A successful end to our first day in Rome

23 May 2011
11:20 pm - St. John's University

Today was an extremely long day, and even though it's pretty early compared to when I usually go to bed, I am ready to crash. Literally almost fell asleep at dinner. Rested my head against the window on the bus, which worked out fine til we hit a bump, which made me hit my head. Gonna keep this pretty short so I can just head to bed.

First of all, Romans are crazy drivers. All of them. Even the bus driver. All the cars they drive are those silly little smart cars or something of equal size, or they drive motorinos... in any case, they drive fast and crazy. I swear, they're all from either Massachusetts or Jersey. At least New York drivers are prepared to stop when pedestrians cross the road (most of the time...).

So, to pick up from where I last left off, we left St. John's just around 5 oclock. Dan and Jackie explained what we're doing tomorrow and gave us our bus passes. Then we took a bus down to Trastevere! Trastevere is an area in Rome, located in the 13th region (bonus points, Dan!), where the roads are narrow, windy, and are not paved. More like cobble stones, or however you spell them. We saw a woman wearing stilletos attempting to walk around - bad idea. Anyway, you are very likely to get hit by a smart car or motorino while walking around, so make sure you walk slowly and on the side of the road.

We climbed up some steep steps and hills, and ended up with an absolutely amazing view of pretty much the entire city (pictures to come tomorrow, when I get wireless on my own laptop!). We sat up there for a while, taking in the beautiful sites, taking group shots, etc. Probably one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen.

We then traipsed down more steep steps with low branches (I got hit in the face with one of them. Seriously, I thought I was short enough to avoid that!). Then the RomeKids sat around in the Plazza of Santa Maria in Trastevere for a while. There was a fountain in the center that, again, we took advantage of for a whole lot of funny group photos.

At this point, we had an hour or so until dinner, so we split up and explored for a bit. A bunch of us went into the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, right across from the fountain. That little adventure deserves its own blog post, coming tomorrow (hopefully with pictures and a video!).

So then Dan led us to the restaurant where he had made reservations (after getting us a bit lost and refusing to ask for directions. Typical man.). The pizza there was EXCELLENT, and we all enjoyed sitting around two huge tables for a few hours.

After dinner, most of the RomeKids and I followed Jackie as we got gelato (waaaaay better than ice cream), then took the bus back to St. John's. The others walked back. Normally I would have joined them, but considering I'm like the walking dead now, I'm not too sure I would've made it back.

All in all, our first day in Rome was a success! We're being kept plenty busy for the next two weeks, but it's all amazing and enjoyable! Off to bed with me!