When in Rome

Rome...Roma...City of the Seven Hills...The City That Captured Maggie's Heart. I don't mean to be dramatic here, but I fell in love with this city the very second that I stepped out onto the cobblestone streets.

My sister and her friend, Kelsey, picked me up from the airport on Friday night. We caught a cab and went immediately back to the apartment we were staying in and fell asleep. The next morning, we woke at 7 am to see Vatican City before the inevitable flock of tourists would show up and ruin the aesthetics of the country. Yeah...did you know it's its own country? Naturally, we had to stop and grab a coffee and glazed croissant (which is probably one of my favorite desserts now...seriously, try one immediately). I'd seen pictures of St. Peter's Basilica, but I was completely blown away. I took like, 45 photos of the outside and even more while looking around the inside. The architecture, the paintings and the statues--all over the top dramatic. It's my new life goal to one day own a house as decked out as that place...but with statues of me...and painting of my dogs.

The three of us decided to climb to the top of St. Peter's Basilica and look over the city from the top of the dome. I passed a sign that stated it would be 551 steps up to the top. Easy enough, right? I assumed so, too. WRONG!!!! Despite my constant attempted use of the StairMaster back home, I suffered miserably the entire way up...and down for that matter. Was the view worth my thighs burning for the next three days? Absolutely.

Up next was Vatican Museums. More of the same over-the-top, decadent ceilings, architecture and statues. Honestly, and this might make me sound completely uncultured and whatnot, but I also began to get a headache from it all! By the time we made it to the doors of the Sistine Chapel, I was worn out. I thought to myself, how breathtaking can this next room really be. Yet again though, I was dead wrong. My jaw dropped and despite being in one of the most religious places on Earth, I legit whispered, holy shit. Yeah...not my finest moment. But good news mom and dad; I wasn't the biggest asshole in the Chapel! Despite constant yelling by the guards and literally hundreds of signs, the man next to me tried to take a photo of the ceiling. He didn't even try to do it secretly like the majority of us...he turned on his flash and just went for it. A guard came over and slapped the phone out of his hand and screamed at him. See, my little slip-up doesn't seem as bad now.

Either we screamed American or Rome is a cliché because we passed a restaurant worker and he shouted, "pizza, pizza and pasta". Regardless, lunch was amazingly carbful. Bread, ravioli, spritzer...I could get used to the Italian lifestyle.

Since food was brought up, let's jump ahead to dinner. We met an amazing couple from the UK and sat/drank with them the whole night. They had the most epic love story...here are the important parts. She was his travel agent and planned his honeymoon for him and his wife. 10 years later they run into each other and he was newly divorced. They fall in love ad travel the world together because he's rich. Hi...I'm Maggie Kaple. I'm single and broke and have no epic love story to share back with them so I feel kinda lame.

The second day in Rome the three of us went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. I know I'm kinda speeding things up, but I'm getting kind of tired of writing this and I know y'all are getting tired of reading it. The Colosseum was neat, but underwhelming honestly. I guess in some way I half expected to see Russell Crowe battling Joaquin Phoenix...so I'm sure you can understand where I'm coming from. The Trevi Fountain was beautiful though and made up for my unsatisfactory morning. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the whole "three coins in the fountain myth-thing", but it goes as follows: the first coin guarantees that you will return to Rome, the second will ensure a new romance, and the third will ensure marriage". Since we're all young and broke, we decided to skip the second two. I asked my sister to film me throwing mine in the fountain so I could feel like Lizzie McGuire. In a classic McGuire fashion though, some evil human being had the audacity to walk in front of the camera and completely ruin it. The Spanish Steps were pretty but like...they were steps...and my thighs were still burning from the previous day climb of the Basilica. We sat at the top and soaked up the sunshine and beauty of the surrounding city streets.

To conclude and remind you all...I fell in love with Rome. It is my favorite city I have ever had the pleasure of exploring. I walked about 25 miles in two days. I ate my weight in gelato. I didn't manage to find a cannoli..which both shocked and saddened me. The history was fascinating, and the beauty was endless. The people were some of the most gorgeous I have come across (missing the dark beards and the sweet sounds of your accents). I wish I had longer than two days to explore the Eternal City.