Pentecost at the Pantheon

Angela Nickerson (@aknickerson on Twitter) was kind enough to let me write a guest post for her travel blog Just Go about my experience attending mass at the Pantheon.

Click here to check out my post!

Un Fine Settimana Perfetto

A perfect weekend...

Friday: As I mentioned yesterday, I went to Tivoli with my art history class. On Friday night, pretty much the entire Temple Rome summer program did the Spanish Steps pub crawl. It's definitely a tourist-y thing to do, but it was fun to do once and in a large group of friends. For those who may not know, you pay 20 euro to travel to 3 different bars and a night club and drink for free and then later for cheap, a t-shirt, and pizza. It was also a fun way to meet other people traveling in Rome.

Friends before the pub crawl

Saturday: We have been dying to get to the beach since we got here since it's SO hot in Rome, so yesterday we took the Metro and then a local train to Ostia. It was about a one hour trip and only cost 2 euro to get there and back. We went to the very last stop Columbo, and headed to a beach called Venezia. We paid 10 euro to enter the beach and rent chairs, and relaxed for 4 glorious hours. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing. It was a perfect beach day, and a great way to unwind. While we were at the beach, there was an air show, so planes were flying very low over the ocean and doing all kinds of tricks, including blowing out smoke in the shape and colors of the Italian flag! Very cool.

Ladies laying out on the beach

Crazy Italian flag colored smoke

Saturday night, my roommates and I made pasta and had bread, and relaxed and unwinded. We also booked a trip to Paris for the weekend of June 11-June 14. Very exciting!

Sunday: Today was Pentecost and we went to a special mass at the Pantheon. At the very end, thousands of rose petals were dropped from the dome of the Pantheon. I actually wrote a guest blog post for another travel blogger about this experience, so instead of writing about it here, I'll post the link when she posts my blog.

Rose petals falling on the procession

Me and my rose petals

The 2009 Giro d'Italia (bike race) took place in Rome today, so we watched a bit of that. We wanted to catch a glimpse of Lance Armstrong, but he wasn't starting until 4:30 p.m. and we watched the race around 2:00 p.m.

Later, we wandered around the Spanish Steps and ate gelato. So far my favorite gelato flavors are mint chocolate chip, nutella, limone and banana.

A great weekend in Roma! How was your weekend?