Exploring Rome Again

The girls at Paletine Hill.
The Colosseum!
View of Rome from Paletine Hill
Me at the Colosseum
The Borghese Gallery.

Wow. I don't think I've seen so many tourist attractions in one day in my life. Today wasn't as long as yesterday, but we walked 30,000 steps as opposed to 22,000 yesterday, which is a lot of walking! Mom, those walking shoes were great at first, but I don't think they can handle another day! Or I can't handle another day of THEM, let's say. 

We started off today by taking the Metro to the Borghese Gallery. Admittedly, I didn't know why it was important. But they have all of the famous Bernini sculptures (the David, the Rape of Persephone, Apollo and Venus, and the Veritas.) It was so cool to see them in person! The David is arguably the best David sculpture there is, and I think it's better in a lot of ways than Michelangelo's. The contrapossto makes you feel like there's actually a painted model up there instead of a piece of marble. We spent two hours walking around, and then took the Metro to the Colosseum for a guided tour. It's much bigger than I imagined on the outside, and smaller than I thought on the inside. I couldn't believe I was standing in a place I had only imagined before! It was so cool! I took lots of pictures and videos, because I got bored, seeing as I could only understand about 40% of what our guide was saying. Her accent was so heavy...

I'm not going to lie, I have been kind of homesick today. I wish you guys were here with me to experience everything that's happening. I like the people on the trip, but they definitely don't compare to my family and the great friends I have in America. Can someone please fly to Italy and visit already?!  

After the Colosseum, we went to Palatine Hill. I never knew what that was before today. It's a big hill full of ruins of the Emperor's Palace that was used for 300 years before it got destroyed. We walked around for two hours and still didn't see everything. The Catacomb of Nero is there, and there is a great view of the city from up top. There are so many preserved buildings here from ancient times, that I'm wondering why America and other places can't seem to keep a building intact for more than twenty years. How are our children's children's children's children going to know how we lived?! It's a problem I can't fix but like worrying about just for funsies. 

After that our group got lost, so we split up. I wandered around with Kelsey and Jessie. We walked so far! We took the metro to the Spanish Steps to try to find this print store and EPIC FAILED. We ended up just walking around willy nilly and ended up at the Trajan Column and the Pantheon. These places are right in the middle of squares that are surrounded by modern apartment buildings with shops on the bottom. It's amazing how integrated these places are into modern society. I expected them to be in the middle of nowhere, but what we consider art now was just another building to people back then, I guess. 

I did a lot of shopping today and ate two gelattos. I have eaten gelatto every day since I got here. Oops. Too bad it's amazing and totally WORTH IT! We walked so much today that we were limping like five miles before we got home. I couldn't believe I would ever walk so much in one day. Tomorrow we have a completely free day because it's a Roman Holiday (BOOYAH!) jk all of Italy has a holiday, so my group is sleeping in a little bit (leaving at 10am...in my opinion that is not sleeping in.) Who know's what we'll do. There's talk of a free concert with some big Italian popstar names, so we may go to that. Missin you! 

AND IF YOU HAVEN'T GIVEN ME YOUR ADDRESS YET, JUST DO IT! 

Love, Kellie

P.S. I totally saw a Harley Davidson store. Here is a picture for your enjoyment, CTC kids. Maybe I'll have my bacheloretty party in EUROPE! Also, everywhere I go I want to take engagement pictures. With you, MATT!!!!! BAH.