Posted on September 5, 2016
This weekend was the first weekend of personal travel time that we have had here in Italy. The first night, we decided to stay in Ariccia for the Porchetta Festival. The festival was almost comparable to a festival in the states; there were tents, rides, and tons of food!
But here is where the story starts of the eventful weekend. We, as a group of nine, decided to take the 10:23am train from Albano to Rome. We arrived in Rome and needed to figure out our bus tickets to our Airbnb. Let me back track. We had already had two Airbnbs cancel on us. We got on a bus that was taking us to Vatican City. By the looks of the map, it looked relatively close to where we needed to go, It for sure wasn’t in close proximity. We did end up in Vatican City with our suitcases, which was a funny way to experience the Vatican. It exceeded my expectations of how beautiful it was.
We ended up walking 4 miles just from that bus stop to our Airbnb. I was already at 7,000 steps and we hadn’t even started the Scavenger Hunt assignment! The Scavenger hunt was the main purpose for visiting Rome that weekend, which is an assignment when you first get to Italy. We grabbed a quick lunch and got on a new bus. The Scavenger Hunt went pretty smoothly other than a few missed turns, posing in front of the wrong palace thinking it was the Chigi Palace of Rome, and getting on the wrong bus a few more times. By the end, we had walked 14 miles and had endless amounts of fun. In the end, we were all exhausted but we all stayed positive, stuck together, and knew by the end of these next three months, we would be family. This weekend in Rome we came, we saw, we conquered.
By: Hannah Gord

Last stop but we were all still smiling!!