Touring the City

So I basically spent the weekend touring the city and realized this.
1.) "Getting Lost"=exploring.
 We Study Abroad students have decided that we never get lost. We are simply exploring. Which usually results in walking around sometimes in circles for hours on end. But this has actually helped me learn the city really well and I have a pretty good sense of where different monuments and sights are in relation to each other. So after standing at The Vittorio Emanuele monument which is this big white building... 

 

 We decided we were going to walk to see the Trevi Fountain. So we stood on the steps and came to a general consensus of what direction it was in then we started walking. I've given up trying to learn street names or recognize streets because they all look exactly the same. I knew it was straight a head and to the right a little so we just keep taking straights and rights until we got there.  And we eventually got there. The Trevi Fountain was so pretty. Everything here is beautiful my pictures don't even do it justice. I can't wait to go back and see everything at the end of the semester when it gets nicer out. So after the Trevi we took some more straights and made some lefts until we found this great restaurant were we could eat outside on cobblestone streets and drink wine like we're actually important. They drink wine like its water here its funny. Eventually we had to go back and once again we knew our general direction so we just took some streets and kept walking until we ran into the Vittorio. You would think that these huge monuments would be easy to pick out as landmarks from where ever you are but that's totally not the case. All the buildings and monuments are pretty much in the middle of neighborhoods and everyone here lives in apartments so when your walking through the streets you really cant see anything. And they all look like this....

LOOK AT THE LAUNDRY!-no dryers here :)

 This is one of my favorite pictures so I had to put it in. We ended the weekend with finding some pretty good hangout spots which I'm sure we will spend a lot of time at so I can write about them later and I'm sure you all have other things to do with your Sunday night! Arrivederci :)

Week 1

So far, my first week here in Roma has been so amazing. I'm getting to know some people, the are around American University of Rome and a little Italian as well. I love Italian culture because it is so laid back, they really know how to enjoy life over here. Yesterday I spent the night on a walking tour of Rome and got to know the area a little bit. We saw Mussolini's house, The Coliseum and the Spanish Steps today. I plan on going back to all of these as well as some other places in the future.

I'm getting a little better at using the bus and the tram and knowing which direction I'm heading in which is helpful since Wednesday night we got a little lost after we had been out for the night. We actually ended up sitting on a bus with this Italian bus driver ( who was so helpful and patient as we worked around the language barrier) and realized that we did actually know where we were at....so we thanks the bus driver, hoped off the bus, turned and walked about 100 feet and saw our apartment. We don't call this getting lost anymore, just learning :) Overall, people are pretty nice and really willing to help over here...yesterday our neighbors even brought us bread and some pastries to welcome us. I wish i would have been here so I could have met them but I was out on the tour. Today I was up pretty early and went to AUR to finish up some things and then a couple of other girls and I decided to explore. So we walked down through Trastevere which is a cute little neighborhood with shops and bars and other places to go then continued on down the Tiber river and across the bridge. We walked through some more neighborhoods and found the Spanish Steps. We sat on some steps in Piazza del Popolo for a bit and watched this little Italian band play. It was just how you picture spending your time in Italy.  We started our long walk back, stopped at a small shop and got a late lunch and then went in a couple stores. The workers at the place we had lunched called Fabio's are so nice. He said he was gonna make a list of some great places to eat for us as long as we came back and visited. Finally we were walking  on our way to catch the Tram home and I saw this Steeler's flag hanging outside a bar. Then I realized it was  La Boticella, the Steeler's bar that some people have told me about before. So we went in and talked to the owner a little and he seems really cool. Ill definitely be going back there (for the Superbowl and probably just to hang out as well!) Anyways, now I am back at the apartment and we are probably going to get ready and go out tonight. There's a Welcome Bar-B-Que at school tomorrow afternoon so hopefully I will be able to go up there and meet some more people. Overall things have been good here so I hope everyone at home is doing well!

Caio :)

Caio!
That means hello and goodbye and probably a few other things. My Italian is a little rough (more like non existent) but I am actually excited to learn. After hearing native speakers I can appreciate that it really is a pretty language. Anyways, I'm using this blog as a sort of journal so I can remember my semester in Rome but also keep a few family members and friends informed about whats going on in my life over here across the pond so I hope you enjoy.I'll try to post a couple pictures every now and then to change it up a little but I have never kept a blog or been much of  a writer-just a fair warning.

 After traveling for what seemed like forever on the biggest plane of my life I finally made it to Rome :)  I was a little sad when the plane was pulling out of the gate in Pittsburgh but the nicest lady was sitting next to me and was also on my flight to Rome. She was fluent in Italian and was going to see family so she helped me out a little and pointed me and some other study abroad students in the right direction once we landed in Rome. I met some more students also heading to the American University of Rome (where I'm taking classes at) and then we got a van to our apartment. Its cute, just big enough (for the six of us!) with a balcony but a little cold right now because the heat isn't always on and we cant control it.

-Our little bed room!

Today I just relaxed and we explored the neighborhood we are living in. For lunch we had pizza AND pasta with some wine. Dinner was looking like pretty much the same thing but we found this little place down the road were we could mix and match whatever we wanted so I got some vegetables and other things that I recognized since ordering is still such a challenge. I'm almost all unpacked and am going to try to catch up on my sleep tonight since I didn't sleep much on the plane. Tomorrow we are going up to the University to do some paperwork kind of things and look around as well as the supermarket. That's all we have planned for now. My stories will get a little bit better once I actually can manage my way around here-but that wont take long. That's it for now, hope all is well at home.