Let the stormy clouds chase everyone from the place....Day One

So this last weekend was Easter Break for Georgetown students. Like many Italians, I decided to make a pilgrimage to Rome for the holiday. Thursday night I took a train down to Rome and met my best friend from Georgetown, Therese, who is studying in Athens. I arrived and made my way through the graffiti filled streets around Roma Termini to the hotel. I got there early, and even though it was my 'break' from speaking Italian, I could not resist watching the soap opera we watch at Flavia's house each night! The rest of the night was uneventful considering we needed to rest before our epic 3 day tour of Rome.
The next morning, we found a small open air market for breakfast then headed over to Vatican City!!

*Small side note* This is so I don't have to include it throughout the blog, but the weather was miserable in Rome, we were really only dry when we were asleep in our beds at night... hence the title of the blog (from Singing in the Rain) It rained everywhere we went except for a few moments of sunshine... stupid stupid rain...
This is me as a not so Pius pope... :)
So anyway, the line at the Vatican was already wrapping around the neighborhood, so we waited for a little more than an hour to go into the Museums! It thankfully wasn't as crowded as I expected it to be but still not any where close to being empty! Once inside, we made our way through the various exhibits, seeing all the gorgeous statues (without their penises of course... silly Pope...) Finally, after hours of wandering, we got to the Raphael rooms and I got to see the School of Athens!!!!!!!!! Oh man... it's so neat to finally see something you've studying for years and truly appreciate everything about it.
After the Raphael rooms, we climbed up some stairs and get to enter the Sistine Chapel!!! I must say, the room is pretty overwhelming, almost too overwhelming to absorb it all! I really wish I could see it by myself and have a chance to lie down on the floor and just look at every detail! Almost makes me jealous of the Cardinals and Pope who get the opportunity to see the room without hundreds of other Tourists!! After the exhausting run through of the museums, we braved the weather to go see St Peters Square!
There was a line to get into the basilica wrapping all the way around the piazza, but we got in it anyway. We were a little more than half way through the line when we realized that the line was only for people who had tickets to see Good Friday mass! We got kicked out of line and decided to drown our sorrows (and dry off) in a coffee shop with some hot chocolate. By the time we finished and went back to the piazza, the line was gone and they were letting in the general public to see part of the basilica that wasn't blocked off for mass! So despite the seemingly bad luck, we still made it in! Unfortunately, we couldn't see a lot because of all the people watching mass (the Pieta was also blocked off), but I got to listen to part of Good Friday mass and even get a glimpse of the Pope!
After our adventure in the Vatican, we walked over to the Castel Sant'Angelo. It was like my own little Angels and Demons mini tour! Then off to Piazza Navona to see the Fountain of the Four Rivers. The main fountain was unfortunately covered with scaffolding, but eh... what can you do!Then we went to the Pantheon where we were lucky enough to make it in before they closed! It was raining pretty hard at this point, but it was kind of neat to see the rain come down through the oculus of the dome! We only got a few minutes before they actually began turning the lights out on us! So we headed over to a small restaurant across from the Pantheon for dinner! We even got some free limoncello for dessert! (yeah for being girls in a restaurant full of male waiters :)