We landed.
The last post was for my first assignment for class, so it's all insightful and whatnot, therefore, this post will be less lofty and more basic.
The transcontinental flight was fine, except that this was the first time I had flown abroad without those nice personal entertainment systems on the back of the seat in front of me. So we had eight hours on a plane with a few in-flight movies on far-away monitors. I had finished my book in the first fifteen minutes of pre-flight and takeoff, so I dedicated myself to improving my Italian. There was also lots of sleeping involved. Overall, it went rawther well.
It was 9 am in Rome when we got there, so we have now been up for 31+ hours. And we are loopy.
We're staying in the Hotel Trastavere in the Trastavere part of Rome, which is a charming area, complete with it's own piazza (we call it "our" piazza).
For lunch a few of my friends and I went to a little cafe. We managed to order using very very broken Italian and pointing. We got made fun of. We are proud of this fact. A man (probably a regular) came in and went up to the bar and started talking to the bar tender. He kept looking at us and grinning and gesturing in our direction and saying things like "italianitalianitalianSTUDENTESitalianitalianitalianINGLESE." I think he was making fun of us. He laughed (in a friendly way) in our faces as we left.
Here's what we've seen thus far:
The Pantheon
The Area Sacra and the homeless cats that inhabit it.
The Campo di Fiori
Piazza Navona
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
I will try to get pictures up before too long so there's more to see and less characters running together to read.
