Roman Holiday

Ciao, friends!
I highly recommend you listen to this song while reading this post, since it (along with the Lizzie McGuire Movie album) was pretty much the soundtrack to my weekend in Rome!

For those of you who don't know the background behind this trip: the University Chorale of Boston College, of which I am a member, goes on tour abroad every year for spring break. Once every four years, that trip is to Rome and the group gets to perform everywhere - even at St. Peter's Basillica for Mass! It's a pretty big deal.

Here's the group this year, standing in front of the Vatican

Because I'm abroad, I unfortunately couldn't join in the actual performances. But plenty of chorale-rs studying in Europe meet up with the group during their stay in Rome. And I have to say, there's nothing like reuniting with 100 of your closest friends in a foreign city!

So, after class on Friday afternoon, I scooted off to Geneva airport, took an hour and a half plane ride (thank you EasyJet) and landed at 6pm in Roma. It was a little strange planning, packing, and traveling completely alone, but it worked out pretty well. I only got lost in the narrow sidestreets of Rome once - which is quite a feat given my awful sense of direction!

The chorale wasn't arriving until Saturday morning, so I had coordinated with one of my best friends from high school, Rebecca, to meet up in Rome too. She's studying abroad in Siena, Italy for the semester and she took a train into the city with a friend from her program. So many reunions in one weekend!

Anyways, we met up at our hostel on Friday night and then grabbed our first real Italian meal: bruschetta and pasta, of course.

Then we took a little night tour of the city, stopping at the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. It was like a re-enactment of the summer trip Rebecca and I had both taken when we were sophomores at Wakefield High School - all of the same sites, in the same city, with the very same person! It was very surreal.

Oh, and of course, we stopped for gelato while we were exploring. Because it wouldn't have been an official first day in Italy without ice cream.

View from the Spanish Steps

High school reunions at the Trevi Fountain!

So much gelato!

After resting up at our hostel, we embarked on an action-packed Saturday of sight-seeing. From 9am to 5pm, we traversed the whole city. In the morning alone, we managed to cram in: the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, St. Ivo, a museum of Leonardo daVinci's inventions, Piazza Farnese, and an enormous open-air market.

St. Ivo

The Pantheon

The Tiber River

Oh, and I found a nice tall Italian boyfriend as well

We took a brief pizza pit-stop for lunch, and then hit the Vatican. It was the day before cardinals started to arrive for conclave (the meeting in which the College of Cardinals selects the new Pope) so it was a crazy time to be there! But St. Peter's Basilica was as beautiful as I remembered, and the brief time we spent there was hardly enough.

St. Peter's Basilica

I even found some of my Swiss brethren (the Swiss Guard) to hang out with

Rebecca and her friend left to return to Siena once we'd finished touring for the day. And, after dropping them off at the train station, I finally caught up with my chorale friends! I don't think I've ever hugged so many people in one sitting and it was amazing. That night, we sang Tollite - the chorale's anthem - outside the hotel to celebrate our arrival and I felt immediately at home. It was like I had never left BC.

As for sleeping arrangements, I mooched off three of my wonderful friends - Marissa, Alessa, and Olivia - who generously let me crash in their hotel room.

The next morning, after smuggling a few croissants out of the complimentary breakfast (hey, it's expensive living abroad!), I joined the giant chorale entourage for a tour of the Roman Forum and Coliseum. It was beautiful, sunny, and 60 degrees - such a nice change of pace from Switzerland! And I couldn't have asked for a better group to go with. 

We even did an impromptu performance outside the Coliseum, which drew quite a large crowd and a lot of compliments. The chorale was scheduled to perform later that day at St. Peter's Basilica, but I knew I wouldn't be able to go because I had a Sunday night flight to catch and classes on Monday. I was really disappointed, but having this one special performance - at the Coliseum of all places too! - made up for all of it.

Unfortunately, after the morning's adventures, it was time for me to depart. My 48 hours in Rome were a dream come true and it was so hard to leave. The city is great, but really it was the people that made this trip special for me. I know that I'll see them all back in the States, but I miss them already!

Now before I get too sappy, I better sign off.
Don't worry though, Switzerland is still wonderful and I'll have more exciting adventures to post about here soon. À tout!