Sunday morning, my parents and I caught a plane to Rome, checked in to our hotel, and headed to the Pantheon. I'm not exactly sure what my expectations of Rome were, but its quite different from the cities I prior traveled with Wabash (Siena, Assisi, and Florence). It is most definitely still Italy and brings with it a lot of the Italian culture: polite people, a beautiful language, beautiful women, etc.) but, had definitely become a modern city thats seen millions upon millions of tourists. Traffic was not near as aggressive as Greece.

     Rome is a neat city because it has always been a city since its founding in around 700BC (correct?) whereas Athens misses about 1000 years of history when the Turks take over around 7th century AD. Thus, there are literally a million things to see. I had quite a list and got to see probably 5/6th of that list which was neat.

     Vatican was unreal. It was good to go there as I went to 13 years of Catholic schooling before Wabash and have always heard of the Vatican and the seat of the papacy, but never had the chance to see it. It's quite stunning, religious or not, its well worth seeing. The Vatican Museum rivals the Louvre and the Sistene Chapel was one of the coolest places I've seen thus far. Seeing the brilliance behind Michaelangelos art first hand was stunning and awe-inspiring. I spent all day there and probably could have spent another 2-3 days in the museum. If you go, buy tickets online before hard to skip the wait - big thanks to Dr. Cook on that one. We went to mass, which was in German, but I took a video just before hand:

     Our last day, we did the Roman forum, Veniz square, and the Collosseum. It was neat to see, thought provoking, and will be well remembered. Flashbacks from the movie (Gladiator) echoed in my head the whole time I was there. It's all one of those things you can only faintly imagine, but never fully realize. It must have been quite a site in its day to walk through.

     Not feeling the best tonight, think I may be coming down with something - I'll have a reflection up by the end of the weekend. Mom and Dad leave tomorrow at 11. They will be missed, but it will be good to get on with my semester abroad.