Thursday, March 11th, Day 12

I can't believe the trip is almost over! It's just crazy... It didn't really hit until Don handed us 60 euros and said "this is for the rest of the trip" It was kind of like, say what?  Anyway, the breakfast was yummy (this convent has a ton of pastries) and after that we walked to St peters.  No, not St Peter in chains, the big St. Peter's in Vatican City. (random: Vatican city is it's own country, but it's so small I don't really think it's worth separating from Italy) But the St. Peters Basilica is HUGE. Someone said, 7 pantheon domes could fit in the one at St. Peters. Now THAT is big. The security was ridiculous, metal detectors and bag screenings! But it was a pretty cool church, very gilded (maybe a little too gilded.) after walking around a little we paid to go up in the dome (the stairs were identical and spiraling, it was a weird illusion.) I'm kinda freaked out by heights, so I was relieved when we got to the top and there was a nice safe fence to keep us from falling. On our way out we noticed stairs going up to the cupola, and figured "why not?" These stairs were weird and very narrow (a couple of claustrophobic people freaked out.) It took so long to get up there we started to wonder if it was even worth it. But when we reached the top it was pretty obviously worth it. We were on a balcony overlooking all of Rome. It was an amazing view as long as I didn't look down, and I took a ton of pictures. When we went back down the 8 of us got a tiny bit lost and couldn't find the teachers for a while. we ate lunch outside the Castel San Angelo, then hurried inside as soon as it got cold, hoping the building would keep us from freezing. It was a cute little building, and even though the roof had a nice view I was just too cold to appreciate it. 


When we got back to the convent it was pretty early (around 1 I think) so some people went to get coffee while the rest of us stayed behind.