We went on a walking tour with our Lit professor and couple of nights ago and hit up some of the major sights of downtown Rome including Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. A couple of my roomates and some of the guys who live in our building decided to head down to the Trevi fountain last night when it was a little cooler and lit up. So we hopped trusty, but illusive, bus 62 down to the city center and walked a 100m and turned the corner and BOOM there it was! We took lots of pictures and threw our 1 euro cent coins in to ensure our return trip to Rome.
The fountain was amazing at night. I'd been there earlier that day, but seeing it with all the lights was unbelievable. There were quite a few Americans at the fountain too and we found a nice couple from New York who took our picture as a larger group. Their son had sutdied aborad and loved it and they were jealous that we get to spend 7 weeks here and really experience the city. I'm looking forward to all of the things that we get to do too!
I've learned bery quickly, however, that as much as I try to blend in to Italian culture, I'm am instantly identified as an American. Maybe it's the blond hair, or the decidedly in-Italian features, or my nature sandals, I don't know, but multiple Italian dudes have stopped me at bus stops and asked if I was American and people at the grocery store and at stops immediately begin talking in English when they see me. It's a little disappointing, mostly because I can't tell the difference between natives and tourists myself, but also because I want to blend in becasue I'll be living here for almost 2 months.
This morning I woke up at 11:15. Something about this city makes me sleep till incredibly late hours of the day. Even though I am a lemur, I don't usually sleep past 10, so this is strange and a little annoying because I have routinely been spending my mornings in Rome asleep. But we decided as roommates to make the hike out to the coast and go to the beach. At school this means cathching the link and walking 3 blocks to Lake Sag, but here it entails a bus, the metro, and a train plus about 6 blocks of walking and takes over an hour and a half. But we made it there around 2:30 and spent time lolling in the water and reading on the beach. FYI, there are a lot or big, pointy rocks in the sea here. I didn't know that and went running in only to trip on them and come crashing down. Now I've got a lovely scrape on my leg and maybe a scar to remember this day by for the rest of my life.
We walked and read and played around in the water. It wasn't as salty as I remember the Pacific Ocean being, but I could definitely taste the salt on my lips and see it on my skin. It dried out my hair to the point that it felt like Barbie's, but it was definitely worth it. I found some shells in the sand as I was digging around and grabbed a worry rock to bring back home for my grandma.
We stopped for gellatto on the way back and let me tell you, it was delish! My first gellatto experience of the trip :) I got choclate and it tasted like frozen brownie batter. Mmmmmmm! There were a lot of other flavors that I want to try next like banana, pistachio, and peach. I'm even dedicating a page in my visual journal just to gellatto and documenting all of the different flavors that I eat and places that I get them.
We were all exhausted on the way home and opted to take as many forms of transport as possible to avoid any more walking. Everything ranging from metros and trains to elevators and escalators. It was a great way to spend my last official day of summer as classes start tomorrow, but hopefully the weather will hold out and we'll be able to come back within the next couple of weeks.
As I said, classes begin this week and I've got History, Art History, Literature and Abroad Seminar, so it should be enought to keep me busy especially when we've got field trips outside of class too. This weekend, a group of us are headed off to Cinque Terre in the northern part of Italy. It's a group of towns built into the cliff sides overlooking the water and looks incredible! Lots of hiking trails to enjoy :)
Ok, so the title of this post is "I Hate Dirty Feet" and as I have previously said, I'm the queen of sweaty palms and apparently that extends to my feet as well. Somehow my feet attract all of the fith of Roman streets and trap them in my shoes to make this disgusting goop. I hate it. I've had to stop at multiple places, including restaurant bathrooms, just to wash my feet because I can't stand it anymore. Yuck. I cringe just thinking of it. Hopefully this problem will resolve itself when the weather cools because I don't think I can put up with this for 3 months!
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