Roma, Italy - Day One

i'm sorry i can't show any pictures yet, but i will figure it out sooner or later. here is an over view of my first real day in Rome (the day i arrived doesn't count because i couldn't keep my eyes open). We woke up early and started on a long walking tour of Rome... Walked by the Palace of Justice, the Tiber River, and our first stop was the Piazza Navona. It was really cool. they have all these little piazzas which are like huge courtyards. there were two famous fountains in the piazza called the Fountain of the Four Rivers and the Fountain del Moro. They both were beautiful! and then we enetered the first of many many churches. but these churches are amazing! they are so detailed and HUGE. i have never seen a church like them before. my mouth was open in awe the whole time. We learned a lot about these two painters/architects/artists named Borromini and Bernini. similar names but totally different styles. it was really interesting! Then we went to one of the first Jesuit churches made and it was so beautiful (i have a feeling i am going to be using the same words over and over again, so bare with me). After that, we had lunch at a cute little International Student Restaurant. It had good cheap sandwiches. the food over here is sure different. The sandwich i had was this really good bread (carbs, carbs, carbs!!!) with mozzerella cheese (i think that is the most popular over here and it comes in little blobs) and this ham type meat called pruchuto (i dont know how to spell it but it is good!). And they only have Coke over here... no pepsi or Dr. Pepper! i don't know how i will survive but i will try! Then we went off to see Mussolini's balcony which was this huge white building. and then, the coolest part, we got to walk through the ruins of old central rome that was called the Forum. Not much was left, but it was still cool. Everything building there seemed to be made out of marble or stone. no metal or anything. it was really interesting. Then we went to the colloseum and that was amazing. it wasn't as big as i thought it was going to be, but once we got inside, it was huge! amazing how they built things back then. Then we took a break and i got some pizza which is very different than over here. they don't even have pepperoni! i had the ham type meat again with cheese and no tomato sauce. and they don't serve it in round pizzas, it is like long almost rectangular pizzas and then you tell them how big of a chunk you want and they charge you by the weight. it was good though. that night we took the metro (i'm a pro now at public transportation)to the Spanish Steps, which are these huge long steps that overlook the city. It was pretty at night and they had lots of beautiful purple flowers. We walked around trying to find food and then my friend Rebecca went to use the ATM and it ate her card. Then she found out that someone had stolen her atm card and credit card numbers and had withdrawn a lot of money from her account so she has had to deal with that as well. We ended up eating at a Burger King for dinner and then went home. It was a long busy day full of walking! but it was so cool to see everything!

The most beautiful Piazza... Piazza Navona...


The Pantheon...


Here is me in the Colosseum...