Roma

Rome was just as incredible as you would imagine - the only unexpected thing was how small the Colosseum is. It's very tall, but the arena is smaller than we imagined. It's also caved in so you can see all the tunnels underneath. Absolutely breath taking. After reading Romans inside of the Colosseum, we took a quick look at the Forum (structures that have fallen down/pillars and columns), and walked around the city taking in the awesome-ness!
We were blessed to meet two American's from Ohio the second night who were going to The Vatican the next day as well, so we tagged along (: After losing Marcus in the morning at the museum, we carried on the rest of the day seeing The Sistine Chapel, St. Pietro's Basilica, and The Forum, with Zach! The Sistine Chapel was FILLED with people, so it was a little hard to focus on how incredible it is. It also didn't help that there are men there with the specific job to yell at people to "Silencio!" and clap when people are speaking their admiration. BUT, it was beautiful. The skill that was involved is overwhelming and seriously unbelievable. He was truly gifted. Although the art that is in that museum is literally more beautiful than can be comprehended. It was almost to much to handle! Carvings of every animal, and every person who was ever known for anything, regardless of if they were real or fiction. Stunning murals on the floors, tapestries that tell entire stories cover some of the walls, and of course paintings galore - of gore. Many sad paintings resulted of the Renaissance era. Although it was amazing to see their history told through pictures. For lunch we also enjoyed more Italian pizza - of course.
Day three we decided to go find the Pantheon and enjoy the sunshine with gelato. So we did just that. We ended our 3.5 day trip to Rome with full satisfaction that we saw everything we wanted to. Because of this, we thought "let's spend more than 12 hours on trains tomorrow!". NO we didn't think that - but that's what happened. It was a long day. It got soooo much better at the very end because the Deitz family graciously said yes to hosting us, and because of that, we were picked up from the train station! We had a lovely time going to school with our new friends Dannika, Alena, and Philemon! We only sat in on Dannika's classes - which were English and French, so it was very interesting! It was a lovely sunny day of puzzling, eating, and enjoying time with each other (: The next morning we were back on the trains to Holland! We made it by 15:00, had cake and presents for Maarten's birthday, then had all you can eat Japanese! And it was more than any of us could eat. I don't think I've ever felt that sick from food. BUT it was delicious! We had a birthday party for Maarten and Olivier today, tomorrow it's off to the Keukenhof (the tulip festival), and a coronation party the next day! Then it's off to the French countryside for some house building and relaxing.