Home stretch!

Hello all!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've either been too tired to blog in my free time or I just haven't had free time. But since I sort of do right now and I just don't want to do homework (bad decision making, by me) I will update you all on my life now!

So last week I went to the Vatican. Which was the one thing I wanted to see ALL TRIP. And let's just say, I wasn't let down at ALL. We stopped in the museum first. Which I'm sure has got to be at least a mile long. If not more. And there were tons of people in it, so it was not a fun time walking through the crowd for your tour. It was super nice inside though. I got to see some classic works from Raphael and Michelangelo and Caravaggio and all those famous Italian painters. Observe:

 


So that was cool. I got to sneak some pictures of the Sistine Chapel when we went inside. It was much smaller than I imagined it to be, but it was still just as awesome. My neck hurt from staring at the ceiling so long. And then there was the big moment.

SAINT PETER'S BASILICA.

Basically, the best moment of my life. Honestly, I took about 25 pictures of the inside but it was definitely no match of the beauty inside. I can't even describe how amazing it was besides the fact that I felt like I died and went to heaven. And that is what heaven looked like. Absolutely gorgeous.

After some more random shenanigans during the week, we went to Florence for 3 days. Honestly, it was probably my favorite trip of the whole semester here. It was a huge difference in size compared to Rome. It was so much quieter and I didn't have to worry about getting run over by a motorino or a car (unlike my walk to school every day...) We got to be in a pretty nice hotel (with AIR CONDITIONING) and an "American Bar" in which you could order alcoholic drinks to coffee to cheeseburgers. Had some pretty great food in Florence too.

I got to see The Birth of Venus AND David, both of which were pretty awesome. But hands down, David was beyond amazing. Literally, I stood in front of it for 15 minutes just staring at it and all of it's marble, chiseled glory. I even snuck a pic of him:

Beautiful.

We went on a 3 hour trip to Pisa while we were in Florence, as well. It was such a small town. Literally the only thing you could do there was see the tower and possibly see the Cathedral. But seeing the tower was pretty sweet. I mean look at it.

Unedited glory.

So cool, right? And of course, I just HAD to get this picture:

You know, just chilling.

So it was pretty cool. Now we're in the last week! It's the home stretch! I can't wait to come home and have American food and do American things like watch fireworks and eat peanut butter and jelly.

You don't understand. I really want some peanut butter and jelly.

Tomorrow I'll be going to a cooking class with my roommate and learning how to make authentic Italian food (and of course, I'll be kick-starting my career as a perfect Italian mom/chef) (just kidding about that career thing) and then later that night, I'll be off to Hard Rock ROMA for a birthday dinner. Sunday I'll be going on church tours with a friend. Monday and Tuesday I'll have my last two days of classes, Tuesday night is our farewell dinner, Wednesday is our packing/do-whatever-the-heck-you-want day, and then Thursday I'll be driving over to a hotel and relaxing by the pool all day long by myself (what a blessing in disguise), and Friday I'll be flying home!!!

Be on the lookout for random posts before and after I get back to the states. I'm sure I will be recounting things like good Italian meals I've had and random stories that I never posted.

Hope you are all doing well, readers.

XO, Steph