I wrote this actually about a week ago and forgot to post it, but here we go. So, I arrived in Rome and thought my flights went rather smoothly, but I suppose my luggage disagreed. I arrived in Rome to find my checked bag missing. After a frantic call to the program’s staff to be sure they won’t abandon me at the airport while I run late dealing with this, I fill out the paperwork and await news of my bag. I travel quite a bit, and have traveled internationally not too infrequently, however I have never had to deal with lost luggage before, certainly not on my own. But I know it happens, and while it was somewhat frustrating, since there was nothing more I could really do about it for the time being, I wasn’t too phased.
Besides, I was in Rome! Well, that first night we were all kind of tired and just really wanted to sleep (in fact, all five of my roommates were asleep upon my arrival, but they’re very nice and jetlag is the bane of all our existence, so it was understandable). The program took us out to dinner and what I (and several others) DID find a bit jarring was the fact that my program essentially gave us a quick run-down on how to get tram and bus tickets, took us to the restaurant, and then essentially sent us out on our own. Luckily I have some familiarity with the London bus system, which combined with my (extremely) broken Italian was enough to get us around without getting lost.
The next day, however! The next day my program, ISA, went on a walking tour of Rome. We saw the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain (you know, the one from the Lizzie Mcguire movie?) (And yes, that’s what just about everyone knows it from). A couple of my roommates actually saw if a few times as they got lost for around 6 hours…but that’s not my story to tell. Anyways, we saw lots of beautiful sights and got gelato from an AMAZING gelato place. I believe it’s called the Gelateria della Palma, look it up, it’s fantastic.
The following day (Thursday) we started out with a bus tour that took us around the various hills of Rome, but we got off at the Colosseum. The weather was beautiful and I got so engrossed with the Colosseum I actually almost lost my group, but I caught up. As a history major and classics minor I already knew quite a bit, but it’s always interesting to hear what new facts the tour guide has. At one point she and I delved into a discussion on Roman history…which apparently everyone heard over the radios, which explained why when we finished our conversation there were at least half a dozen people staring at me…oops. We also saw the Roman Forum. The Forum and the Colosseum were just about my top two places I wanted to see, so I that was nice. It’s one thing to have been reading about these things in books and seeing pictures, but it’s so much more in person.
This past weekend I went to Venice for Carnevale, which was spectacular, but this post is getting too long already. I shall have to write about it in another post soon so that all you dear readers are not left in suspense for too long. (Though I still doubt anyone is reading this, and if you are, I don’t think I know you so…hello I guess! Or maybe I should say Ciao? Eh, doesn’t matter and this post is getting kind of long, so I’m just going to say goodbye! Actually, yes Ciao works great because it can be both hello and goodbye…I think. Ciao!)