First days settling into my new home: ROMA!

After finally arriving in Rome early in the morning on January 4th, I am finally settling into my new city! During my layover at the Washington DC airport I met up with another girl in the program- Gina- who was on my flight to Rome, making my first international flight much more manageable. However, we were within minutes of missing our flight because we were sitting at the wrong gate but ran through the airport to board in the nick of time (I felt like I was on the Amazing Race)!

After touching down in Rome, we quickly went through customs, grabbed our luggage, found a cab and were on our way to Campo de Fiori. A 45 minute cab ride later, we arrived at our destination- The University of Washington Rome Center. Once arriving at the center, we all were given keys to our apartments and off to explore our new city! However, there was one small obstacle we had to get through before we could go out and explore: dragging our luggage through the cobble-stone streets. While the streets are beautiful, they are not the most conducive to American-sized luggage!

After dropping our luggage off in our apartments we headed out into the heart of Rome. Our stomachs growling, our first stop was to get our first authentic slice of Italian pizza. Walking and eating we took in the beauty of the city. All of the markets filled with fresh fruit, meat, flowers, spices, and pasta are truly amazing. At the market we all purchased items to cook a group dinner together. Laura, Jenny, and I each purchased a 5 euro bag of pasta but quickly realized we had been haggled when we turned around and saw a bag for 1 euro! That evening we all shared our first homemade Italian meal together.

On our second day, we all met at the Rome Center bright and early for a tour around Rome. The streets were bustling because it was the day before The Epiphany (when the 3 wise men brought the gifts to Baby Jesus). I was confused why in all of the "supermarkets" (The largest is the size of a local gas station in the US) I had been seeing Christmas stockings and ornaments for sale but the presence of this holiday explained it. Later that evening we all went on an evening historical walking tour to the 3 fountains in the Piazza Novano, then onto the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and ended at the Spanish Steps. My favorite part about this walk was the carnival that was going on at the Piazza Novano. There were people everywhere and children carrying balloons and playing games in preparation for The Epiphany- It felt like my second Christmas! It was also quite the experience to throw pennies into the ornate Trevi Fountain. On our walk to the Spanish Steps, we also saw many of the Embassies.

On day three we took a walk to the Vatican City. While we did not go into the Vatican itself (we are saving that for another day), simply being in the St. Peter's Square was extremely surreal. This was the day of the Epiphany so there were many Romans in the square admiring the Nativity scene as well as the Christmas tree in the center of the square. We walked through the great doric columns and admired the statues of 140 saints adorning the top of the virtually every column in the square. While admiring the square I chatted with the swiss guard who were guarding the entrance to the Vatican City. It was quite hard for me to take them seriously since they were dressed up like Jokers! After leaving the Vatican we walked along the Tiber River and admired the Castel Sant'Angelo (mentioned in Angels & Demons) where Hadrian and many other emperors of Rome were buried before their tombs were destroyed when the Castel was converted into a Fortress and finally into a castle by popes in the 14th Century. On our walk back to Campo de Fiori we saw countless artists painting beautiful watercolors of the view from the River. Finally, our last stop of the day was to a wonderful gelateria. At this gelateria there were University of Illinois stickers (the owners have a longstanding relationship with an architecture professor there) posted in all of their refrigerators- a little taste of home!

Yesterday, we continued our explorations and set out discover the Roma Termini and purchase train tickets to Florence for next weekend. The Termini was fairly far away but we enjoyed the walk. On the way back we stopped to view the Spanish Steps during the day and went into the Trinita dei Monti (the chapel at the top of the steps) and admired the frescoes of many artists studying under the Raphael School. One of my favorite fountains I have seen thus far is the one at the bottom of the Spanish Steps: Fontana della Barcaccia sculpted by Pietro Bernini. While this fountain is quite small in comparison to the other fountains throughout Rome, it was very charming! From the top of the steps there is a beautiful view of the city and the hills of Rome. After exploring a little longer and walking down the Via dei Condotti admiring the many of the shops, we headed home.