Cassie McKay: ROMA

The crowded street in front of the Spanish Steps

This weekend was so much fun there was a lot going on! Friday I had 2 classes Italian Language in the morning and Italian culture in the evening. After culture class a group of us headed out to a neighboring town to the annual bonfire festival. It was the biggest bonfire I have ever seen and tons of people were there to celebrate. They had a cookout going on and live music later in the evening! Once the fire got going (it took awhile because it was so big) there were sparks flying everywhere, when I was taking a picture one landed my face and burned me, I am ok though haha!! We didn't stay to late though mainly because it was freezing even with the giant fire and also because we had plans to catch the 5am train to Rome the next day!

The next morning I woke up at 3am to get ready for Rome! Rachal, Bethany and I walked about 20 minutes to the train station and got on the first train at 5:03 am... I was so proud of us that we figured out how to get to Rome without getting lost, even when we had to switch trains! Once we arrived in Rome we hung out and got some breakfast and waited for Francesca and Mike who were on the next train. Once they arrived we took a bus tour of the sights in Rome... we looked like such tourists, but it was ok we fit right in. We sat on the top of the double decker busses at 9am for 2 hours and froze (I don't think I have ever been so cold), but we stuck it out to get some good pictures! At the end of the tour we got off at the Colosseum, which is absolutley amazing! When we were walking around the Colosseum we ran into another USAC student Jesse and later met up with Alex, Coreen and Brooks. We all went to lunch and then continued seeing the sights! We also saw The Forums (the fallen city), Constantine's Arch, The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, and The Spanish Steps! We were there all day and still didn't have time to do everything so we are going back to see the Vatican and go inside the Colosseum. It was such a long day but well worth it everything in Rome is amazing. Every building, no matter what it is used for, is so detailed and beautiful!

Here are some pictures from the weekend Enjoy :)