Roma is amazing so far.  It feels like I have been here for much longer than two weeks.  My friend and I traveled two weeks before the start of the semester, so maybe that adds to that feeling.  We started off in Roma, headed to Milan overnight, took a scenic train from Interlaken to Geneva (in Switzerland), stayed the weekend in Geneva, then headed to Paris for 4 nights.  After Paris, we spent the weekend in the south of France (Marseille and Nimes), and finished our adventure with 3 days in Barcelona.  It was an amazing two weeks, but I was definitely ready to stop living out of a suitcase and move into our Trastevere apartment.

Villa Adriana

My first two weeks here were not as relaxing or as free as I had hoped.  We were immediately thrown into an international competition with architecture, landscape architecture, and engineering students from all over Europe.  There were Italians, Turks, Romanians, Russians, Spaniards, a French girl, and then the 21 of us Americans.  Our two sites were Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa, in Tivoli) and Largo de Torre Argentina in Roma.  We were charged with designing a temporary theater at Villa Adriana and a museum and archeological site covering for Largo Argentina.  While I wasn’t thrilled to be pulling late nights and long days in studio in my first two weeks, the experience was amazing.  I can honestly say I will stay in contact with the two Romanians and two Italians from my group for a long time.  We are already planning trips to Romania and convincing our new friends to visit us in America when we return.  

Now that the competition is over and classes started yesterday, I am ready to settle into the routine and have more free time to explore this amazing city.  

A dopo!