Arrival Day in Rome

Flights went well today, actually slept a decent amount. I never want to fly another airline than Lufthansa, that's for sure! The food was actually really good, super nice flight attendants and and roomy/comfy seats (all with individual TVs of course). I watched Slumdog Millionaire finally and it was just as good as I expected, considering how much everyone built it up. Once I arrived in Rome I found the UGA reps pretty easily and was led to the group waiting for the bus. I was surprised to see Dana still there (she was supposed to be on the earlier bus) but then found out that 6 people lost their luggage!! I was SO glad to not be one of them since I normally never check bags and decided to for this trip. After a short wait we headed to the hotel and dropped our things off. Our rooms weren't ready yet, so we had to drop them off in this room with all the other UGA students (there is an art, science and drama program as well).

We headed to lunch after this, guided by Marco who is one of the drama professors and is actually from Rome. I was completely overwhelmed once we went into the restaurant which would almost be considered "fast food"- but the quality is anything but that. There were kebabs with a million toppings to choose from, an entire dessert case, and finally at least 10 huge pizzas with a variety of toppings to choose from. Some toppings included: proscuitto, fresh tomatoes, anchovies, arugula, ham, mushrooms, sausage, basil, fresh mozzarella, and caramelized onions. I like the way you order this precooked pizza, because instead of just getting an arbitrary "slice" like in the US, the guy puts the knife on a section of the pizza and your can tell him whether you want a bigger or smaller piece. Then it is just charged by the pound.

After lunch we decided to head into the heart of Rome to check out the Vatican. There were 8 of us (including me) who decided to go together and figured out the subway no problem, with some advice from Marco at lunch. Once we arrived at the gates of the Vatican City, I was immediately in awe. It was so large and incredibly detailed and beautiful. It was such a neat feeling to be standing in the huge area that I have seen on TV so many times before. Unfortunately, we did not go in because the lines were so long that we wouldn't have had time to get back to the hotel for orientation. So, we decided to head to the river next which was just down the street from the Vatican.

We wandered around the river for a while enjoying the scenery of tree lined roads, old statues, street performers, open air market stalls, and of course tons of traffic and mopeds. We ended up wandering through some little streets and alley ways and some little piazzas. Just the simple things here are so pretty. Even though all the shops in the alleys were closed, the buildings themselves are something to admire: flowering plants in hanging baskets as well as growing off the bricks, terracotta roofs, cute windows, and cobblestone streets. All of the buildings and roofs are beautiful oranges and greens, colors that I may not put together on my own but seeing them here love them. Of course to top it all off, a continual breeze carrying the scents of fresh baked pizza and gelato. It really is out of a postcard scene.

When we were done with our wandering we were debating whether we had time to go see anything else or if we should go back to the hotel. We decided we had plenty of time and this is when our real sightseeing began. We went to the Piazza del Popolo first and ended up arriving when they were having this huge police festival. Except the police here are awesome! They had police Lamborghini's, BMW bikes, scuba divers (in a huge tank, actually diving), helicopters and more. I got a picture on one of the motorcycles with a policeman and we wandered around looking at all the stuff they had out. Then we went up to the steps to look out over the entire piazza, which is actually one of the overlooks at one of the Medici family houses. We kept walking up on the ridge to the Medici gardens (which I had a private tour of last summer) and decided to not go in so we could go see the Spanish Steps.

It wasn't too far of a walk to the Spanish Steps from there, or better known as the Piazza di Spagna. From there we walked around and went all the way down the steps (they seemed much bigger than I remember) and filled our water bottles in the nearby fountain (the fountains are sourced from the spring and have completely potable water: way cool).  All the shops around this area are super nice designer stores so we had a quick look around, but then had to head back to the hotel.

Orientation was about an hour long after we got all our bags settled in our room, which was nice but teeny.  I don't know how the guys used the shower because I could barely fit in it myself!  Dinner was great; pesto pasta, skewers with chicken, sausage, and peppers, salad and a lemon custard tart for dessert.  Oh, and of course delicious table wine all you can drink.  I ended up going back to the room around 8:45p, and was completely asleep by 9:00pm.  6:00am wake up call for Rome tour and then travel to Cortona!