This is What Dreams are Made Of - Roma!

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So over a month ago (jeez I am horrible at keeping up with this...) my family packed our bags in Madrid and headed off to the land of pizza and pasta! (literally doe.... I didn't eat anything besides pizza pasta and gelato the entire weekend. If you think I'm kidding, I'm not. Thank you world for containing a place with so many carbs. Much appreciated.)

We had a super packed couple days, so here's the brief summaries of my Roman Holiday!

DAY 1
I took an evening flight out of Madrid on Wednesday to meet up with my family who had Tuesday morning. (I had class until 6pm on Wednesday.) On Wednesday, they went to the Papal audience and got this close to the Pope.... SOOOO glad I had class and had to miss it!
Special shout-out to the cab driver who took me from the airport to the hotel yelling Italian words at me the whole ride! love ya :*

DAY 2
We woke up and headed over to the Vatican.  Today, we took a tour through the Vatican Museum (props to Mom for buying our tickets beforehand and helping us save 3 hours of waiting in line.) where we saw the Sistine Chapel (may or may not have taken a secret pic of the ceiling...always gonna be a mystery I guess) and St. Peter's Basilica.  After, we took a Scavi tour, which is a tour of the ruins beneath the Vatican.  My mom booked this in July because they only let a certain number of people go down each day and I am so glad she did because it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  You get to see the believed bones of St. Peter and we just happened to have a British monk in our tour group who asked to say a prayer at the end of the tour, so it was super special and unique.

St. Peter's Square

In the evening, we walked through the city to hit the main tourist spots, like Trevi Fountain (I got to be Lizzie McGuire), Spanish steps (I got to be Audrey Hepburn), the Pantheon (I got to be Robert Langdon), and Fountain of the 4 Rivers. (again Robert Langdon.)  Yes, I took the classic touristy Trevi Fountain wish pic, and yes I did make a wish on love and promise to return to Rome.

I look like Lizzie, right?!?!

Vatican at sunset

DAY 3
Ancient Rome day!  We had a tour through all the ancient Roman ruins which was super cool and then we also had a tour through the Colosseum.  After a lunch looking over the ruins, we decided to find a few chapels off the beaten path which ended up being really cool.  One of the cathedrals also had ruins beneath them like the Vatican, so we went down and saw those as well.  After that we ventured across the Tiber River and took a bus to a view point so we could see the entire city of Rome.  Although it was nighttime and dark, it was still pretty cool to see! (although waiting for the bus for 45 minutes was definitely not the highlight of my trip... your public transportation system was a bit lacking, Rome!!)

DAY 4
Today we slept in a little and then headed out to Castel Santangelo, which I was SO PUMPED for because it was in Angels and Demons. (super dorky but I mean I'm not sorry bout it...) We had an audio guide for that walked ourselves around the fortress built by the emperor Hadrian. (look Mom, I learned things!!) When you get to the top, it's super windy but has one of the best views of Rome. (hence the hair blowing in the wind pic.) We finished the day by going to the Pantheon to see inside of it (which also appeared in Angels and Demons so I knew that I would be seeing Raphael's tomb which originally was not placed in the Pantheon.) We finished the day by going to the Trevi fountain during the day.

DAY 5
My last RyanAir flight with no assigned seats so people go nuts to get on the plane first HOORAY ECONOMY FLYING!!! Goodbye RyanAir, you won't be missed!!

My proudest snap chat moment

No description of meals included here because each one was a variation of pasta/pizza and a glass of white wine. Italy, you just get me.

Could not have asked for a better week with better food and better people!! Nothing beats spending a weekend in Rome with your family! (sorry Kev...)