Italy--The Final Days

Finally, I have arrived at my last post regarding Italy!
I apologize if any of my phrases seem choppy or awkward; I just finished writing a French essay and so my brain is currently mixing two languages. Evident by the fact that I almost wrote "melanging", a mixture of "melange" and "mixing."
Anyways! The last two days in Rome were full of lots of walking. On Monday, we did a self-guided walking tour of the Heart of Rome. We saw the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps (which had too many people), the Pantheon, many city squares, and lots of amazing architecture. One of the squares was the Piazzo Novona, where we found lots of really talented artists and I found myself a little souvenir, a leather key chain in the shape of  treble clef. The Italians are big on their leather, and I love music and have car keys, so I decided that it would be a good reminder of my stay. As if I could ever forget Italy!
I also had the opportunity to go to Saint Eustachio's Cafe, voted best cup of coffee in Rome by the New York Times! I unfortunately didn't order their specialty because I didn't understand any of the words, but I got a delicious cafe-mocha-type hot beverage anyways, so I was pretty happy.

The Trevi Fountain--throw a coin in to ensure a trip back to Rome!

The Spanish Steps

The Pantheon

Coffee deliciousness!

In the evening, we followed the advice from my travel guide and went to a little restaurant near our hostel. It was described as having "delicious meals for dirt cheap prices" and a "loyal local following." I am so glad we listened to it, because it was amazing! The nicest family run restaurant with delicious food... and it was cheap. You could get a nice big pizza for just 7 euros! We ended up eating there on Tuesday night as well.
On our last day in Rome, we somehow managed to fill up the entire day walking around the parts of the city that we hadn't yet seen. Once again we found ourselves happily wandering off of the beaten path and through lesser-know  parts of the city. One of the interesting places we walked by was a giant rose garden, where supposedly all of the roses in the world are descended from. Who knows if that's true, but they were beautiful nonetheless. We also got to see the runners in the Rome Marathon! The streets were all blocked off, and then this super fast man sprinted past us, so we figured it must be the end of a race. Little did we know that this sprinting man was only just nearing the 8km mark. I don't know how he kept that up for 34 more kilometers, but he was a tank. It definitely got me excited for the Paris Half-Marathon!

Not a bad race course!

Because we had a flight at 7am, we made the decision to save ourselves paying for 4 hours of sleep in a hostel, and instead took a bus to the airport on Tuesday night... and slept there! It was very interesting. It was a very small airport, and there were a lot of other people doing the same thing as us. I guess if you have an early flight, it just makes sense. We luckily found a nice corner spot and I was able to grab about 3 hours or sleep.

Our lovely little airport

Luckily, our flight back to France was fantastically smooth, with a stellar landing. Much better than our arrival.
And now, I am back in France and back into school! I will post a little update on my week thus far tomorrow, since I don't want this to get too long. But needless to say, I had a wonderful time in Italy and am looking forward to my next traveling adventure!