The weekend of February 17th-19th I went to Paris to meet my family. We spent Friday and Saturday in Paris and went to Disneyland on Sunday. It was very crowded because French schools had off for a few weeks. But it was really cool to see the Disney magic in a different culture and language!
After a few days in Disneyland, my mom, dad, and Billy came to Rome for the rest of week. We did the regular tourist-y things, like the Roman Forum and the Vatican. On that Friday we went to Pompeii which was really cool. All of the ruins are extremely well preserved due to the ashes. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius is something we have learned about in school since elementary school, so it was awesome to finally see it in person!
After my family left that Saturday, I headed straight to the train station to meet people from my school for an overnight trip to Umbria, which is another region in Italy. We spent the first part of the day bird watching at a WWF reserve. Most of you kno that birds are my favorite animals in the world, but it was actually peaceful to observe them from very, very far away!! Next we went to a restaurant for lunch which served us a ton of food. We then visited an old castel in the town, but because we were all so ful it was difficult to pay attention to the tour guide (oops!) Next we got back on the train and traveled to the small town of Orvieto. That night we went to one of the oldest wineries in Umbria and learned a lot about the history of wine in the region. We also had a tasting of a red wine and a white wine along with some appetizers which were delicious! After dinner, a bunch of us went to a pub in the town and had a few more drinks. The town was so small and quiet and it was a nice break from the busy Roman city life! The next morning we went to see the amazing cathedral in Orvieto, did some shopping and then returned to Rome.
This past Wednesday Allie came to Rome! I was so excited to have a visitor and we had a lot of fun! I took her around the city, we did some shopping, and ate some delicious food. On Saturday we also visited the Villa Adriana in Tivoli which is a villa that belonged to an ancient Roman emperor who wanted to isolate himself from the city. It was beautiful and very relaxing.
Today we went to the Vatican for the Pope's blessing!! Fist he said a prayer in Italian, and then he made some announcements/shout-outs in German, Spanish, English, and Italian. During his announcement for the English-speakers, he welcomed all of the students visiting from the United States (me!!!) It was an awesome experience and I plan on going every Sunday possible!!
I promise I will get better at updating this blog! Love you all! xoxoxo
glad you survived the birds ;)
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