Benvenuti in Italia

Taking off and leaving the lights of New York City below, our plane glided above the clouds and began our journey to Roma! Kelly, Will and I all sat in the same row on the plane and it was a fairly smooth ride with little turbulence. I slept for short bits at a time, but I was really comfortable during the majority of the ride so it went fine. Next thing we knew they were turning the lights back on and serving us “breakfast” at what was midnight back home, but now morning (six a.m.) in Italy. We arrived a half-hour early at 7:30am and grabbed our bags at baggage claim before going through ‘customs’. Customs and passport check included a guy looking to see I owned a passport (not even looking at my photo or name) and then us walking through open doors in the “nothing to declare line” (never once having to do paperwork or show our luggage, prescriptions etc). Basically anyone could walk into the country with absolutely anything in his or her bags!

Leaving from the Pittsburgh airport!

Sunrise in Roma!

The Pantheon Institute was sending a shuttle for the 16 of us arriving between 8am and 11:30am, but the last flight wasn’t supposed to arrive until 11:25. Since we knew the shuttle would definitely not leave on time and we didn’t feel like waiting for 4.5+ hours with nothing to do in the airport, Will, Kelly, and I decided to begin our adventure! We found the train station, bought tickets and managed to get 4-50lb suitcases, 3 smaller suitcases, and 3 backpacks onto the train. Needless to say we took up a lot of space because those trains are meant mainly for passengers, not all the luggage! Once off the train it took us forever to figure out how to buy tickets and transfer onto the Metrobus. The Metrobus is basically a subway/streetcar raised maybe only two feet off the road. Adding that much luggage to a fully packed subway car created a lot of commotion, but people were fairly nice as our luggage (and me) fell every which way. It was quite entertaining but also embarrassing because not only were we already the center of attention, but at one point I almost fell and everyone gasped! After managing to get off the crowded car, we dragged all that luggage for three blocks over cobblestone roads and somehow lost our way.  After looking at maps and trying to figure out where we were, we discovered that we were basically standing a block from our housing the whole time without realizing it! We had a lot of laughs along the way, (especially from people’s comments on the street), and it was just enough hassle to make it an interesting adventure without being too difficult!

The housing consists of a really pretty courtyard that has an old persons’ home, and two student buildings surrounding it. We are in the mainly Penn State building on the first floor and I share a room with Kelly and Melissa. There are 3-4 girls per room on our floor, 3 bathrooms, and a kitchen and large shared living space. Upstairs all the guys have a similar set up with a floor just to the Penn State male architecture students. We think that the fourth floor is other students, but we have yet to meet any of them yet… The shuttle that we were supposed to arrive on finally showed up at like 1:30pm (3+ hours after we arrived at our housing), but Kelly and I were already heading out to see ROMA!

My bed

Our floor's kitchen

Our floor's shared living space

Today was the Epiphany in Italy, which is the day Befana (a little old witch) arrives and gives the good children presents. For the holiday the majority of shops and grocery stores shut down, but there was a huge holiday open market in Piazza Navona. Wandering the streets, we made our way there and saw all the Christmas decorations. We treated ourselves to a little Befana souvenir, and feasted on hot ciambella with nutella-they were these big donut looking things that are clearly so bad for you, but soooo delicious! Afterwards we wandered our way to the Pantheon, which is fairly close to Piazza Navona. While looking up at the outside of the Pantheon, all of a sudden someone grabbed my arm in the plaza saying BUONGIRONO very loudly to me!- it definitely scared me enough until I realized it was Shannon from the architecture program! We joined her, Chris and Alicia on our way back to find the apartment again.

Kelly with the last of her ciambella

Pantheon- it is sooo much bigger than it looks!

Area Sacra

Tiber River

Tomorrow morning the first thing we are doing is going out to the grocery market to buy food because all the food stores were closed today. Pretty much the only things we’ve had to eat since leaving the plane were the ciambella, wheat thins, and a little bit of pasta leftover from the roommates who got here yesterday (and could go shopping then)!

It has definitely been an exciting and interesting last 36 hours, and I am so excited for the next four months in ITALY!!