My Life in the Lizzie McGuire Movie

Rome. This is what dreams are made of. We spent four days in this incredible city. The Lizzie McGuire movie theme song may or may not have been playing in my head on repeat. Not mad about it.

   The first day we went to the Vatican and saw Pope Francis!! Granted, he was pretty far away. But we still saw him! We then went through the museum and saw the Sistine Chapel and other beautiful works of art, such as Raphael's School of Athens. I also ran into Field, another Centre student who was in London, at the Sistine Chapel which was crazy! Mom, Anna, and I then planned on going into the Basilica, but due to a pilgrimage it was closed for the day. Instead, we headed to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We then spent about three hours trying to get back to the hotel. This was frustrating and aggravating and our friend Rick Steves was no help at all. But once we figured it out the entire city shrank a lot and began to make a lot of sense.

Colosseum

   Day 2 began with a return to St. Peter's Basilica, this time getting to go inside. It was so cool to see the Pieta and the place Pope John Paul II is buried. We then headed to the Roman part of the day, starting with the Colosseum. There I actually ran into a girl a year above me in high school, Mallory. Crazy!! The Colosseum was easily one of my favorite things the entire trip. We did a tour and learned so much. Inner nerd was geekin' hard. It is just an absolutely fantastic place with an incredible history!! We then wandered through Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. I like to refer to this part of the trip as "Hey look there's a Roman ruin!" Literally ruins were everywhere. It was so so so cool. Thanks to Rick Steves we were able to figure out what some of the ruins were. One was the place the body of Julius Caesar was burned. Pretty cool.

   Our last day we saw the remainder of things on our trip, such as the Pantheon. This is actually the only ruin still in use today. Today it is a church. We also went to Circus Maximus, the site of the old chariot races. We then stopped at the Bocca della Verita. This Mouth of Truth was seen in Roman Holiday (Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck). Legend has it that if you are a liar, if you stick your hand in it will be bitten off. I still have both of my hands so I guess you have to take every word I ever say as absolute truth forever. We then did some more wandering, ate more gelato and pasta, and packed up. Rome was over. It was absolutely fantastic and I look forward to the day I return to this city!!

Bocca della Verita