I Swore I Wouldn't Title This Entry "When in Rome"

Last Friday we took our first field trip to Rome. Our whole group of twenty or so made the trip all together. Our train from Orvieto left at 7:30 so it was an early morning. Like the tourists we are we managed to screw up the train ride. When we got on the train we had twenty or so "reserved" seats for us but people were all over the place because they don't actually sit in their seats. So, we moved everyone all over the cabin just so we all had seats together. Talk about stupid Americans. I really hate going around in large groups being tourists, but when in Rome...

We arrived at the train station and took the subway to the Coliseum and from there we went to Palatine Hill and saw the Roman Forum. From there we went up Capitoline Hill and saw Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio with Marcus Aurealius' statue. We lucked out with the weather again because it was a beautiful day. So we sat there in the sun for a bit then moved onto the Jewish Ghetto where we saw the location where Aldo Moro's body was found after his assassination by the Brigate Rosse. We went to the Piazza Mattei and saw the Fontana delle Tartuge which is a beautiful small fountain. On our way to the Pantheon we went through the Piazza Navona which I wish I could have spent more time at because it is such a huge space in such a dense city. We didn't spend too much time anywhere because we were trying to get to so many places but we are so close to Rome that we can come back on weekends to explore on our own. Our last stop as a class was the Pantheon. It definitely lived up to the hype. I was very impressed with it. Again, it's so hard to describe the emotions when you are in such a place. You just have to be there. I could picture being in the Pantheon while it is raining or snowing having it fall through the space. I think my favorite picture from Rome was the one I took in the Pantheon looking into Alex's sunglasses.

The Pantheon was the last place we saw as a class. We broke up and went our separate ways before heading back to Orvieto. A group of us headed to the Trevi Fountain which was amazing especially in the sunlight. There were a ton of people there and for the end of January I was pretty surprised at all the people. After the Trevi we went to the Spanish Steps and again was blown away by the real thing. That is a serious set of steps. Again, tons of people and so many steps to sit on. The views of the Roman rooftops were pretty neat. On our way back to the train station we stopped and got pizzas which were 4 euro for a whole pizza. We were stuffed and walked all the way back to the station. Had a small issue with finding our train to go back to Orvieto because they decided to switch platforms on us. But everything turned out ok and we made it home.

Other than looking like extreme tourists the first trip to Rome was a success and fortunately we will be heading back to Rome but not as a big group. Although I've been to Rome before this experience was so much better because we had a whole day to spend wandering around. I can't wait to go back and spend some quality time at some of the places we saw.

This Friday we go to Florence so it will be a short week looking forward to that. But until then I will be spending more time exploring Orvieto.