Rome.

I'M IN ITALY!

Spanish steps

Trevi Fountain

streets of Rome

Pantheon

Colosseum

ruins at the Virgin's Palace

all of our group in front of a Roma skyline 

(except Emily, who was taking the picture)

We've been here for two days now and it's been thoroughly exhausting in an amazing way.  We've seen so many monuments that I honestly can't remember all of their names. But I have pictures, of course. I do know that yesterday we went to the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and lots of other fountains and old ruins. It was ALLLL spectacular!  Today we went to the Colosseum, the Virgin's Palace, the Bone Church, which is a commemoration of deceased monks by using their bones to make art (it's completely mesmerizing and artistic and creepy and fantastic all at once), and then we went to these gardens at the top of a mountain where we could see a beautiful view of Rome!

Not to mention, the lunches and dinners have been so awesome and SO MUCH!  I'm talking three courses for each meal!!  I can't handle this...but I still each almost everything on my plate.  How could you not?? Today my lunch was a little smaller, but it was probably the best meal I've had so far! It was this cute little place in the metro station (a metro/train/bus station like no other) and I got this delicious pranzo speciale (lunch special) of a ridiculously yummy panini, choice wine, and caffe (coffee) to drink dopo (after  ...I'm learning already)

By the way, I've had three cappuccinos in the past two days and they are progressively getting better each time!  Hilary, one of the teachers, was telling Charlotte and I today all the places that would be perfect for us students to hang out at and apparently there's a great caffe place in Certaldo Basso that we need to check out. We've decided that we'll probably be there quite often.

There's one more day in Rome and I'm sad, but also super excited because leaving Rome means going to Certaldo!!  Tomorrow we're going to the Vatican and then pretty much have a free day, to roam around Rome. Yeah, we've used that joke a few times today.

Oh! The group we have is so great!! It's been two days and we all already get along! And there are no clicks to speak of so far, so let's hope it stays that way.  We all walk with different people each trip, sit next to different people each meal, and hang out as random groups. It's safe to say that this will be an amazing semester.

I've taken a LARGE amount of photos already, but I'll just share a few for now.

Ciao!