Arrival and Orientation Week

January 19th and 20th

My trip started with my father and I driving to Montreal for my flight to Rome, with Air France and a layover in Paris. Both my checked bag and my carry-on were underweight! I kept setting the metal detector off, so I was patted down both in Montreal and in Paris. Other than that, everything else went as planned.

During the layover in Paris, I met up with seven other ISA students who were taking the same flight into Rome as I did. The flight got delayed because of fog, so we got into Rome a bit later than scheduled, but ISA was still there to pick us up. Because we flew in from the EU, our plane landed in Terminal 1 instead of 3, which is where ISA pickup was scheduled to meet, but they surprised us and were waiting outside baggage claim for us.

ISA had hired drivers to carry us and our luggage to the apartment, giving us a chance to settle in, go grocery shopping, etc. The car ride was terrifying, because our driver was on his cell phone the entire time and didn't seem to want to stay in his lane. Myself and another ISA student named Jessica were in the very back of the van, and we were sure that we were going to die before we even got to do/see anything. We finally got to the apartments, where a group of people helped us bring in our luggage and showed us how to use our keys and walked us through the apartment. I had been awake for 27 hours by that point, so none of the details are sticking out in my mind.

ISA had told us to meet them downstairs in the lobby of our building by 6:30, so they could take the 8tram with us into Rome, to the last stop near the Trevi fountain. We had dinner, which was amazing! The first course, Primo, was a pasta sampler dish, which was very good. The Secondo and Contorno was Saltimbocca Alla Romana (veal topped with prosciutto and sage, and paired with roasted potatoes). Dolce was tiramisu.

After dinner, we had to take the 8tram back to our apartments by ourselves. One of the ISA directors led us back to the trams and "accidentally" put half of us on one tram and half on another. We all made it back safe and sound but it was a little nerve racking since we didn't know for sure what stop it was to get to the main road, to lead us back to Antonio Bennicelli where the apartment is.

January 21st

ISA/AUR had scheduled an orientation for 10:30, so myself and two of my roommates, who both happen to be named Hannah and are from central Ohio, left around 9:45 so we could be a bit early. We knew we had to take either the 44 bus or the 870 bus to get to AUR, but we could not find either of the bus stops to get on. We walked all over the nearby streets with the little maps ISA had given us, which weren't very helpful because the neighborhood we live in is cut off of the map. We finally found the stop for the 870 bus around 11:15 am and got on, but it didn't ever go north of where we boarded the bus, it just kept circling. So we got off when we were near our apartment and went back upstairs to call ISA and look up the 44 stop again. It turned out to be on the next street over from the main street near our apartment, so we all felt pretty stupid for not seeing it and figuring it out. We got to AUR around noon, where Vera, one of the ISA directors met us outside the gates of the school and helped us get started on filling out our student IDs and permit to stay forms. We then went to ISA's office to have the orientation we missed, but luckily we weren't the only group of students that got lost that day.

At 2:15 ISA had planned a walking tour of Rome, so myself and Hannah Squared had lunch at a little pizzeria, which was molto delizioso. We met back up with the ISA students and started our walking tour. It was amazing to see everything that I had learned about in middle and high school, and some of the things I had learned about last semester in my Italian Renaissance Art History class, like all the piazzas, the Pantheon, and all of the arcades and columns.

The View from Fontana dell'Acqua Paola

Graffiti near the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola. It reads "It is the hour of getting drunk! For do not be tormented slaves of time, be drunk always! Of wine, of poetry or of virtue, as you please.

Tiber River

A street near the Palazzo Farnese

Fontana del Moro in Piazza Navona

The Pantheon 

Sculpture of Christ on the Cross inside The Pantheon

Raphael's Tomb inside the Pantheon

Close up of the tomb 

The Trevi fountain is under restoration :(

But they put this up so I could still have my Lizzie McGuire moment :)

Ciao!