Olivia's 8th Journal Entry

We have now (thankfully) reached the end of my journal entries for the week. Enjoy this last one.
Thursday:
     The final long day before we finally get to rest tomorrow. We saw the Pantheon (for the 4th time), the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, the Spanish Steps and San Clemente. The Pantheon was nice as usual and we saw the enormous dome which was just as interesting and impressive as last time. We finally made it to Sopra Minerva, a church, and saw the statue of Jesus by Michelangelo. It was amazing because it wasn't behind glass. I got very close to it and could have touched it if I was allowed to. Sopra Minerva was amazing and may have become my favorite church in Rome. San Clemente was interesting because it is a church built on a church built on a Pagan Temple. The whole site was about 2000 years old. The pagan temple was a temple to the God Mithras who was the God of soldiers. It was very interesting to go and look around down there. There was even a spring with running water which made me very thirsty because you can get very dehydrated in Rome. There were gorgeous ceilings in all the rooms of all the levels and beautiful painting too. The layers of history in the building were just so amazing. After we finished at San Clemente we jumped on the Metro to journey to the Spanish Steps. I never ever want to get back onto a Metro when it's THAT full. The Metro was NOT a good experience. When we arrived at the Spanish Steps we climbed all 135 and had a nice view from the top. We also realized there was a Metro stop at the top but considering how packed the Metro was I'm very glad we chose to get off. We walked back down the steps and head to get something to quench our thirst. We walked to Termini afterwards and jumped on the bus to head to dinner. I gave up my seat to a nun, and she was very grateful. Then she said a bunch of stuff in Italian, and I was very confused. Mom took over and started talking with her, and I smiled and looked out the window. We hopped off the bus and walked to the Jewish Quarter for dinner. I found it very interesting that Rome houses the oldest ghetto in Europe. I had a salmon pizza for dinner which was not all that bad. I probably wouldn't order it again, though. After dinner we got to finally go home and go to bed. Tomorrow will be really nice as we get to finally have a lazy day and sleep in.