ROMA

Ciao!
I arrived in Rome on Tuesday evening around 5:15. The first thing that I noticed about Italy - how I cannot understand or speak Italian! It was a little overwhelming trying to find the express train that took me from the airport to the center of Rome; however, I did find it successfully. Once at the Termini train station, I took the metro to meet Jasmine at the Le Panto stop. O how happy it made me to see her! I just love my GLS friends they are so wonderful. Jasmine and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner and then headed back to her apt. She lives with three other girls in a really nice spacious apartment. I am very jealous of the space - that is definitely one thing that I am looking forward to when I go back home.
Ben came over to have dinner with us! yay for Ben - he always makes me laugh because he is just all over the place and absolutely wonderful.
Wednesday morning, Jasmine and I did not get up super early. I was so excited to get out and see Rome during the day time. We left her apartment around ten and wandered around for a while. We then went to this little quaint pizza place for an early lunch because Jasmine had class in the afternoon. It was absolutely amaazzzinnggg. I really do wish that I could speak Italian.
After lunch, Jasmine went to class and I went exploring! I walked around everywhere and it was absolutely beautiful. I feel like a traversed Rome. It is rather unfortunate that my camera was stolen because I took so beautiful pictures that afternoon. My favorite part of the day was going to the Trevi Fountain (sp?) and getting a massiveeee gelato. I got one with nutella and caramel; I sat by the fountain and thoroughly enjoyed myself. While I am here in Europe, I am really trying to learn the art of relaxation and enjoyment. I felt like a master this afternoon at the Trevi Fountain.
Around 4 or so Ben got out of class so I met up with him to explore more! This is the part of my trip that I really wanted to make sure that I blogged about because it is definitely one of the coolest things that I have ever done in my life. So, Ben took me to this beautiful church (San Giovanni in Laterano) and it was so wonderful of course. Well, across the street was another really small church...and here was the coolest thing ever. When Constantine removed Christianity from the banned status, his mother Helena went to Israel and began to identity religious sites and artifacts.  One of these was the steps that Jesus climbed after being scourged.  These steps are now in that small church. People can come to this church to kneel up the entire staircase - you can only kneel, not walk. Ben and I decided to do it! It was so incredible and an extremely humbling experience. 
We met up with Jasmine for dinner and went to a restaurant more near the center of Rome. It was delicious. Jasmine and I went to bed fairly early which was so great. 
The next morning, I got up early to explore more - I went up to the Villa Borghese so walk around. It is a beautiful park in the northern part of the city that is absolutely HUGEEEE. I was there for a few hours and barely saw any of it! Ben then called me and we decided to meet at St. Peter's Basilica to go to the top! What a vieww!! I absolutely loved it so much. 
We left to Naples that night - we took the train which was cool. I do not really want to go into detail about Naples because it was the least enjoyable part of my trip. The reason being that my purse was stolen from me by a man on a motorcycle. I am thankful that we were not hurt, Ben and Jasmine were so wonderful, and that my parents are so understanding of the situation.
Friday, I wanted to get away from Naples, so we went to Capri! What a beautiful island! I am happy we were able to go in the off-season because it was no crowded at all! yay! Capri was a great day!
Friday night was a really incredible experience as well - we went to a pizza place that Giovanni had recommended for dinner. We made a friend at the hostel, Juliet, so she came with us. She was from California and had been traveling alone for three months! She was awesome - well anyways we had to wait to be seated but it was totally worth it! 
We were seating upstairs and I promise we were in a room full of Mafia wives - there were two tables to older Italian women dressed in fur coats, nice jewelry etc. There is noooo wayyy that anyone with that much money would be living in Naples if they were not in the Mafia. It is obvious - so that was cool and a little scary. However, my pizza was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. I literally ate every bite - I felt a little bit like I was in Eat Pray Love and the pizza was this massive thing, but I ate all if it and enjoyed every bite of it. 
Saturday we walked down to the water which was cool, but honestly I think we were ready to go back to Rome. We changed our train tickets to go back earlier on Saturday and it was worth it. Saturday night we relaxed at Jasmine's apartment which was just lovely.
I flew back to France Sunday morning and o how I love France!! I was soo happy to be home in Grenoble. I missed the mountains and I love it here. So that was my Italian adventure - I hope to someday return to Italy and enjoy a vacation without any stolen property!
Bisous,
Kate