Day 9

So today was a fun day.  Woke up and went with some friends to the top of the mountain(more like a really huge hill) and could see all of Rome.  Not an easy hike.  However, I didn't bring my camera and unfortunately the beautiful pictures will have to wait until I return tomorrow.

Very good day, found out that JCU will actually award me my full scholarship(thanks to my mom) and that helps a ton on money.  Went and had lunch with the boys and visited my favorite panini place.  It's starting to really be great, the locals are starting to know us and speak a fair amount of English. One local cafe that is always very friendly told us that the cafe has been in his family since 1939, when his grandfather purchased it for only 10 Euro.  Wow.  I just paid that for 2 beers and a cappachino.  Ohh thank you inflation....

The fun part of the night began when my roomates and I went out with some of the girls to eat dinner and walk around Rome at night.  Ate Italy's version of a Chicken Salad, which really was just a large piece of chicken with some lettuce surrounding it.

After dinner, we walked around and visited the Pantheon by night time.  On the way, saw an older gentleman driving a Ferrari 599.  Gave him a thumbs up and he revved it up for me.  Of course anybody knowing me, that could have made my night right there. Always nice to see someone who appreciates cars.

As you can imagine, alot less people at night so I was finally able to get a good picture.  You can see the size of it from the people at the bottom.  The doors are even massive.  Keep in mind this was constructed in 31 BC.









From the Pantheon we stopped to grab a few drinks because you are allowed to have open containers in the street all the way until 11:00PM.  It used to be at all hours, except some drunk British guy took off all his clothes and started playing around in the Trevi fountain once.  Drunk British people ruin everything.  According to locals, a Drunk Brit also drove his Toyota Celica down 138 of the 300 year old Spanish steps at one point in 2007.  Leave it to a Brit.

Next stop was intended to be the Trevi fountain, but we were sidetracked.  Turns out we walked right into the middle of an American movie set.  The independent movie was called, "Finding Clara" and it turns out we might actually be in the background of it.  Noticing we were American, the actor came over and introduced himself from California.  He started talking to us and a Italian actor came over(noticing we had drinks in our hand) to give us cheers.  It was rather funny because people started to think we were part of the movie, and started pulling out their video cameras and recording us.  Hilarious.

 Finally made our way to the Trevi fountain at night.  Even more beautiful than during the day time.

Picture of a few of us with the Trevi fountain in the background.  Apparently a very big hangout spot at night.  Although there are a lot of cops to keep the British from stripping and running around naked in the fountain...









Continued on the way to the Spanish Steps, which are not lit at night but still very beautiful.  I did however find some steps that were lit.

Pretty cool, the steps change pictures every few seconds.











After leaving the Spanish Steps, we headed to see the St.Peters square and the Sistine Chapel at night.

Sticks out like nothing else, even from a few miles away.

But nothing is like being right up close.  Funny thing is, the Vatican is considered it's own country.  So legally and technically, I left Italy for a few minutes. Very peaceful and very cool at the night time. We finished our own self-led tour right here and decided it was about time to head back to the apartment.







Once again, thanks all for reading! I promise to try and keep it interesting and coming.