Well we finished our first weekend getaway. It was awesome! We ended up taking a bus to Roma that was set up by a gate man from our school, Alberto. He can get anything arranged that you want. We arrived in Roma about 2 hours later than what we were told but we made it safe and sound none the less. After walking a block or two, we were at the metro station trying to find were to buy our tickets. We were looking for one in particular, the Roma Pass. It gave us unlimited access to buses and the metro for three days, got us into 2 sites for free, and 30% off any others. The first place we went to was sold out but a man that worked to the metro took us to where we could get our tickets. Once we had them, we hopped onto the metro and went one stop to our hostel. The metro is so easy. Of course, I had already had experience with it before so that probably helped. Anyway, we love using them. Our hostel was very interesting. We think, no we know we got the worst room they had (b/c we looked in the others). It stunk so bad and was freezing cold. We asked one of the workers to turn the heat on, but he didn't know what he was doing. It took him like 15 minutes playing with a remote control to get it turned on. We were all freaked out by the sheets so we were glad we had brought a least a sheet of our own.

Our first stop was the Coliseum which was only like a 5 minute walk from our hostel or one metro stop away. We used our Roma Pass to get our entry fee waved and we ended up getting a tour of the coliseum for only eight Euro. The tour also included the Roman Forum or some church. We all took so many pictures. It was BEAUTIFUL! Words can't describe. After we were done with the Coliseum, a different took the 6 in our group on a little tour of the Roman Forum. It had closed at like 3:30 so we could only walk beside it instead of through it, but it was still neat. Our second tour guide was from Georgia. He was really nice and told us some cool places to go and the best way to get to the sites.


By the time we got to the Pantheon it was getting dark so it was all lit up. Like everything else it was beautiful and really cool looking. Right across from it was a McDonald's, lol. Rachel and Kyle were craving some french fries so we stopped for a little break and indulged them. Once they had gobbled up all the fries, we continued on the the Piazza del Novana. It had four fountains there which were all lit up. They are special for some reason but none of us knew why. We went in a shop or two then headed back to our hostel. Since the Coliseum was on our way, we stopped and took pictures of it while it was all lit up. We were all starving and decided to see if we could eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We asked an Italian where to go and they told us which metro exit to get off at so we hopped back on the metro. When we got there, there was an hour and a half wait to get in. That and the fact that a hamburger alone was 16 euro, we decided to eat somewhere else. Close to our hostel was a nice little Italian restaurant so we ate there. The food was really good. We had cheese ravioli, lasagna, spaghetti, and one of us had some kind of chicken. Done with dinner, we stopped and got some gelato and then went to bed.

We love ya'll so much and hope everything is going well!

P.S. We are wanting to put more pictures on here but it will only let us put 5 a post and we cant figure out the slide show or any other feature. If any of you (Jenna, Vonda, Shaila - ya'll have a blog) know how to get them on there we would greatly appreciate your help. Thanks.