Roaming around Rome

4 Rivers Fountain!

The Pantheon

Less than a week here and so much to say! This past weekend was a busy one, but quite enjoyable none the less! Roaming around Rome (ha ha, no pun intended :)) is definitely the thing to do! On Friday our entire group had a walking tour around a small portion of central Rome. Starting at the Piazza Navona and eventually seeing the Pantheon! The Piazza Navona (which is where the Roman circus used to take place) is such an incredible atmosphere! Live music playing, the 4 Rivers Fountain in the center (which was, at the time, the 4 largest rivers that were known: Ganges, Nile, Danu and Rio de la Plata), tons of vendors, artists selling their beautiful artwork, street preforms; you name it, it's probably there! Not to mention a handful of gelatarias as busy as ever with people like me that are in love with gelato! Rome is such an amazing place. I know I've said this a million times by now, but I can't express it enough. There is so much history here and modern life continues around it. You walk down a modern day street, turn the corner and boom! Some monument, or museum is unexpectedly right there in front of you! The modern, contemporary life has been built up around these massive, ancient Roman buildings and it has become apart of Italians' everyday life. Take the Colosseum for example. Driving to our apartment it did not look like the area for any sort of museum or anything of the like, but low and behold right around the hairpin turn, there lies the gorgeous Colosseum! I love it! The perfect combination of contemporary and historical!

Bars in Rome are more like cafes that we think of at home. Cafeterias or pubs are what we think of as bars in the US, and there are plenty of them! One in particular, Scholars bar (an Irish pub) is a great place for students to go. Why this one in particular? Because CSB/SJU students get discounts! And who doesn't love cheap, quality beer! I can now say that I have tried Guiness...opinion: Fantastic! I honestly didn't I would like it, but surprise, surprise, it was very good! This will definitely be a pub we all return to! Speaking of drinks, I had my first epsresso! (Free of charge, so even better) and after adding most of the sugar packet, it wasn't all too bad! haha

Guiness!

Sunday was our last day of summer (but it still feels like we're on a vacation here) and what better way to enjoy it than a day at the beach?! After an hour and a half metro ride and some wandering, we made it to the coast of Italy and waiting for us was the Tyrrhenian Sea (To be technical, it's not considered the Mediterranean Sea until farther off the coast). Either way, it was spectacular! Quite a different atmosphere than what I'm used to at home with little Square lake. Colorful umbrellas lined the shoreline, vendors toting their carts around selling coconut, dresses, bracelets, etc. Not going to lie though, having to tell these salemen no hundreds of times does get a little nerve wracking, but they are just doing their job I suppose. And talk about bikinis! Or in many cases, lack there of! Going topless for women is definitely not uncommon. We'll just leave it at that...The water, the salty sea water was perfect temperature though! But you get out of the water and your skin feels rather dry. Not only that, but the very fine, dark sand gets everywhere! A shower never felts so refreshing afterward! However, the day would not be complete without gelato! This time: Strawberry and chocolate! Delicious combo right there! :)

A beautiful day at the beach!

Monday, Sept 6: First day of school! First of school! Not a very stressful or overwhelming first day though. One hour and we were done at 10:30am! Pretty chill first day I'd say! It is going to take a while for me to get back into the swing of school work though! Up next for the weekend (possibly) Le Cinque Terre!

This is our CEA global Campus!

And the homework begins...

~Laura :)