Dia Due!

mercoledi, 25 maggio

Buenasera!
Today has been a big day of adventures, so it feels so nice to sit back and relax a bit while drinking pesca (peach tea) and updating all of you on what we have been up to today!

We started out the day with orientation and check-in at the university. We had already found the way to the school yesterday when we met there for the Rome walk, so it took us about 20 minutes to get there, including going up 231 steps. We'll be quite fit by the time we get back home! Maybe that will make up for all of the gelato we will likely be eating!

After orientation, we decided to go buy the textbook that we will need for our archaeology class, but we had plenty of time, so we did lots of exploring along the way!

We started out by finding an adorable little park near the school. We came across plenty of palm trees, which certainly made Kelsey happy, and a few little lizards (anoles, I think?) that I really enjoyed seeing!

Kelsey found a new friend!

What a cute little trail!

After exploring the park, we continued navigating the streets of Rome and happened to come across an outdoor market, with lots of fresh produce. We bought a couple of fresh peaches and they were so delicious! Between the peach jam that we had on our toast this morning, fresh peaches that we bought, and peach tea we are currently drinking, I think that just maybe we like peaches...

Continuing on, we saw many churches and stopped at a few that were open along the way. Each church was absolutely beautiful and had several side altars with lots of beautiful paintings! It was so fun just coming across them as we were walking along and stopping in to see them and pray for a bit at a few of them. There definitely won't be any shortage of churches for us to explore here in Rome!

Basilica of St. John the Baptist of the Florentines

Such a nice organ in the back!

Jubilee Year of Mercy - Racking up the indulgences

Church of San Silvestro in Capite

Relic of St. John the Baptist

Lighting a candle for our dear friend Alysha! May Mother Mary watch over her!

"Where are we? I don't know, but there's Mary, so we're going this way!"

As we continued looking for the bookstore, we happened to stumble upon the Trevi Fountain, so we can check that one off the list of main sights to see! Eventually we got to the store and got the book that we needed, then made our way back to our apartment, following a path along the Tiber River for part of the walk back. We were waiting to get gelato when we got back to our neighborhood, but to our dismay, we discovered that all of the shops in that area were closed for the afternoon, so we came back for a nice cool glass of peach tea instead!

Say formaggio!

And again...

One more of the Trevi Fountain, but a bit closer this time

We can't remember the name of this building right now, but it was something significant...

Some old ruins we walked past

Quick selfie on the path by the river

Kelsey's had the Dig a Tunnel song from Lion King 1 1/2 stuck in her head this whole trip...

No gelato this time of day. Learning Italian culture the hard way. How sad.

After relaxing for a bit in our apartment, we went out for dinner with our roommates. We had a very nice time conversing with them and enjoyed the beautiful weather as we ate outside!

The pasta was so delicious!

Well, I guess that was plenty of adventuring for today! Next up: first day of classes tomorrow!

Ciao,

Allison and Kelsey