There is a pathway that connects Vatican City with the Castel Sant’Angelo.  Whenever the Pope was in danger, he would leave Vatican City and take refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo.  It was essentially his fort!  is actually an old fortress.  At the top of the Castel is Michael the Arc Angel.  The statue was put there after a plague devastated Rome and the Pope led a procession around the city of Rome praying for God to intervene and end the plague.  When the procession made it to the Castel Sant’Angelo everyone saw an image of Michael the Arc Angel holding a sword.  Shortly after this, the plague ended. 

After seeing this, I ventured into the winding cobblestone roads behind my apartment.  My apartment is situated in what was the rich section of Rome during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, so chances are that I am walking on the same roads some of the great minds of Rome walked on.  There are so many great looking restaurants close to me – I hope I can see them all!  After about a 10 minute walk (and passing the famous “Steeler’s Bar” in Rome), I stumbled into the Piazza Navona which is considered to be one of the nicest Piazzas in Rome. 

This is a fountain that is in Piazza Navona.  Piazza Navona is a very touristy place, but that does not detract from its beauty.  There are artists selling their gorgeous art, a lot of cafes along the sides of the piazzas, and musicians playing the “typical” Italian music.  I could definitely see myself walking down to that Piazza to people watch while enjoying some gelato.

After seeing the Piazza Navona, I continued on to see the Forum and the “Wedding Cake” (a name that tourists gave to a monument commerating Victor Emmanuale – it actually looks like a wedding cake!).

Largo Argentina.  It is actually below street level by at least 30 feet.  The reason for the change in street level is because the Tiber River used to flood every year.  This led to a higher street level.  The Romans eventually built walls around the Tiber River to keep this from happening again.

This is the Wedding Cake AKA “Il Vittoriano”.  Il Vittoriano is also home to Piazza Venezia, another well known Piazza in Rome.

I then walked down the Via del Corso which can be equated to New York’s 5th Avenue.  It has a lot of very well known stores.  Along here, I bought a cell phone with a company called Tre.  This was very challenging because it was the first time I had to use upper level Italian, but I succeeded and got a phone.  Very proud of myself, I continued on my way up the Via del Corso. 

The Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps are both a block off of the Via del Corso.

The Trevi Fountian.

The Spanish Steps.

A fountain near the Spanish Steps.

I then walked to the Piazza del Popolo and went back to my hotel.  I was amazed to see how many amazing and famous sites were within walking distance to my apartment.  I even missed a site along the way – the Pantheon.  The Pantheon is a 10 minute walk from my apartment.  Rome is truly an amazing city. 

The next day, I took a hop-on, hop-off tour and was able to see some other sites like the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and the Baths of Caracalla.  

Then, it was the day I’ve been waiting for since I knew I wanted to study abroad – move-in day.  Our apartment is absolutely gorgeous and exceeded my expectations in every single way.  It is less than a 2 minute walk from the IES Center where I will be taking all of my classes.  It has a great view of the Castel Sant’Angelo from my window.  There are two bedrooms, a huge living room, a kitchen with a dishwasher and a washing machine, and separate dining area.  I was so happy that we have a washing machine because it would have been painful to bring my laundry to a laundromat every week!

This is my room.  My bed is the one closest to the window.

This is the view from my window looking to the right.  Not a bad view at all….

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am in an “Italiano a Casa” apartment which means that all four people who live in my apartment can only speak Italian within the confines of my apartment.  The hope is that by using Italian in an everyday conversational context I will be able to pick up Italian at a much faster rate than I would otherwise.  It is definitely working – one of my roommates, Silvio, is an Italian student who attends the University of Roma Tre, another of my roommates, Jordan, is an Italian major and goes to Seton Hall, and the last roommate, Zach, is an Italian minor at Connecticut College.  My Italian is definitely the worst out of the group, but I look at it with a sense of optimism in that I have the greatest chance to improve my Italian. 

I can already see a difference in my Italian.  When I first arrived in the apartment, I understood around 60% of what my roommates said.  This was partly because I was not used to listening to Italians talk as fast as they do.  Now, I have gotten used to the speed and have built up my vocabulary a bit.  I would say I understand about 70% of what my roommates say – not a bad improvement for only 5 days!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were the orientation to IES Rome.  We were introduced to the staff, listened to a police officer talk about the rules of Italy and how to stay safe, learned how to take the public transportation in Rome, and took our Italian placement exams.  I placed into Italian 301.  I’m very happy I got into this one because I did not do very well on the oral exam.  The questions they asked you were hard to answer in English, yet alone Italian.  The hardest one was “If you were the President of the United States, what would you do?”.  I obviously did well enough to get into the 300 level class which will transfer to Penn State and satisfy the requirement for my minor.

We also had the chance to introduce ourselves to the other students.  It definitely is true what they say about Penn State – we travel well.  There are 16 other Penn Staters in the program (143 students in total), so Penn State was the most common school.  I had the opportunity to meet people from many schools including Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Emory.  Everyone at the program is so outgoing and so much fun to be around.  I could easily see myself socializing with anyone over here.

On Friday, we took a tour of the historical section of the city.  We saw many sites that I already saw like Piazza Navona, but I got to see the Jewish Ghetto which was very interesting.  It has all been torn down, but all the Jewish people of Rome had to live in an area of four square blocks between the years of 1555 and Italian Unification in 1861.  It is estimated that at one point, there were over 9,000 people living in those four square blocks.  The Jews were also forced to go to Catholic mass on Sunday.  The people who remained in the Jewish Ghetto after Italian Unification were also the first people to be sent to concentration camps in Italy during World War II.

On Saturday, IES hosted a scavenger hunt called the Amazing Roman Race.  This was very exhausting as we had to walk to pretty much every major site in Rome in period of three hours. 

That brings me to today.  This morning, my roommate and I went to an open air market called Porta Portese which is the largest open air market in Rome.  It is open on every Sunday and the vendors sell things from clothes to electronics to old books and postcards.  I bought an alarm clock for 10 Euro, so I was satisfied.  Tonight, we’re going to one of the “American Bars” in Rome to watch the Super Bowl.  It starts at 12:30 AM, so it is going to be a long night.

I apologize for the length of this entry.  I will try to update my blog more frequently once things calm down.

Ciao,
Mike