Friday, June 6, 2008

Today was amazing! After starting out the day with breakfast, our music lecture, and then our art lecture, we were off to see Rome! We rode the metro to begin our walking tour of ancient Rome. We walked around the ruins a bit before trying to enter the forum. Unfortunately, things had changed since the last year, and there was an admission fee. One of the leaders fell through again and did not bring money to purchase tickets. The walking tour was ended really early and we were left on our own. Most people went back to the hotel to change for the concert that we were having later that night, since we would not have time after the museum that was scheduled for the afternoon.
However, we were vary prepared! My group, already dressed and ready for the concert, headed over to the Coliseum! It was very cool. We paid for a tour guide to take us around and bought a roma pass for the entry. The roma pass was very helpful since it let us get into the coliseum, the forum, other museums, as well as giving us unlimited metro rides. We learned a ton of cool things about the coliseum. One of the neatest things that I didn’t know was that they used to spend 4 days to flood the stadium with aqueducts to have naval battles! But, they only did it twice since they discovered that it was far too small for that purpose. We also learned a lot about how the gladiator fights worked.
After the coliseum, we ended up having to take a taxi to the museum Borgese. It was located in a very beautiful park were we wandered forever trying to find a sandwich. We got to the park before everyone else so we ended up having a very long while to sit and enjoy the park! The museum here was the most beautiful that I have ever been to. It was a very lavish home and had a very incredible collection of art. They do not advertise the museum and the other groups who have gone through Rome did not get to go in, however, the wait list is very long to get a reservation so we were lucky to go! It was the best art and several of my new favorite works are there including Apollo and Persephone.
After the museum, we started walking towards the concert hall. We were booking it so we could go and see the soccer stadium on the way. When we were getting pretty close, we ran into our music professor who seemed very upset. He explained that even though he asked the lead of the program to book the concert 4 months ago, she had booked it for the wrong night. So, we ended up hopping back on the metro to head back to our hotel for dinner.
Some people had gone to a pizza place across from our hotel the night before and said that it was very good and mostly cheap. I had no idea how cheap though! Everyone that ordered before me just picked out a slice of pizza, which ended up being around 4.50 euros (they measured it by the pound). I saw a sign for a combo meal, margherita pizza and a coke for 3.50. I ordered this expecting to get a small slice, which I was fine with. I paid and he handed me the coke and left. After a couple of minutes, I asked another man who was working at the counter. He told me that my pizza was almost done. I had no idea what we going on because they had just handed everyone else their slice of pizza. All of a sudden, the first guy came back with a whole pizza! I was so excited that not only was my meal half the price of everyone else’s, but I got a coke and probably 4 times a much food! I was very happy. We all went back to a person’s room who had a corner balcony to sit outside and enjoy our pizza.
After dinner, I and Amanda worked on trying to get internet. I never really got it, but Amanda was able to check her email. While we were sitting in the lobby, there was a group that was meeting to go to a Professor Persnall recommended gelatio place. We quickly were on board even though we were already in our PJ’s. It was a great decision! We went to this local hangout, where for just 1.80 Euro, I got a cone that was bigger than my face! Before, I was paying 3-4 Euro for just one scoop. This place, I got a medium cone and got I think about six scoops, fresh whip cream, and little cookies! It was a sweet ending to the day!