November 20, 2011

November 20, 2011

This morning I woke up around 8:00, got ready, packed up and we brought our luggage down to storage. After that we went to breakfast, which was once again delicious. After breakfast a big group of us headed out into the city to find the big Sunday market. We each picked a buddy because it was so huge and there were so many people, we didn’t want anyone getting lost. My buddy was Becca and we had fun exploring and looking through everything. It was more of a flea market but there were some arts and crafts. When we got tired of looking (we walked for an hour and weren’t anywhere near through the whole thing) we wandered back toward the river. We walked along the river for a while and then we headed toward the Spanish Steps. On our way, we walked past the Pantheon again, got one last gelato from Giolitti, and made one more wish in the Trevi Fountain. From there we wandered the rest of the way to the Spanish Steps. They were very crowded but beautiful. We have had such beautiful weather and everything is more beautiful in the sunshine!

After that we started back toward the hotel. We picked up crepes for lunch on our way, which were delicious and also, of course, made a quick trip to the Rome Disney Store! Then, at 2:00, we met our group, got our luggage and headed to the bus. We then drove to Villa Borghese, which took about fifteen minutes because it is on a beautiful hill, kind of above Rome. We were not allowed to bring anything into the museum so I wasn’t able to take photos of the beautiful Villa and gardens, but that’s okay. The Galleria Borghese was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. The sculptures were stunning and I could have looked at them for hours. After a tour through, we had some free time to walk through the garden and the park, which were so beautiful and quiet. After that we got back on the bus and headed home to Florence.

On the bus ride home, Jodie had the bus driver play The Gladiator for us—too funny that we just watched it last night! We were excited through because we would finally get to see the end! AND it made the bus ride go by a lot more quickly, which was great considering it was about three and a half hours. It really was quite a good movie, although very sad, as well. Angela, our guide on Friday, said it was the most historically accurate of the movies she’s seen about the period, so it was good in that respect as well! We all really loved the movie and it was so cool to see after having just been to Rome.

We arrived home in Florence around 8:30 and caught the bus home. When we got home, Daniela met us with a delicious meal of pesto, caprese salad, bread, cheese and pastries. We were very hungry by 9:00, when we ate so it was even more delicious! After dinner I unpacked and then typed up all my blogs from the weekend. Now that I have finished that up, I will post them and then I am off to bed. It has been a wonderful but exhausting weekend. Thankfully I get to sleep in tomorrow! I hope you all had a beautiful weekend and are at least kind of enjoying the snow (for those of you who have it).

All my love,

Kari

 Giolitti!

The Spanish Steps