Day 59-¡Roma, aquí venimos!

Today was the day to leave for Rome!!  We were so excited!!!  The girls I was going with were very prepared and thorough with our planning so we got there super early to make sure that we caught our flight.  While we were waiting, Alice brought up the Bible and how she didn't think that she really knew what all happened.  She said that she knew it meant a lot to me, so she wanted me to give her an overview of the Old Testament.  Tiffany helped me out too, since she seems to be a really solid believer.  It was so cool to sit there in the middle of the Seville airport and tell her all about stories of the Bible.  It was so clearly another opportunity thrown into my lap by the Lord, and I was so thankful for it.  Then we went to go board our plane, and we were hoping that it would be okay because some of the girls' bags were

pretty big, but luckily once again we were okay and all made it 

through fine!!  

We arrived in Rome and decided to buy a pass that would give us discounts on museums and free transportation throughout the city for two days.  Then we tried to figure out how to catch the correct 

bus and if we needed our passports stamped, but we were also in a hurry to get on the bus.  We had reservations to go to the Vatican, so we needed to make sure we got there.  We also had to get in touch with a guy named Mike who was going to meet us there.  We had his ticket, so it was kind of important but we were not going to use our phones outside of the country.  We find some phones in the train station but of course could not figure how to use them.  Eventually we got it to work and called the hotel to tell him to meet us at the Vatican, and we were on our way.  Luckily, we found it without too much trouble.  We dropped off our luggage at the front and gave our ticket to the clerk in hopes that Mike would maybe check there.  Because of the time, we had to start our tour.  The Vatican was beautiful, but we literally could have spent hours and hours there.  As we were walking around, we randomly ran into Mike, so he found his ticket and met us!  We got to see so many statues, ceilings, floors, and walls that had amazing detail, crosses, and the Sistine chapel.  The chapel was pretty incredible and overwhelming!  The whole ceiling was painted, and we actually got to see the well-known picture of God's hand touching Adam's.  There were so many different scenes from the Bible, so it was neat to get to just stand there and look in awe.  Then I got to buy my grandpa a rosary from the Vatican, which I thought it would be super special for him!  

Then we wanted to stop at the gelatto place that we passed on the way there because it was the one place that the other group we recommended to us.  We waited in a huge line, so we knew that it must be really good!  When it was our turn to order, we got to choose like four different flavors and got the biggest amount of ice cream I have like ever seen!  It was so delicious too!!!  Afterwards we finally headed to the hotel, and it was a good thing we had Mike with us because he knew where to go, and it was a little spooky at night so probably a good thing we had a guy with us.  Anyway, we checked in and went up to our room, which again was a little spooky, but hopefully it'll do the job!  We hid our passports in the other girls' rooms stuffed with papers and feminine products, so HOPEFULLY they will be safe there!  Then Alice and I headed back to our rooms and fell asleep after a long day.  It is sure going to be an early morning tomorrow!