Day 2

August 31, 2010

Day 2 in Rome. What an adventure…but in a good way. Today was the first full day that we spent out in the city. We started early in the morning with a 3 hour walking guided tour. We went to pretty much every piece of architectural history that I’ve studied in my architecture history class. We went to the Colosseum, the Roman forum, the Piazza Venezia, Altare della Patria, the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona. Despite my camera battery starting to die at the end of the Colosseum tour, I took at least 80 pictures by then end of the 3 hour tour. After the tour was over, we were free until 6:30. Between then, Olivia and Sabrina and I toured around a little on our own. We went to Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We were able to find the Trevi fountain just fine (thank you to the signs that pointed us directly to it! Haha) The Spanish Steps…now that is another story. We thought that we were on the right path to the Steps…turns out we had walked halfway home…which was the wrong direction of the Steps! Nevertheless, we turned around, went up a street we thought was the right one…and it was! It was super crowded at the bottom of the steps, so we walked up to the very top. It was so pretty. Since there was a break in the action, I decided to call my mom. She answered with “good morning.” (it was 1:30 PM Italy time, 7:30 AM Danville time!) Regardless, it was a BEAUTIFUL day to walk around the city. No clouds in the sky, just warm enough to be comfortable, a gentle breeze: the most PERFECT day.

We then came back to the room and relaxed until 5:30, which is when we left to walk back to the Piazza Navona to meet our ISA Directors and other students. From there, we walked across the Tevere (the river that runs through Rome) and went over into the Trastevere area. It is so gorgeous, especially when the sun starts to go down. It’s a little less crowded (but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a ton of people around still) and food is a little cheaper. We walked around the main square for a bit and then went into a beautiful church (I don’t remember the name of it because they said it so fast). Then we all broke up and walked around on our own. The 3 of us decided to go and find somewhere somewhat inexpensive in the Trastevere area. We found a cute little place and had pizza…real Pizza Margherita! Love love love it! It was so delicious. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to eat it all, but what I did eat, I loved it ☺ The real adventure started after we finished eating. We got to try and find our way home right at sunset. It took some figuring out and a little bit of walking in the wrong direction, but we finally made it back to the hotel, safe and sound. What was nice was that people were eating and we got to see the city all lit up; so much more beautiful. So now we are back in the hotel, all showered and now watching Meet the Fockers. It’s a little later than we went to bed last night, but it must just be from having done a lot today.

Tomorrow we are going to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel (so excited to finally see it!!!) and will be in S. Pietro Square. Be prepared for PLENTY of pictures (and probably multiple different shots of the same thing over and over again haha).