Day 9
April 5, 2022
Our final day of the trip was jam packed, and it didn’t help that it was also the day of daylight savings in Italy. Nevertheless, we started the day with our group COVID-19 test, and thankfully all tested negative. With this assurance, we headed on the subway to an area closer to the Pantheon. We had some free time before visiting the Pantheon, but everything happened to run a little behind schedule due to it also being the day of the Rome marathon. Regardless, we briefly visited the Pantheon, which is a piece of Roman architecture that has transcended the creation of domes across Italy for many, many centuries. We had a brief lunch afterwards before heading to the Colosseum. We arrived after a hot and crowded walk to the Colosseum to begin another guided tour. We spent 1-2 hours walking around the Colosseum, which has been preserved to the best of Italy’s ability, but is actually only about 30% of the original structure. It was still so interesting to see one of the world’s new seven wonders of the world. After the Colosseum, we further explored the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. These two places were equally as beautiful, but at this point, everyone had reached peak exhaustion. We ended the night taking the bus to a different part of the city to have our last dinner and round of gelato. It was definitely a bittersweet night, closing out on a great trip.
We returned to Minneapolis on March 28, after a 3 A.M. wake-up call and very long travel day (almost missing our connection in Amsterdam).
