Summary of Week One

So much has happened! Also, sorry about any crazy typos – the layout of the keyboards here is completely different.  I still haven’t found the “at” sign. 

Just in the first few days of classes I saw the Roman forum, the Coloseum, the Imperial forums, the Pantheon, and so much more.  Everything is so beautiful (at least in the old parts of Rome).

The Roman Forum, with an ancient Roman crane in the background

A Cat in the Roman Forum

I live in Trastevere with a woman named Beatrice, who is very nice.  She’s actually rather silly and makes lots of jokes.  I do think she wishes I ate more though. 

Here's my room.

We all went Tivoli during our first weekend here.  It’s a city near Rome that has the ruins of Hadrian’s Villa in it.  There is also Villa d’Este nearby, so we went to both.  It was so hot that day, but it was really cool walking around all the ruins.  Also, we decided that Hadrian was totally a nerd for building his palace in the middle of nowhere and then making rooms just for him (it was even separated by a moat).

Hadrian's Private Rooms

 

A field of poppies at Hadrian's Villa

Villa d’Este was wonderful after Hadrian’s Villa.  There was a huge garden and it was filled with water.  Not just fountains, but waterfalls and all sorts of unusual water features.  We actually had class in one of the little courtyards.

The reflecting pool in Villa d'Este

 We had the day off on Sunday, so I went exploring with Shelby.  We walked all over the centro and ended up meeting Ellen to hang out at a bar to while away the afternoon.

We saw some breakdancers at Piazza di Spagna.

That’s all for my first week, I’ll have a summary of the second week up soon.  Maybe I’ll even catch up to now.