"When in Rome!".... Yes?... Go on..??

ROMMEE!!!!!!

what can I even say? Just for your delight this post is filled with as few words and as many awkward tourist pictures as possible.

Got in Monday morning and saw ALL of rome in TWO DAYS! I don't even know how we did it. Dropped everything off at our hotel, went out to St. Peter's square, toured the Basilica, got freaked out by all the mummified Popes on display, walked around the ancient wall to the Vatican, toured every inch of the whole museum- it's like a maze with amazing works of art all along the way and at the end: THE SISTINE CHAPEL! No big deal... I was so surreal to see it, I could have sat there all day. Then we went back to the hotel for a power nap and walked to dinner. No idea where we ate, but there was pizza, wine, music, lady and the tramp, it was perfection. Went shopping after dinner on a street with all vintage shopping. One shop only sold vintage Italian leather boots and purses. An Italian Brad Goreski worked there and we became BFF. Ate gelato and came back and crashed.

Next day we went out and walked to every other sight you could possibly see. Trevi fountain, Coloseum, Spanish steps, Pantheon, more fountains, more buildings- Exhausting, but worth every minute! We ate dinner at Ristorante Del Pallaro, no menus-literally a little Italian lady cooking out of her kitchen, we sat in the dining room and drank wine as she brought out a 5 course meal.. I left a different person. Went to another vintage shop, picked out some things and watched my mom haggle with a shop owner, only the lady didn't speak english so they were haggling on a piece of paper. The lady would write "250 Euro" and my mom would cross it out and write something lower. Eventually I walked out of there with a 160 Euro louis vuitton purse and a free scarf. I.LOVE.ITALY!!!! here are some pictures:

Standing outside our hotel, thanks for recommending it Fitzy! it was perfect :)

Mom & I outside St. Peter's Basilica

Ben made us stop and look at every Ducati, obviously.

We literally walked that whole entire city.

At the Pantheon, half of it was being restored but it was still amazing

I mean, it was no Braums Drive Thru...but when in Rome, eat Gelato!

& indeed I did... 4 times... in a day and half.

brother, dad & I at the Spanish steps

here in starts the classy tourist pictures...

at the Trevi fountain, they told me if I threw one

in I would come back.. so I threw in 2.

Oh just dad leaning on the Coloseum.

this pose has actually never been done before.

just serving up some Coloseum..

it had been a long day....

This next picture was of my favorite part of Rome. There were ruins on either side of a busy street. It was crazy to look out over the marble ruins in the middle of a modern city and think- this is where the romans lived, hung out, went to work, bought things.. over 2,000 years ago!.. the reunion tower in Dallas has been there since 1978, so its a similar feel.

One of the greatest things was sitting here in Rome and reading Philippians. Brought it to a whole new level, I kept thinking about how paul prayed verse 1:9-11 while in prison, right here where I was. I would recommend going to Rome for this reason alone- it'll make things more real and bring you to your knees in a whole new way.

Overall the trip was AMAZING! I can't even fully describe what it was like seeing all of that history, eating so much amazing food, getting to see SO MUCH famous art, already saving my pennies to go back!!

sorry for the novel, promise next time will be shorter! we're either going to belgium, munich, or france tomorrow so i'll keep you posted...