First 48 Hours of Rome!

So, after an unfortunate 3am wake-up call (while still jet-lagged) and a 2 and a half hour flight, we finally arrived in Roma! The flight definitely felt shorter after a 7 and a half hour flight just a couple days before, but it was definitely not a nice spacious 747 aircraft and sleeping wasn't exactly going to happen despite my 2 hours of "sleep" I was running on.

However, despite the lack of sleep, the beautiful, sunny, and 57 degree weather felt amazing as we stepped off the back steps of the plane. Once again my bags were fortunately on the plane (unlike Emma's and some others) and we took a 30-40 minute bus into the city to our hotel.

Surprisingly, driving into the city of Rome looks like Florida...hard to explain but the roads and the lights and trees all remind me of Florida. As we got more into the city I couldn't stop looking down every small street an ally, every where you look it was beautiful, colorful, and different, not one building or area looked the same.

We checked into our hotel and headed out for a group lunch. As we walked down the street, I couldn't grasp what I was seeing. The ginormous monuments and buildings that were built centuries ago and still remain in almost perfect condition; the sizes of these really make you feel like a little person in a big world. Walking into the restaurant, everyone stared - Americans were here.

I began to experience my first real language barrier culture shock. Not only do I not know Italian and people don't always know english, but I barely remember the French I even took a couple years ago. Explaining that I am gluten free at an Italian, carb-based restaurant is difficult and most meals result in a chicken breast and lettuce so far, but I'm starting to get the hang of it (I finally got risotto - a rice pasta - tonight).

Later that night, some of us went to explore the city and try to replace the toiletries the London Heathrow security conveniently threw out before our flight today. While we were unsuccessful because we couldn't speak or read Italian to figure out what we were buying, we were successful in finding cheap wine on our way home (aka 2 euros).

After a couple glasses of that and being up for almost 24 hours, I almost didn't wake up this morning for our first orientation meeting.

Following the orientation, we were given a break for lunch where we wandered to a restaurant down the block from our hotel. Coffee and salads filled us up (or so we thought) for our tour of central Rome!

The tour covered the Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Spanga, San Maria Sopra Minerva, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and Campo dei Fiori. I definitely felt myself channeling my inner Lizzie McGuire as I recognized all the places from the movie. Even with the rain, everything was absolutely breathtaking. From the monuments to the piazzas to the small buildings and christmas-light decorated restaurants on the streets, there was always something beautiful to look at. What we thought was going to be a two hour tour turned into almost 6 hours.

Our tour guide (one of our professors this semester), really likes to talk...about everything. He also got sidetracked a lot causing us to stand in one place for about an hour each. While I learned a lot, my feet were definitely wet and tired. Thankfully, we finished off our tour with gelato and a bar, the Drunken Ship. We all sat and recouped with food and drinks before heading on a bus back to the hotel.

After a long day, another cheap bottle of wine was purchased in order to prepare us for the rest of the week!

Cioa for now,
Libby

  The very average view from my hotel room 

 Some places like the arch and colosseum are conveniently about a block from my hotel and served as great night walks and views during my runs in Roma 

 

Some of the views from the Spanish Steps