Of all the incredible things that we saw on the trip, I would say that Vatican City was the most impressive for me. (It also could have been a cumulative effect from Day 2.) What I saw at St. Peter’s Basilica and in the Sistine Chapel totally blew my mind. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed in the Sistine Chapel. After going through a security check, we got to tour. I learned that in Italy, most of the art is not in museums, but in churches.

St. Peter’s Basilica. Home of the Pope….

The building itself is impressive from the outside.

Inside, the walls and ceilings were covered with art.

Unfortunately, I could not get a pic inside the Sistine Chapel. It was stunning. I had to sit and try to process what I was seeing. The photos that you see online are only sections of the ceiling. Seeing the whole thing at once was an experience I’ll never forget….

Here are a few of the students posing for me after a gelato break. We ate a lot of gelato for sure. The cool thing about the trip was how the tour group bonded. I made a lot of good friends on this trip.

Colosseo.

After lunch, we took a tour inside of the Colosseum with a local guide.

We then walked over to the Forum and continued the tour there.

Roman Forum.

We were given some free time before dinner. We walked over to the Tiber River to take pictures at sunset.

By the way, this is what the cars look like in Rome. Students would yell out “coche” whenever one was approaching from behind.

After a pizza dinner, we took an evening bus tour of the city. Here is the Trevi Fountain at night. Another Hawai’i quarter…. We also visited the Spanish Steps and St. Peter’s Square. We had to walk quite far to find restrooms, and that was an adventure as well.

Rome was amazing. At this point I thought to myself, “This is already a great trip. Everything else from this point on is just gravy….”