La Dolce Vita

Ciao!

This was my first week of classes at John Cabot University, the American University I am studying at in Rome, and I just wanted to tell you all a little bit about them. I'm really excited about all of my classes; it looks like I will be learning a lot this semester!
On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have an Italian Literature course about the book the Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri. This is probably the most important piece of literature for Italians. Dante is kind of like Italy's Shakespeare. My professor is very Italian: she speaks no English to us in class, and she speaks really fast!!! I've already read the Divine Comedy in English for my major, but I figure that there is no better place to study Italy's most important literature than in Italy itself! It's going to be a challenging class, but rewarding.
On Wednesdays, I also have another class called Rome Sketchbook. This class makes me a little nervous because I've never taken an art class before! I usually just stick to music, but I thought it would be a good idea to branch out and try something different. After all, this experience is supposed to change your life or something like that! My professor is a very artsy guy. Every week, we meet in a new place and sketch for about 3 hours. Next week, our assignment is to go to St. Peter's Square and sketch the Vatican! We'll soon see if I have any artistic talent! If not, I'll at least have seen some cool places in Rome!
On Tuesdays I have another art class; this time, an art history class. The class is called Ancient Rome and its Monuments. Our professor is British, and very, very knowledgeable about her field. On the first day of class she took us out in the city, and pointed out ancient Roman stuff to us that I would have totally missed if I had not taken her class! I can't wait to share with you all some of the stories she is telling us. This class is a very unique way to learn about Rome!
On Tuesdays, and Thursdays, I also have two other classes. The first is the Victorian Novel class. It's a bit unconvential to study British novels since I'm in Rome, but I think I will still be gaining a lot from the course. Our professor used to teach at Oxford University in England and she is a specialist in her field. In her class we are reading Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, The Moonstone, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which are all great books! At least it will give me something to read during long plane rides and train rides!
The last class I'm taking that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays is called Modern Italian Drama in Translation. It's taught by this little old lady that looks exactly like my grandma with brown hair. She introduced herself as a person who can't take anything seriously, and who loves to be a rebel. She told us that she had only just gotten into Rome the day before because she was detained in America. She was detained because as she was going through security at the LA airport she told the people frisking her that they had overlooked frisking her stomach, which had a bomb in it! Well, she thought it was a funny joke, but the airport security didn't. 5 policeman arrested her and she had to go to a hospital to get x-rays to make sure there was no bomb in her stomach! She said she doesn't know if they'll ever let her go back to America! We were all shocked at the behavior of this little old lady! But then she told us that when she was 12 years old her whole family was sent to a concentration camp (Auschwitz specifically) because her father was anti-fascist. Somehow, she managed to escape and run away. So ever since, she's been a little defiant toward authority! Her class will definitely be interesting! I'm sure I'll be telling you about all her antics throughout the semester!

Well, that's a little review of what has happened this week! I'm off to Paris for the weekend! Be sure to watch for a new post and some pictures of the Eiffel tower when I get back!

Buon giorno a tutti!

The other day my roommates Fatima, Genevieve, Elysia, and I headed out to see some of those places Rome is known for. Our first stop was the Colosseum. We took the Metro there. It's just like the CTA but much much cleaner!!! As I walked out of the Metro station, I saw the Colosseum right in front of my face. It overwhelms you with its massiveness!

Fun Fact from Rick Steves: The actual title of the Colosseum is the Flavian Ampitheater (Anfiteatro Flavio). It was later nicknamed colosseum (wonder of the age) because of its colossal size!

We walked across the street, and right into one of the biggest tourist traps in Rome. We couldn't walk two feet without someone confronting us offering their guided tour services, advertising their Pub crawls ("Hey girls, want to go to a party tonight?" they ask), or trying to sell us a variety of postcards, scarves, and other trinkets. There are also men walking around in costume offering to have your picture taken with them: for a fee, of course.


We decided not to pay to go in because many of us are taking Art History classes that take field trips to these sites. When I do go back, I'll write another post that explains some of the more interesting historical information...for now, just enjoy the pretty pictures! While we were walking around the Colosseum, we stumbled upon an extreme biker and his camera crew.

It looked like they were shooting some kind of ad, and the biker was doing all kinds of daredevil tricks on the Colosseum.
Check out the video below to see him in action!

After the Colosseum, we circled back toward John Cabot's campus and passed the Arch of Constantine, Roman Forum and Circus Maximus along the way.

The Arch of Constantine commemorates the military coup that made Christianity mainstream. (Constantine was the emperor that legalized Christianity)

After eating some free pizza at school (we're all about free food now!), we walked down Via del Corso (which is famous for its good shopping) to go to the Piazza Spagna. The Piazza Spagna is well-known for the Spanish Steps.

This is the widest, and longest staircase in all of Europe! The steps lead up to the Trinità dei Monti church.

After visiting the church, we headed over to the Villa Borghese Gardens, which are Rome's version of New York's Central Park.

We also have started to cook real dinners in the apartment. These are pictures of our first attempt and success! It was a little difficult to pull off because our kitchen is less than stellar (Genevieve was cracking pepper with the back of a spoon...), but we made it! We had to take a picture to commemorate the event!

From the left, Greg, Fatima, Elysia, Charlie, Genevieve, and Mark.

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

Hey everyone! You found me! I'm hoping that this page will enable me to keep all of you posted about my semester abroad in Italy. I'm not the best at maintaining these blog-things, but hopefully I'll do better this time! If you want to subscribe to this page, you will receive an email notification when I make a new entry. This might be more useful than checking the page often.