Roma
The Eternal City
01/10/2009 - 01/15/2009
View
Semester Abroad
on alyin2000's travel map.
Ciao a tutti!
Sorry everyone that I haven't written yet! It has been a whirlwind since I arrived in Rome! Plus, there has been some technical difficulties. A lot of things work differently here, including the internet. The blog isn't letting me upload photos in bulk right now, but hopefully I'll get that technical difficulty sorted out eventually. For now, I'm only going to be posting a few of my pictures because I have to upload them one by one...and that takes forever!
Rome is a beautiful city! It reminds me a lot of Chicago with how the old is mixed with the new; but instead of modern buildings mixed with those from the early 20th century, you have modern buildings mixed with those of ancient roman times! I was walking down the street yesterday and accidentally stumbled into the Pantheon. It was just sitting there in the midst of all the shops and restaurants!
I'm staying on the outer limits of the city in a more residential area. Our residence is called Residence Medaglie d'Oro because it is on Via Medaglie d'Oro (Gold Medal St.). It's a very safe place. Our security guard, Fabrizio, keeps an eye out for us and doesn't allow anyone who doesn't live here on the premises. I live on the fourth floor (lots of stairs!). Our apartment is much bigger than I expected for Italy, which is why we probably live so far away from the school. It's got this great retro-70's decor! I live with 6 other girls, and share a room with one other girl.
We have about a 40-45 minute (2.1 mi) walk to school, and in order to get there we have to walk right through the Vatican City.
So I get to see St. Peter's square every day! It's really impressive! I guess you can say I've exchanged one dome (the golden one at ND) for another!
Right next to the Vatican is our FAVORITE gelato shop called Old Bridge gelato. We've decided to indulge in a scoop of gelato every day because...when in Rome...haha! Because of this, the guys who run the shop are getting to know us very well! Lucky for us this means they give us even more ice cream when we go there!
Down the street from us is the 2nd largest open-air market in Rome. Our coordinator here told us that we're very lucky to have this resource at our disposal! In Italy, people buy the groceries for their meals daily. So, every morning the market is busy with people shopping for dinner. The market covers several blocks, and you can find anything and everything there! It is much cheaper than the super-market for fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, cheese, eggs, beans, spices, pasta, etc...
The weather: Rome in January is very very rainy! On average, it rains at least 17 days out of the month! Out of the 6 days I have been here, it has rained 4! Today it is 50 degrees and raining, but I hear that this weather is waaaay better than the blizzard you all are suffering back in Chicago. My apologies!
That's all I have time to write for now, I've got lots more pictures in my photo gallery, check them out! Please leave comments and questions, I want to write about what you guys are interested in!
Arrivederci!
-me
Posted by alyin2000 01/15/2009 01:52 Comments (2)
