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!