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Day 9 - Final day blues5/4/2018 Our alarm was blaring at 6am, reminding us of our early commitment to climb the St Peters cupula. It also reminded us that it was our last day of exploring here in Rome. Now was not the time for sentiment though, it was time for breakfast. The twelve of us who decided to climb rallied in the hotel lobby and took the subway to the Vatican. If I stressed how bad we looked yesterday, we were 5 times worse this morning. These early mornings kept haunting us. Gathering at the giant courtyard, I saw what was arguably the longest line I had ever seen. And we had to get to the back of it. Luckily we were moving at a decent pace and the line itself only took about 45 minutes. I didn't know why we were groaning because we had 551 steps to climb to reach the top so this clearly won't be the worst part of this excursion. The climb clearly set us apart from all the other tourists because it made sense that American group had to obnoxiously run up the steps to see who could get to the top first all while screaming the UC fight song. This lasted a good 100 steps until we realized how feeble it was to keep up such goals. Chests heaving and legs sore, we finally reached the top of the cupola for the best view of Rome in all the city. You could see the entire city and all of its featured monuments in this tiny gated cage on the cupola and it was an incredible sight to behold. I was glad we did this last as I was able to spot so may key monuments and buildings I previously would not have known of. After basking in the view and taking our mandatory group picture with the UC flag (in case the people around us still didn't know how American we were), we started the descent. The other half of our group that opted out of the early climb (weaklings) and our professors informed us of their whereabouts and left it up to us to get to them. Well since I had no service I left it up to the rest of our group. I was happy being the blind follower in this situation. Our last day was dedicated to some of the churches we missed on the other days. Despite the immenseness and the beauty of the St Peters basilica, all of these churches had something beautiful about them and learning more and more about the history of them makes this trip so much more complete. After each passing church, I grow a deeper appreciation for the arts and how it influenced Rome to become the historic city. After one last group picture, we were dismissed one last time and headed off to have our last lunch in Rome. I NEEDED to take a nap when we headed back to the hotel and so I did, collapsing immediately for a power nap. Some of us decided we were going to spend the last night going back to the Ice Bar we tried out the first day. After my half power nap, I decided to explore the surrounding areas by myself and grab some dinner. It was more of a moment for me to reflect on this week, everything I'd learned and how it was going to influence me in everything I did in the coming years. After eating my last Italian pizza, I made it back to the hotel to get ready with everyone to head out to the bar. It was another memorable night in the books and I couldn't think of a better way to wrap up this week than with the people who made this experience so much fun. Our only regret was not getting Dr Swanson and Dr Rassati with us but there's always time back in Cincinnati for that.
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