Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Vatican & Coliseum


Hey there Ram fans!!

It's Kaitlind! Lots of adventures on our first full day in Rome! We began with a metro ride to see the Vatican, and I can say with absolute certainty that I have never seen anything that beautiful. The architecture was incredible, and the detail that was put into the statutes, artwork, pillars and even the floors was indescribable. The pictures that we'll bring back will not even come close to showing how overwhelmingly grand this place was. That was truly an experience that will not soon be forgotten.

The team began the day by visiting the Vatican, the
home of the Pope and the religious center of the Roman
Catholic church.
After we were done visiting the Vatican, that's when the intermittent torrential downpour started happening. One minute there wouldn't be any rain, but when it started to sprinkle we had about 20 seconds (if that) to get our umbrellas up or zip up our rain coats and put away all of our belongings before the inevitable downpour began. So we eventually got underground to the metro and took off towards the Coliseum. 

Once we arrived there, we took a lot of pictures and began listening in on tour guides talking about how the ancient Romans would come here to watch bloodshed for the fun of it! I couldn’t imagine living in a time like that myself. In fact, we all wondered what it would be like to grow up in that time.

The Rams outside of the Coliseum, which they also toured on Tuesday.

After the Coliseum, we went to the Roman Forum. It struck me at this point that nothing in the United States is as old or raw or organic as the stuff that we find here on random street corners. It was really interesting for me to see the Forum because when I was a sophomore in high school, I read Julius Caesar, so I got to recall what I had read form several years ago and share it with everyone.

Once we were done at the Forum we were given free time for about two hours before heading back to the restaurant where we were having lunch. We all ventured down the main road named Via del Corso and we just shopped around until we had to get back. For lunch we had a delicious salad with tomatoes, greens, mozzarella, a simple noodle dish with olive oil and black pepper, and to finish it off, some of the best chicken and potatoes I've ever had. We all unanimously agreed that this was the best meal we've had by far in Italy.

After lunch, the worst of the downpours occurred, and even though our hotel was only about two blocks down the street from the restaurant, we might as well have walked into a lake seeing how everyone was completely drenched from head to toe when we got back to the Hotel De Mille. But imagine all of us running through the rain with our umbrellas all turned inside out and finally abandoned on the street. I bet it was a hilarious sight for anyone watching us.

The city of Trevi, where the Rams played their fourth match,
this time against an Italian-only club team. CSU is 4-0 on the trip.
After our waltz through the rain, we got ready to go play our match, which was two hours away in a town called Trevi. We need up playing four games even though we won the first three!! Whoo hoo!! Undefeated on our European tour so far!! After our match we went to a little pizza place and got several different types of pizza, including plain cheese, one with some sort of sausage on it and another with olives, artichokes and mushrooms. We finished dinner with a nice salad and lively conversation and gelati.

Now we’re headed back to the hotel to get ready to leave for Milan tomorrow! What a trip this has been so far! We are all so lucky to be given this opportunity. I hope everyone is doing well back home, and I want to wish my little brother happy ninth birthday on the 24th!!! So proud of you bud. Love you! Talk to you all soon!

Kaitlind Bestgen (Bestie/Linda) :)

1 comment: