We got up at the crack of dawn on Friday to get the earliest train to Perugia possible. Perugia sits at the top of a hill so after you get off the train you take a bus to the middle then you have to walk up the rest of the way, meaning you have a terrific view. There isn't really a lot to do in Perugia. We wanted to go to the chocolate factory but it was 17 km out of town and it would've taken too much time to get there and back. So instead we went to a nice little chocolate shop. Justin and I went into one of the art museums and we spent a lot of time just exploring the city. The weather was perfect: 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. There's a big Piazza with a fountain in front of the city Church and we spend a lot of time just sitting and enjoying the view. While we were watching the sun set a group of Italians came up to Jacob and asked if he would take a picture (in Italian... we were very proud of ourselves). He got ready to take the picture and at the same time Justin says (in Italian), "Cheeses!" and Jacob says, "Cheese!". The looks on the Italians' faces was priceless! They thought we were crazy! They had no idea why someone would say cheese while taking a picture. I laughed so hard it hurt. We went to a little pizzeria for dinner and ended up with free after dinner drinks. It was a little glass of brandy made out of waffle cone with a chocolate inside. I ended up giving most of the drink to the boys but ate the cup
The hotel we stayed in was very nice... we had our own bathroom and it was very quiet and in a wonderful location. The next morning we got up before the sun (again... Justin has this thing about being early). We made it to the train station fine and it ended up being cheaper to have a connecting train instead of a straight shot to Rome. So we bought a ticket to this little town. We got on the train and left. As we sat there looking at our ticket, we realized we had no idea where we were going! We didn't buy the right ticket. We were on the train we bought the ticket for, but it was definitely not the connecting train to Rome. So we ended up in Foligno at 7:30 in the morning. We got on a train to Rome from there so it wasn't a big deal but none of us could figure out why we bought that ticket. It was very strange. We spent most of the day in Rome in the Vatican. We saw the Sistine Chapel. I could never find the words to describe it to you. We weren't allowed to take pictures but it was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. We just sort of stumbled upon a bunch of Raphael frescos, including one of his most famous The School of Athens. We went over to St. Peter's which is the biggest church I have ever seen. The columns on the outside are just ridiculously big. We went in right as Mass was starting so we saw Mass at St. Peter's. Can't get much better than that. Later than night we saw the Trevi fountain and that was pretty cool, too.
Basically it was an amazing, very busy weekend. We were the only ones to leave Florence this weekend and no one else has really traveled unless it's been for class. Now that I've done it once I've got the travel bug and want to go somewhere every weekend. I'm working on pictures!!!
I got an email asking for my address but I would rather not put it online so if you want it let me know!!
Thanks for all your comments! I'm always excited to hear from people and it makes my day to read those little tidbits!
