Welcome to School!

Arriving at school!

lounging in between class at the Ang.

Garden at the Angelicum

This morning (Monday), Thanos, our program director, thought it would be fun that instead of leading our whole group over to the Angelicum (where we take our classes), he would split us up in groups and we have to try to find the way ourselves.  It's 2 miles away of walking, with multiple routes, and this is the first time we were "unleashed" into the city by ourselves so....good luck!  Amidst power walking and trying to read invisible street signs, I didn't have much time to pay attention to the shops and beautiful buildings around me.  But I did notice on our walk that we were able to pass the Spanish Steps, the church that holds St. Borromeo's heart, the  Trevi Fountain, the main shopping strip, Piazza De Popolo, St. Peters Square, and other beautiful monuments.  Just imagine, I get to walk this route to and from school everyday!  Our group ended up getting there first and I was awed by how beautiful the school is.  First, there are courtyards in the middle of the school complete with fountains, orange and lemon trees, benches, and sun shining through the roofless estate.  Thanos treated us to caffe at the "bar" next to our classroom and showed us the garden we can study in during our free time.

We had a couple of hours before class started and a few of us went to visit the "Wedding Cake" building as we call it (it's really the fancy schmancy tomb of the unknown soldier) because it's so ornate and extravagant and white.  We were able to get up on top and view the whole city!  We discovered the Colosseum was only a couple of blocks away from our school!  It was so great to get some fresh air and get out into the city.

Wedding Cake (tomb)

We jumped right into our Art History class and it was so cool that our professor would say "oh and this is about 100 yards away from here..." instead of looking at these amazing artworks and dismissing them as far away somewhere in Europe.  It makes me want to go out and see these amazing works that are right outside my door!

View of City, Angelicum/Colosseum

My friends and I were on a mission that night to eat at an authentic Italian restaurant FINALLY.  We didn't have to work very hard to try to figure out Italian because our waiter picked us out right away and translated the whole menu for us, which will be very helpful for ordering in the future.  We each had different plates and shared, drank wonderful white wine, and even had cheescake!  Since we were sitting outside on the street, vendors kept coming up to us trying to sell us things and would run away when the manager poked his head out of the restaraunt.  It was wonderful to finally have a night of freedom, a true Italian hot meal, and share laughter at how far we have to go to truly understand the Italian culture.