Hey everyone! We had a super fun past week and a half here. We went to Rome for the weekend, and it was very different from Florence. Rome has a lot of history in the city but you would not think that by walking around. Rome, in a way, looks very modern compared to Florence. The only part of Rome that looks “Roman” would be the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Rome could be considered the Montgomery county of Italy. It was also much dirtier than Florence which I found very surprising considering Rome is more touristy than Florence. One big difference between Rome and Florence is the convenience of finding restaurants or certain shops. You can walk around Rome for 15 minutes and not find a place to eat but in Florence, there are 10 restaurants on a single block.

I did eat at two restaurants while in Rome, and they were delicious but I do not know if they were both worth the price. One thing that Rome is known for is Carbonara which I did get to try while I was there. I went to a restaurant that is known for their Carbonara, and it was pretty good. We might have been rushing to eat it because we were running a little late but it was still pretty good. I also wanted a little taste of home and wanted to eat a burger. We tried to find the McDonalds, but gave up after 30 minutes and stopped at a random restaurant on the corner. They were definitely overpriced, but we did not care at that point since we just wanted to eat and go to sleep. The burgers were pretty good, but I was definitely happier about the coffee that I got. I got an iced caramel latte, and it tasted similar to the ones that we are used to in America which is why it made me so happy.

Rome was definitely very fun, but I was happy to come back to Florence. I am definitely more comfortable in Florence than I realized. It feels more like home since I know where so many things are and have already found my favorite little places already. Since Rome was a weekend trip, we had a few activities planned which left not a lot of downtime. We toured the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Vatican. They were all super cool to see but the tours lasted for hours. My highlight of the trip happened on the day that we left. We went to the St. Peter’s Basilica for Mass and to see the Pope. Although I didn’t understand what the Pope was saying during his address, it’s cool to say that I saw him and that made me super happy.