Hi. Today I am going on a train to ROME!!!!!! I am leaving Lucca.  I woke up and my family, me and Anni went to the train station immediately!  Me, Anni and Cole sat on a bench well waiting for the train to come. Finally it arrived!  I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT I WAS GOING TO ROME!! I am excited to go to the Colloseum, go to the Sistine Chapel, and have fun! Now I will tell you some facts about the Colloseum. The Colloseum was originally called Ampitheater of Flavian. In there the gladiators would fight animals and other pepole. Gladiaters are crimanals. Back in the day when you broke the law, you would have to fight in the Colloseum. If you were that person, you would not know what weapons you would get or what you would be fighting.

On the train I did my scrapbooking, journaling and watched out the window. Me and Cole pretended to drive the train!!     

I AM IN ROME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We walked to are apartment from the train station. We only had to walk about a mile before getting to the air bnb. We had to walk by dumpsters on our way there. Our place wasn’t  that good either. It was getting dark. I ate dinner then went to bed.

9/20/2019 Today I am going to the Vatican. The Vatican, is the home of a pope. A Pope is a person who runs a catholic church. We walked to the Vatican because it was only twenty minutes from our house!!  The Vatican is also it’s own city. And guess what? It is also it’s own COUNTRY!!! The Vatican buildings are very big. There are a lot of halls and art museums. The first area was a spiral ramp of marble that had many models of ships.  Then we went outside to the courtyard and we saw a statue of a big pine cone. We took our picture in front of it with Anni. Then we walked a little further to a big gold ball that had the whole Vatican carved into it. Cole got to spin it. It has gear inside so it can spin.  Then we went into a big room with paintings on the ceiling. It was very pretty. Then we walked through this corridor with many statues and got to this special statue that was holding a bow and arrows and he didn’t have fingers. Many of the statues at the Vatican had pieces that were broken off!! Sometimes on purpose!!!  

My favorite part of the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel.  The reason I liked it is because it had pretty paintings.  The same man who sculpted the David in Florence painted the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel!!  Michelangelo! He must have been a talented man!

Then we walked out of the Sistine Chapel doorway into a big arched hallway with the stairs going down.  We walked and got to Saint Peter’s Basilica. It is a big church. After that we sat outside of it and ate Pringles and fed them to the ants.  We also fed special birdseed to the birds.  

After The Vatican, walked around Rome and went to The Pantheon.  It is a big circular dome with a hole at the top. There are drains in the floor  so it won’t flood if the rain comes in the hole in the dome. It was built even before the Roman Empire was so powerful. All religions were allowed to meet here and hang out.

Next we went to the Trevi Fountain.  It is a great big fountain with a man, a god, Oceanus.  There are other statues too. There are guys with horses and angels.  The water from the fountain is from the aqueduct. It was clear and a really pretty pool blue color. “Trevi” means, where three roads come together.

Then we walked around Rome some more and got gelato.  Then we went home and went to dinner and went to bed.  

The next morning we got up and went on a tour of the Colosseum.  We found our guide named Nick and got to wear headphones so he didn’t have to yell.  It was big and part of it is under construction. First we looked at the outside and then we went inside. We walked through an archway that they used to drag out the dead people from the Colosseum.  The Colosseum had a bunch of scaffolding in the middle. We saw a cat on the scaffolding that lived there. Then Cole saw something else…he saw a giant lizard!! It was really pretty, it had green and yellow spots on it.  Then we walked through a passageway with holes in the walls where people dug out the iron and metal when they needed money after the Roman Empire lost it’s power. Then we climbed high and got a full view of the Colosseum. It was fun being at the Colosseum.

After the Colosseum we went out and got a sandwich and went to the Roman Forum.  The Roman Forum is a big dusty area with ruins. Ruins are broken down buildings.  This area is famous because it used to be the capital of Roman Empire. The Roman Empire ruled a big part of Europe for a long time. It was very powerful with emperors and powerful armies.  They fought for land and power. They eventually were invaded and other empires became more powerful. They also spent too much money and had rulers that were not fair people.

Rome was fun.  My favorite memory of Rome was EVERYTHING!! Especially being with Granni.

Today is Sunday and I woke up and found mommy and Cole in the living room watching a gladiator movie.  I went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. Anni was already gone because mommy took her to the airport in the early morning.  I felt sad all day. It was raining all day so we stayed home and got to relax and watch movies. The next day we were going to Naples!! That is where pizza was born!!!!!