a guess and we found the hostel. This was by far the nicest hostel we had stayed in the entire trip. It was clean, safe, and modern. I felt very comfortable there. After we got settled, we went on a food hunt. We were so hungry & there was almost nothing open at this point in the night. Eventually we found a little family run shop that had cheap & fresh pastries! I ended up with a 1 euro pizza & 1 euro chocolate covered waffle; I was satisfied. We went back to the hostel and called it a night.