Day 2: May 7th

Day two started off at about 8:45a (1:45a Memphis time). I slowly got up and got ready, but I was just a living zombie. I was so jet lagged that entire day, not to mention I was fairly cold most of the day. I stumbled down to breakfast at about 9:15a and had a croissant with Nutella (I love that stuff!), a peach, and several glasses of orange juice. I was very disappointed that there was no protein. I was really hoping for some eggs or something to that extent.

The group (all of the students) had to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 10a in order to start our walking tour. We meandered towards Piazza di Spagna to see the famous Spanish Steps. We were lucky to see them at this time of year because they are covered with azaleas to celebrate the beginning of spring. We then met up with a tour guide who handed us these gaudy headphones that screamed tourist. She told us all there is to know about the Spanish Steps and the fountain in front of them. The fountain’s water is drinkable because it is from one of the original aqueducts. We walked past some monument (didn’t make an impression but I do have pictures). We also went by Tempio Adriano the Rome Stock Exchange that used to be a temple that has an old aqueduct in front of it. This was all on the walk to the beautiful Fontana di Trevi. Sadly, I was still so exhausted that I just wasn’t that excited and it hadn’t registered that I was in Rome.

We continued on to see the Panthanon, which used to be a majestic and beautiful temple to the Pagan Gods and Goddesses and is now a catholic church. We had a twenty minute break from our walking tour for lunch and to explore the Panthanon (not at all long enough!). I had a bacon and cheese pizza with a blood orange powerade (so yummy!). From the Panthanon we walked down to Piazza San Marco. Piazza San Marco holds Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, or The Wedding Cake of Italy. Across the street was Colonna Traiana and down the street were the ruins of the ancient senate. That’s what really got to me because I’ve just finished my ancient history class, which ended with Roman politics. It was so cool getting to see where the senate met, the road where the important politicians walked to the senate, and where Caesar was assassinated.

All of this was on the way to the Colosseo, Coliseum. The Colosseo was amazing despite the rain and the chill in the air. I just didn’t “awe” me like I thought it would. I think this is because by this point there was too much information being crammed into my mind and we were just so rushed at this point. Outside of the Colosseo was the Arco do Costantino.

After our very long, very rushed walking tour, we split up into different groups depending on what we wanted to do. My group wandered back down Via del Corso (essentially Main Street) and shopped. I didn’t find anything exciting and decided to save my money for an upcoming shopping trip to an outlet mall for Prada, D&G, and many other designers. We then went to a little café/bar thing. The waitress was so upset that all we wanted was a drink so she took an unnecessarily long time to bring us our drinks and when she did they were terrible! I got a margarita and it was ¾ tequila and ¼ flavoring. Everyone else got long islands and they said they said it was horrid.  We finally got our checks so we could head back to the hotel.

We finally get back at 7p and don’t have any time to do anything because we have a meeting at 7:30p to go over the course material again. Finally (I’m starving by now…) we make it to the restaurant, Le Lu Lo (or something like that) where we were served this vegetarian dish with zucchini, eggplant, and a cheese in the mozzarella family. Next was the main dish, chicken and rosemary potatoes (so happy to finally have a large amount of meat), and desert was this milk and heavy whipping crème mixed together (like a thicker pudding) with raspberry sauce. Of course there was wine, too!