First Week in Rome!

My first week in Rome is complete! I feel like the days have flown by, so much has happened since I boarded that flight to Italy just a few days ago. I'll try my best to catch everyone up!

I’m pretty new to the scene so I’m not quite sure of proper blogging etiquette yet, but I’ll try my best to tread that dangerous line between a grocery list of the day’s activities and an emotional diary that everyone feels a tad bit awkward reading.

I’ll begin my blog with my departure from the airport in Dallas. After saying my goodbye to the parents, I passed through security without a hitch, and soon found myself in seat 47C ready for the nine hour flight ahead of me. Unfortunately, as a rather puzzled English lady would soon point out, I was supposed to be in seat 45C. Whoops. Therefore, after some quick readjusting, I was off.

The flight to London had its ups and downs. For the first thirty minutes or so everything was great! Being a British Airways plane, all the flight attendants had accents (which I found way too amusing), all the seats had their own small televisions to watch movies on, and even the chicken dinner exceeded my expectations. As a taller-than-average guy, I had taken due notice off the lack of legroom (I had about an inch’s worth of clearance from the row in front of me) but it wasn’t anything I deemed unmanageable. Then it happened. Sitting in front of me was a burley older gentleman who decided that, being 5:30 p.m, it was about time for him to call it a night. I saw his hand reach towards his recliner button, my eyes widened in fear, and the seat came back well into my “personal space”. My first reaction at this point was literally to laugh, the people in my row gave me apologetic looks, but I assured them I’d survive. I don’t want to say that I was trapped, as I never really tried to escape the tight squeeze, but it definitely was a humorous start to my European adventure. Luckily, a couple of hours after the incident I was able to fall asleep for most of the remainder of the flight, waking up to the man’s seat thankfully returned to its upright position. I regret not taking a picture of this particular predicament, but hopefully you can picture the ordeal.

After landing at Heathrow Airport in London, I had an emotional farewell with the last Starbucks I would see for months and boarded my flight to Rome. Flying over Europe was a really cool experience, I was probably watching the GPS channel way more than should be allowed but seeing the Alps from above was a great way to start the day. My flight landed in Italy at about two in the afternoon local time and I met up with some students in my same study abroad program shortly thereafter. I was feeling pretty jetlagged at this point, and the hour-long wait for the shuttle driver wasn’t helping matters much, but wow did that drive to my new apartment wake me up. Growing up in primarily suburban areas, I had grown accustomed to the slow-paced, cautious driving style taught by the highly esteemed One Way Driving School in Lewisville. As became extremely obvious about thirty seconds into my shuttle ride, Italians did not learn to drive at One Way Driving School. This isn’t to say at all that Italians are bad drivers though! Megan was telling me just the other day that they actually have fewer accidents than we do in the States. Rather, the idea of proper “American” following distances, lane changes, and not parking on the sidewalk seem to be more like suggestions here. It definitely takes some getting used to, it all just looked like frenzy to me that first night, but it works great for those living here in the city!

After being jolted awake by the drive, I arrived at my new apartment on Via Di Monte Verde just as the sun was setting. It’s located in a very urban neighborhood just West of the Tiber River, with a number of pizzerias, gelaterias, and tabachhis well within walking distance. My apartment itself has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, and two balconies that overlook the busy streets below. Here are some photos of the new home!

The bedroom, luckily with long beds!

...bidet

 View across the street.

Down Via di Monte Verde

At night!

The next day, I headed to the American University of Rome for the first time to see where I would be studying during the upcoming semester. It’s a small concentration of buildings about thirty minutes walking distance from our apartment in Monteverde. After a few quick orientation meetings, my fellow sixty or so ISA students embarked on a walking tour of Rome. (There are more students in the university as a whole, some just aren’t in the ISA study abroad program). Up until this point, I hadn’t actually seen the historic district of Rome, just the residential region surrounding the city. Just a few minutes into the walking tour, however, we came to a vast overlook of the entire city that was truly amazing. To our left (the north) you could clearly see the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica and the boundaries of the Vatican City. To our right was Palatine hill, beyond which lies the Coliseum and Roman Forum. It was a very cool feeling to see so much in front of you, especially knowing that there were months ahead of you to explore it all!

 The American University of Rome

 Just before the walking tour with new roommates Derek, Thomas, and Mike

The overlook minus details, oops. The Vatican is to the left and the Coliseum/ Forum are to the right.

Galavanting (Thanks for the word Mr. D)

Piazza Navona

Over the next day and a half, our city tour guides helped us become accustomed to the city. It really is astonishing how many beautiful churches, fountains, and sculptures there are in the city. The first major landmark we came to in the tour was the Pantheon, which was much bigger than I was expecting. The interior is filled with incredible artwork and much of the building still lies in its original state. The only downside, as we soon found out, is that the Pantheon indeed did not have WiFi.

The Pantheon

The Coliseum was the next big attraction we saw as a group, and probably the primary landmark in Rome I was most excited to see. Again, the size of the Coliseum was amazing! Turns out my height wouldn’t have caused any trouble in Ancient Rome. The guide shared that it could fit 74,000 spectators, almost as much as Razorback stadium, and proceeded to detail all the engineering skill that went into constructing the building. One of the facts that I found most interesting about that Coliseum was that it was built by prisoners of war from Jerusalem around 80 A.D., shortly after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. Some of the most important pieces from the temple like the golden menorah and silver trumpets were even displayed at the area surrounding the Coliseum during this time. Having gone to Jerusalem a few years back, this was really interesting for me to find out. For those of who decided to skip ahead at the onset of my history rant, you can pick back up here.

Next in line was the Roman Forum, which definitely gave the best impression of what ancient life used to be like. There were ruins here that dated back over two thousand years, but the engineering and architecture was incredible, even by today’s standards. Ancient arches depicted Roman emperors returning from war, and again the scale was awesome.

The most recent place I visited was the Vatican, which I ventured to just this morning. In terms of artwork, this was by far the most amazing place I have ever been to. Going right along with the common theme, St. Peter’s Basilica is huge, the scale of the dome inside dwarfs everything else. On every wall there is ornate artwork, marble sculptures, and masterpieces from renaissance painters. In many ways it’s overwhelming to take it all in at once, but it definitely is an incredible experience! We arrived kind of late in the morning, so we had to save the Sistine Chapel for a later date, but even just visiting the main building made for a great day.

If you’re still reading this blog (I’m guessing about 13% of those who started) I’ll take this time to thank you for not being scared away by my random details or potentially too enthusiastic approach to all things historical. While my first week in Rome has been an incredible experience, the new culture, language and customs will definitely take some time getting used to before becoming routine. Even having visited so many places already, I feel like there is still so much to see in Rome and beyond. Our first day of classes beings tomorrow but I’ll be sure to keep my reader(s?) updated!

Arrivederci!