Europe Trip: Rome

*Yes, yes...I realize it's been a year since we went to Europe but I didn't realize how incredibly far behind I am on recounting our incredible journey there. Shame on me! It's important for me to write these things down because I'm already forgetting details about our trip and I don't want to do that. It was so amazing that I want to make sure I remember as much as I can for as long as I can. So I made a promise to myself that I will be better about writing down the things I really don't want to forget later on in life. This trip is one of those things. So here's a continuation of our amazing adventure and I promise I will work on getting the rest of it finished soon.*

When in Rome...

I actually didn't like Rome as much as I thought I would...but I still enjoyed myself. We camped again that night and it took us a long time to find the campground because our GPS was off and the street it told us to take led us into a field! After driving around for a while we found the campsite and picked our spot. It was already getting late so we found something quick to eat and set up camp. The next morning we bought some sandwich supplies and a few snacks to take with us at the little store at the front of the campsite then waited for the shuttle bus. We rode a shuttle to another smaller bus which took us to the train station which then took us into the city. 

It was a very hot day and the city was very crowded. We walked over to Vatican City and tried to make our way through the sea of tour groups inside. It took a very long time to get in but finally we made it inside and started looking around. It was amazing to see so many cool things in person that I've only ever read about in books or seen in the movies. The only problem was it was very crowded, very hot, and the kids were not handling it all that well. Daniel and I ended up getting annoyed with each other and getting into a small fight which caused us to leave a little earlier than we thought. Once we got outside and found some shade to eat our lunch things started to calm down and we made up with each other and kept going with our day.

St. Peter's Basilica was really cool! I had just finished reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown not long before our trip and kept thinking about the book as we waited in a VERY long line to actually get inside. I was so happy with myself because even though it was a very hot day I still made sure to put on modest clothing. At the front of the line to get in they had workers there that were inspecting everyone's clothes to make sure no one was admitted that wasn't modestly dressed. I kind of felt bad for the people who were turned away after waiting for at least an hour or two in line but I was impressed with their policy and glad I don't wear sleeveless tops or short shorts anyway.


The inside of the basilica was beautiful. I actually liked looking around here more than the Notre Dame Cathedral. Maybe because it wasn't so gloomy or it seemed like there were more things to look at, I don't know but I loved it. Daniel gave me a lesson on what "Crepuscular Rays" are (you know how you see rays of light shinning down in almost a stream onto something? they're really cool looking and give a "holy" sense when you see them).

We filled up our water bottles at the public fountain which made us feel special like we had holy water in our bottles! Then we made our way over to the Hard Rock Cafe to get our pin. It wasn't too far from The Colluseum which we planned on being our last stop because the city was so crazy and it took us forever to get from once place to another.

We got there a bit late because of stupid traffic and trying to figure out where to go so it was already closed for visitors. We ended up just walking around the whole thing then taking a few pictures in front of it while the sun went down. We could see the inside through the gaps in the arches anyway so it wasn't that big of a loss that we didn't get to go inside. We left and caught a bus that took us back to the train station that took us to another bus that took us to our shuttle to get back to our campsite. There was a darling little girl that sat in front of us on  one of the buses (about 3 or 4 years old) that fell in love with John and Josh. She kept calling them "Picollo" and trying to rub Joshua's head. It made the bus ride so fun. We were sad to see her go when we got to our shuttle. 

The next day was Sunday and it took us a little while to find the church building in Rome so we were a little late then we found out that Sacrament meeting was last so we didn't get to attend any other meetings. Oh well, it was still cool to attend church in Rome. We stopped off at a supermarket and bought more sandwich stuff for lunch then started our journey to Venice....