how to make the most out of a weekend

this weekend was pretty awesome... and its not even over yet! on friday, although it started out a bit rainy, my two roommates and I headed to the roman forum/colosseum for some sight seeing. at the roman forum, we stumbled upon a glass exhibit that was open for the final day. inside they featured some of the coolest and most ancient jewelry, glasswork, and mosaics that dated back to the first and second centuries AD.  we also saw the remains of what used to be there center of rome, which was the place where many speeches were given by julius caesar, and many of the things that we think of as "iconic rome" took place such as chariot rides and marketplaces. we then made it up to palentine hill, which is one of romes "seven" hills. there are actually more than seven hills, but because seven was the lucky number of the romans they only recognized seven. anyways, here we saw some cool botanical gardens, a natural spring fountain, and a beautiful view of rome (see picture top left). by that time of the day the sky actual started to brighten up which was when we headed over to the colosseum. while we were there we took a walking tour and got to hear about a lot of the ways that ceremonies were held and the type of architecture and designs that went into the planning. on of the best fun facts about the colosseum was that they used to make ostriches battle, which i thought would be pretty interesting. we also got to see pictures of what some of the different gladiators dressed like along with what the covering of the colosseum was thought to look like. to be honest, the inside of the colosseum actually made it feel smaller than it looks from the outside, but it was really a breathtaking experience. its unfortunate you have to pay to go inside, otherwise i feel like i would go and sit once a week! that was all for friday, we were all so tired that we just grabbed some dinner and sat around the room for the rest of the night. then on saturday, we made it to the beach! which gave me my first opportunity (and hopefully not the last!) to stick my feet in the mediterranean ocean. i think because of the rain the previous day, the water really cooled down, so i spent most of my time just taking in the sites from the shore. it was really a nice and relaxing day after all of the walking on friday. after the beach, we made a quick stop at the grocery store and grabbed some food so we could make a "pinterest inspired" dinner. my roommate lucy made some very very delicious pesto stuffed chicken and then i worked on pasta with tomatoes and then we all worked on some strawberry/blueberry sangria and cheesy garlic bread, while my roommate claire made nutella cookies and chocolate strawberries. it was all so delicious... and we now have dinner for the rest of the week! it was really nice to sit down and eat something that we all worked hard on but spent no more than an hour on. then, we all headed out and met some of my friends from bc who were visiting from florence, and we walked around and met some of the locals. overall, it was another great day. we were originally going to go to the zoo today, but we figured we should probably save something to do for another weekend... so instead we are all trying to get some work done before the rest of our roommates come home. i hope everyone had just as amazing of a weekend, ill report back with something probably not as interesting later this week!