Day 4

I am slowly beginning to fall behind on keeping my blog up to date. The past few days have been packed with so many things to do, and even as I write this about what I did on day 4, I am looking forward to telling you what I am doing today (Day 6). It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be the one week mark in my trip. Hopefully as I begin to get further and further in to my stay here I will be more up to date with my blog.

On to day 4!

Day 4:


Day 4 began earlier than many of the other days that we have had before. We had to be at the CEA headquarters at 11 for a crash course in Italian. This was slightly interesting and very helpful because we were given key phrases to help us communicate around Rome. I met my Italian teacher for the semester, Nadia Cristiani. I didnt realize before I came that I would be taking Italian every day of the week, so hopefully when I get back I will know a good amount of Italian. The funny thing for me about learning Italian and attempting to speak Italian, is that my language now has become a meld of Spanish, English, and Italian. Because Spanish is so close to Italian, I find myself reverting back to what Spanish that I do know, which sometimes works, but other times does not. It is very interesting when attempting to talk to different people I encounter in  Rome. It is very easy to start out speaking to people in Italian, but then they think that you can understand what they are going to say next and begin rapidly speaking in Italian. You then reply with a very blank look on your face. So hopefully as the semester goes on, I will get more accustomed to speaking in Italian.

After our crash course in Italian, we had a break for lunch. A bunch of us went to a small cafe just down the street from where the CEA headquarters is. I got a salami and cheese panini and I had a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. (I watched them make it in front of me, it was deep red, I think it was made from blood oranges) My lunch was very refreshing and it was one of the better ones that I have had so far. After lunch we proceeded to have a little dessert at a nice little cafe that had gelato. This was my first Italian gelato (I had chocolate and cream and I was sadly not impressed, but read on and you will get to hear about the most amazing gelato that I have ever tasted). So after gelato we returned to the CEA headquarters for a talk from an Italian police officer about safety in Rome. This was very basic and he did not tell us too many things that most of us didnt already know, but overall it was very interesting to hear about safety from his perspective.

The next thing on the agenda for day 4 was a walking tour of downtown Rome. I will attempt to tell you all the places that we went, but I dont actually remember some of the names of the places. We started on the monument that was built in honor of the first King of Italy.



From the monument we moved on with the walking tour on to the Trevi Fountain (which I had seen the other night, but it was nice to see it again and here the information and history from our tour guide). She was a very short British woman wearing a very strange velvet jacket. We were all following her while wearing headsets so that we could all hear her. As you can see in the picture below, she is speaking in to a microphone.



We hit up many of the historic sites in downtown Rome. We passed by the Spanish Steps, which is where young Italian men come to pick up American women according to our tour guide. This area was extremely crowded. On the weekends, this is one of the busiest places in Rome, because not only are there are a lot of monuments, but this is where all the high class fashion stores are. (What these stores are I do not know, but if you can think of one, I am sure that it is there).



After seeing the Spanish steps we wandered down in to the heart of the city. Our tour guide pointed out many of, what are considered the best gelato shops in Rome. This is where I had the best thing that I have had in Rome so far. I had chocolate ricotta gelato, which I know sounds very strange, but it was one of the best tasting things that I have ever had  We found our way to the Pantheon (which I learned is not the Parthenon). The Pantheon is one of the only buildings in Rome with its original roof. The Pantheon was an ancient Roman temple, which was eventually turned into a church. The building is massive and in the center of the dome is a hole. The sheer size of some of the buildings here is stunning.



I very much enjoyed that walking tour, but was happy to get done and move on to dinner. I was able to meet my friend Jasmine, who I go to school with in Knoxville, for dinner in Campo de Fiore, which is a trendy part of town, where a lot of American college students come to hang out. Jasmine and I went to a typical Italian restaurant. We sat outside next to a heater looking out on the square and enjoyed a very nice meal.

After dinner I returned to my apartment by bus and proceeded to hang out with my roommates and some of the other people from my program.

As you can see I have been having some very busy days. In my next post I am going to post some pictures of my apartment (partially because I want you to see it, but partially because day 5 was very uneventful)

Ill leave you with this. A difference that I have observed between America and Rome is the acceptance of PDA. People in Rome are much more apt to show affection in public and at times it is very strange. Very very strange......