I can officially say I have seen and been inside one of the Seven Wonders of the World: The Colosseum. How awesome is that? I hope that one day I can see all seven and it’s nice to know I only have six more to go!

Today was a very early morning and my body and I were not on good terms. I was so exhausted, achy, and the blisters on my feet were the worst of all. I really wanted to sleep but we were touring Rome today and you can’t go to Italy and not see Rome!

When we got there, the first thing we did was go straight to the Colosseum. We didn’t purchase tickets beforehand so we had to wait in a really long line. So many people were trying to get us to pay to cut the line and go to the top and let me tell you, they were way too persistent for my liking. They wouldn’t leave us alone and it was very, very cold.

We never ended up doing that so the wait in the line was about an hour. When we got to the check-in, we had to do a security check. My grandpa brought a pocketknife and unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to come along. My mom and my uncle gave him that knife about twenty years ago and he said that the knife was more important to him than seeing the Colosseum. Thankfully, he had already seen it a couple of years ago. My grandma went with him and I stayed behind with some of their friends.

I was able to get in free because I am under eighteen years old and I had my passport to prove it! Isn’t that interesting? My grandparents said that they probably do that for learning purposes. I thought that was really nice.

The Colosseum was so cool! I can’t even explain it to you so luckily I took pictures. The sky was beautiful as well so just looking into the Colosseum was neat. We went up to the upper area as well and so I got some pictures from above which I was excited about.

The viewing of the Colosseum didn’t take long since we didn’t pay for a guided or audio tour. We just simply went in, looked around, and took some pictures, and left.

Now, this is where the day started getting hard for me. My feet, as we know, are terribly blistered on the bottom. We had to go and FIND my grandparents and meet back up with them. They were at a restaurant but the GPS on our phones took forever to direct us in the right direction and a lot of the streets didn’t have the names on signs so we had no idea where we were going. We walked for so long, clueless and I knew that it was frustrating for everyone and we were hungry.

But! We finally made it and I drank a Coke for my blood sugar and then ate a hot pizza so fast that now the roof of my mouth is burnt… but I enjoyed the pizza and now that I think about it, I wish I had some right now to eat.

We continued our journey and since it took so long to meet back up we only had maybe two hours or an hour and a half until we all had to be back with the group to board the bus.

I really, really liked Rome and I wished with my everything that my feet weren’t in the condition they were because I would’ve loved to tour it without limping around. I was in such a bad mood because I was so bummed about it. But, I really did enjoy Rome’s atmosphere and lifestyle. There was music and people were dancing and the buildings were extraordinary! I couldn’t tell you what buildings I saw since I just saw them on the way back but I got some pictures! Thankfully, I get to see Pompeii tomorrow and the Vatican the next day. I hope that my feet are okay because it was so painful today.

You really don’t know what your body can endure until something like this happens and I think that I became a lot more thankful for my body’s ability to adapt. I am just amazed that my body is still carrying on from how much I’ve been doing, running on such little sleep.

I took a long nap on the bus there and back but when we arrived home it was time for dinner. The girl who invited me to the table at lunch just yesterday is the sister of the boy who sat behind me on the bus. I thought I should connect those dots really quick. But their family has been so nice to me. They invited me to sit with them on the bus and they invited me to sit with them at dinner. Their grandmother said that they adopted me and that was sweet. They are such a fun bunch of people and I really enjoy their company. They made dinner more entertaining for me since I got to talk to new people.

Dinner was great and we had Gnocchi which is my absolute favorite! But then it was time for the Talent Show. It started at 9:00 and ended around 11:00 so it had definitely been a late night. The show was fun and I got a chance to sit next to one of the girls that I went cliff-diving with and we danced and had a great time together. We plan on hanging out tomorrow after dinner and I’m really excited!

I did sing in the Talent Show with a group and it went alright. I had a lot of fun doing it even though I didn’t originally plan to perform.

Today was alright but tonight was even better and I hope that tomorrow is a good day.

Laurel ❤

Uncategorized Europe travel