Scarf Sisters

How awesome is it to have a cousin visit you, not to mention while we're both abroad in Europe?!? It was sooo much fun to have Mikaela come and visit Rome! Her and her 2 friends got into Rome Friday night and found my apartment where I made some dinner for them. I was so fun to make dinner for someone! We dined on crackers, cheese and salami, cheesy fried zucchini, pasta and biscotti with Nutella (of course, I refrained from the Nutella) and wine. The next day they joined me for breakfast before heading out to see the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel, which was definitely something I had been looking forward to seeing for a long time. Well, after waiting in a huge long line, signs came up saying the museums were to be closing at 1:00 and opening again at 3:00pm. What?! Well we reluctantly got out of the line and good timing on that-- a tour guide came up to us offering a guided tour by an art historian from New York with a VIP enterance (since it was closed). We were all sick of waiting and all wanted to see the museum so we went for it! So beautiful! I could have sat in the Sistine Chapel for the whole day, except it was wall to wall people and guards yelling "no photo!" We did get seperated from the rest of our group in the end and ended up with the tour guides binoculars somehow. oops! After that gelato was needed! I tried to bring them to my favorite gelateria with 125 flavors, but being such a great tour guide, I got us lost and couldn't find it for the life of us. I knew we were in the right area though! A for effort at least?! But we settled for another one of my top picks, so not a total loss. We also enjoyed a restaurant dinner right by the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona with some amazing artwork and street preformers. Day well spent? I think YES!



Inside the Colosseum!



Sunday was dubbed Colosseum and Roman Forum day. The whole 5 weeks I had been living there, I still hadn't actually been inside the Colosseum. We walked inside and Iwas blown away at just a glimpse of it. It was actually a very picturesque sort of day--it was later in the afternoon and the sun was beginning to set behind the Colosseum. You try to picture what it looked like during the gladiator games. (I don't know about you, but I kept picturing the scenes from the movie Gladiator--one of my favorites by the way). You were able to see the passageways the gladiators waited in before a battle as well.



One thing to keep in mind if you ever visit the Roman Forum: There are olive trees everywhere, but don't do what Julie, Mikaela and Cassie did--don't eat them! haha They are disgusting apparently. Definitely no where near to  an olive we're probably familiar with. Just a side note :)

We hopped the crowded metro back to my apartment and they headed back to their hotel where were said our goodbyes. I didn't want to see them leave! 10:30pm rolls around and I get a knock on my apartment door. Mikaela, Cassie and Briana are standing ther with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, cookies and chocolates. They are too sweet! :) Such an amazing weekend! It was so great to see some family come visit! I can't wait to see you all at Christmas!

PS Why scarf sisters? Well, I think the picture says it all...we love scarves!

Much love :)