Vatican City

 The next day, we discovered that our campground offered a bus to and from the Vatican for just 2€ (which would be cheaper than taking the metro and the bus...even though we ended up never paying for that bus ride once :/ )

We missed the early morning trip to the Vatican, so we hung around the campgrounds in the morning, did some laundry and packing, and hung around the pool until our bus left in the early afternoon.

Entry to the Vatican City museum 

 Vatican City walls

 Swiss guards...trained for life!

Gateway into the Vatican City. We weren't allowed to go in here without special permission from their state. Not even all Romans are allowed to enter. It was so weird being outside of this tiny little "country" and not being able to see inside!

The Vatican 

No scandalous attire allowed 

After missing the above sign and getting shunned/glared at by the Vatican guard, we made a trip to the market outside the Vatican plaza and got me an oversized shawl to transform myself from skanky to essentially a Vatican nun ;)  (minus the knee slip)

Sunday mass 

The inside of the Vatican was absolutely beautiful and huge (no picture will do its justice). But I was pretty nervous walking around in there in my hoodlum street attire only covered up by a thin pink shawl. I had already been scorned twice and wasn't about to get kicked out of the Vatican. If someone's shoulder came uncovered for a second, one of the Vatican guards would come running up to the person and yell at them. When I first walked in with my shawl, the wind blew my knew out from under the cover if my shawl while I was grabbing my camera, and I swear the guard had a heart attack seeing that. I don't mean to offend, I just wanted to see! 

We ended up tying me up like a mummy to avoid anymore wind problems and to not get my pink slip from the Vatican :) 

holy water 

After we were done looking around the Vatican area, we had a few more hours until the bus would return to pick us up. So we wandered around the shops and got Drew some authentic gelato (I had to painfully watch as he enjoyed his delicious Italian treat because I'm lactose-intolerant) D;

gladiator friends 

downtown Rome bike lock technique

Someone found their broom straight from Hogwarts lying outside our tent!

Right before we were about to go to the market to get something to make for dinner, we decided to go use the computer lounge to print out our tickets for our RyanAir flight in the morning. And just to our luck, our flight had been somehow completely canceled with no notification given to us. Drew's flight home to the US was set and planned to leave at 11am the next day so we REALLY needed that 6am flight home. Once again, RyanAir fails!!

We sat out at the picnic table on my iPad and frantically called our moms to help us find something since the internet wasn't fast enough to let our credit cards work. Drew never found a flight and my mom found one for me but I wasn't guaranteed to have a seat tomorrow. So, Drew planned to leave early in the morning and hoped to find a flight there while I stayed behind because my flight wasn't until the afternoon of the next day.

It was so weird waking up and my travel partner was just gone! I almost didn't even know what to do after being with him every day for 6 weeks! But it was nice that I got to sleep in and lounge around by the pool and even have enough time for a shower before I took the bus to the airport. I was so sad to leave this place...it was so happy and peaceful and we loved every minute of it!! 

Pathway to our tents 

My last minutes in Italia spent by the pool! :) 

On my flight home, I met a 23 year old high school math teacher (weird, a little young to teach high school?) who taught me card games while we waited for our flight. He was actually just starting his one month study abroad in Madrid after a 2 week family vacation in Italy. I was surprisingly really excited for him because I remember how much anxiety and excitement we all had in Valladolid up to those last few hours until we met our families! I got to go through it all over again!

Ciao Italia! I will miss you!!!