Rome.

Of all of the European villages I've seen, Rome is the one I feel most grateful for. Aside from the abundance of cats everywhere, the coffee, the pizza and the gelato - the history of Rome is way too intriguing. I feel like the luckiest girl in the entire world to have been able to sit in the presence of Michelangelo's work, see Raphael's tomb and stand on the ground where people used to watch gladiator fights. Lemon and orange trees, charming Italians bickering with their friends & incredible architecture way too advanced for its time. I returned from Rome jiggling in places I never knew I could jiggle, but completely worth it.

We stayed in a darling little room on the top of about a million stairs. It had a perfect loft-bed that was too easy to stay in after walking at least 6 hours every day. I realized on this trip that I have no problem being the most touristy-tourist. While I try to avoid pictures of me smiling in front of monuments, I am not too good for tour guides. I think that my only regret on this trip is that I didn't do a guided tour of the Vatican. We did tours of the Colosseum & the Pantheon and it really revolutionized my trip, before Rome I had never done a guided tour. It really changes the sentiment from "oh, that's a cool thing" to "I am standing in front of a preserved piece of history." My jaw was dropping learning all of the things that I learned.

Castel Sant'Angelo was incredible. It is so bizarre to me that I am getting accustomed to sitting on top of castles overlooking European villages. Granita di caffe compana was probably the most interesting & unique coffee I've ever had - frozen espresso with whipped cream. I found my dream boutique in Rome - filled with the most beautiful Shabby Chic decorations and I will always yearn to see it again.

Overall, though, I would have to say that the most charming thing were the kitty cats sleeping on ancient ruins. We played a fun game where we tried to count how many cats we could find sleeping and it was always so many more than we expected.