Day 24 came as many others did. We woke up early and cleared out our rooms. Four of us had told the receptionist at the villa the day before that we were heading to Fiumicino Airport and she ordered us a driver. In about 30 minutes, we were out of downtown Rome where we'd lived for the last three weeks. From there, we boarded our planes and went officially our separate ways.
Here is a link to a map of my time in Italy. This shows all of the churches and other locations that I visited across the Italian peninsula. Thanks to the wonders of Google Maps, you can zoom in to different places and see exactly where I went over the course of my trip. If you click the "x" next to either "Churches" or "Non-Church Sites", you can toggle on or off each section to view either all the churches that I went to or all the non-church places that I went to (or both). Purple pins denote churches while blue pins denote other sites. Click any pin to see what the place is, and many of the pins will include websites as well. You can even change the "Base Map" to satellite to give you a real-life view of the landscape and the area. I put this together more to give you a sense of where I went on my trip and less to give you information about those places - you can read that for yourself elsewhere in the blog! What you can do, however, is search for a location that I mentioned in the blog and you should be able to see the pin on the map. Enjoy exploring!
The final church tally is 45 including those that I saw in Assisi, Siena, and Florence, with 38 in Rome itself. This number is just a fraction (about 1/27) of the number of churches that are in Rome; though this is barely scratching the surface, I definitely hit every church that I really wanted to go to. I am content with my 45.
As this is my final post for this blog, I would like to take the time once more to thank every person that made this trip possible, from my parents and family members to the people on the trip that made it special. My experience abroad would not have been possible without the help that many of you provided in many different ways. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the time that I had in Italy, and I only hope that I will be able to do it all again sometime in the future. When that time will be, I do not know. What I do know is that the memories that I made during this short period of time will stay with me for years to come. Feel free to share this blog with anyone who is considering time in or around Rome - I only hope to help others to experience the wonder and awe that I came into contact with. Please continue to enjoy - I know that I will.
Thank you all again, and God bless.
Thus ends the 24th day. Thus ends Rome Revisited.
