Rome: EVERYTHING its hyped up to be

 Merry Christmas in Rome!
Last minute we decided to attend the Pope's Christmas morning speech at St Peter's Basilica. We arrived in Rome at 10am and his speech started at noon. Of course, every possible delay you can think of made those 2 hours the most frantic hours of our lives. We got lost trying to find our hostel, the ticket machines for the metro were broken, taking the train in the wrong direction...but we make it just in time: sweaty, out of breath and sleep deprived.  The outside of the church was beautiful..even though the courtyard had a cheap Christmas tree and tacky statues of Jesus.I am not a fan of the Pope nor Catholicism, however it was a rewarding cultural experience to hear his Christmas speech. The entire speech was in Italian, which I could pick out a few words because of Spanish. At the end he said "Merry Christmas" in over 30 different languages. People from the crowd cheered and waved flags when their native language was heard.

St Peter's Basilica 

  We than spent the rest of Christmas Day walking the streets of Rome. The city had such a historically diverse structure. Walking along a strip of banks, shops, and apartments, we would turn the corner and BAM... an ancient church..or a 5000 year old sacred ruin. I will list the historic sites we saw for my future reference, please feel free to skip over them :
St. Angelo Castle
Palazzo di Giustizia 
Plazza Naveria (with a tacky xmas market but cool street performers)
Largo di Torre Angentina 
Ignacio di Loyola
Tempio Adriano (Paz had taken an architecture class and was teaching me about the different styles of pillars)
Fontana di Trevi (absolutely amazing but VERY crowded)
San Carlo Quatro Fontana 
Santa Maria Maggiore
Giardini Plazza Vittorio (ruins right next to a sketch park)
Piazza del Popolo
Via del Corso 

Fontana de Trevi

Rome is huge but easily walk-able...you don't really have a choice since the metro circumnavigates the city.  The streets were also empty, no one was around on Christmas day. We kept our energy up with Italian fudge and amazing espresso.
We returned to our hostel after a very long day and make Christmas dinner. We opened up our bottle of limonchello and realized it was a liqueur and not meant to be drunk straight. FAIL.

San Carlo Quatro Fontana 

The next day we saw the amazing Colosseum and Arco di Constantino. As amazing as these sites were, what really fascinated me were the parks next to the Colosseum- Palentino and Arco di Tito. These ruins are huge and are the most ancient sections of the city.
The Palentino is one of the "seven hills of Rome" and of course it was a beautiful day so we could see the city from the top of the hill. There were MANY more people on the streets the rest of our time in Rome-floods of people, mainly tourists. Standing in a crowd of people and taking in the mystical aora of history and the architectural beauty made me feel like the smallest significance on Earth.
  We later went to the Capuchin Crypt. This was the most horrifically morbid yet exciting thing I think I have ever seen. It contains the skeletal remains of 4,000 bodies believed to be Capuchin friars buried by their order. The Catholic order insists that the display is not meant to be macabre, but a silent reminder of the swift passage of life on Earth. Large numbers of the bones are nailed to the walls in intricate patterns, many are piled high among countless others, while others hang from the ceiling as light fixtures. The last room in the crypt has a placard with 5 languages reading ""What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be..." Photography was strictly prohibited, otherwise I would have been all over that. 
  As we walked along the streets we saw this artist had decorated the sidewalk with messages and props. For example, a coin purse was spilling out pennies in the shape of a cross. The label next to it said "Catholicism." Good to know religious critics also live in Rome.

inside of Colosseum 

walls of the Vatican

 Our final day in Rome we went to the Vatican museum. Huge and beautiful, we spent hours in there. The walls were completely covered with work done from the famous Italian painter, Rafael. The museum incorporated all types of art: sculptures, African carvings, paintings, drawings, Egyptian calligraphy and more.
We also went inside St Peter's Basilica. It was dazzled with golden statues, elaborate paintings, remains of past Popes. However I was disgusted with how much money the church had invested in for such an appearance.
  Later we also finally saw the Patheon. We had tried to go the past 2 days but it had been closed. To end our stay in Rome, we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice Italian pasta dinner. We found some good recommendations, however the pasta was mediocre (for the price). Oh well, our experiences and the sights outway the food.
  When leaving we were supposed to catch a bus from the main station (Termini) that took us to the airport to Paris. We arrive at Termini 30 minutes before our bus was to leave but got frantically lost trying to find the bus station. We find it probably 3 minutes before it left. Get to the airport just in time...the airport in Rome is small and not built to accommodate how many people were there as security was jammed. Our flight was actually delayed because 20 people were missing from the security jam!