Fragelay, It must be Italian!

Well yesterday was supposed to be a boring day of orientation and learning to speak Italian.  At least it started that way.  Orientation went well, not much to tell there.  We were told not to get kidnapped, raped, pick pocketed, or be stupid Americans who get lost on the buses.  We learned all of these wonderful tips (some actually where very helpful.  Accent knows their shit!) and then we had a 3 hour break for grocery shopping and eating!  SO MUCH FUN!  After we had our Italian class to help us not be so touristy.  However this failed epicly as the teacher took us to get gelato after the class to test our skills.  So in summery we got ice cream, without learning anything.  Bene!

So after this we were planning on just going back to our apartment, however with a sper of the moment desicsion (and by that i mean we planned it just before the Italian class) we had a crazy adventure.  We did this

All of foot.  It took us a good 5 hours to complete.  We saw the Piazza Navona first which is a really nice long plaza with some huge fountains up and down its length, as well as flanked by a beautiful church (along with every other plaza in Rome).  After the Piazza we found our way to the Pantheon.  First word that comes to mind to describe it is "OLD", the second being "HUGE".  This is by far one of my favorite places that we have been to so far.  Not only was it built by the romans and still standing, it was also converted into a beautiful church on the inside.  It was absolutely stunning.  It also contained the graves of Victor Emmanuel II who was the King that united Italy, and Raphael the artist.  It was a great experience.

After our Pantheon stop we hit the Trevi Fountain.  For that one stop the first word that comes to mind is "OMG TOURISTS!"  While the fountain is so beautiful and a nice place to be, there are just so many tourists around it that it takes a little bit away from the beauty.  Despite this it was still great.  All of my friends and I threw coins in so that way we can be promised to return to Rome sometime in the future, or so they say.  We took plenty of pictures there as well, and even stole some water for one of the fountains on the side.

Lastly we came upon the Spanish steps, which was the goal of our excursion in the first place. While the steps where also very beautiful and I did enjoy them, they may have been my least favorite of our stops, however this may have been because I was just about exhausted and dead.  I do plan to go back there though and appreciate the steps more throughly.   As we walked up the steps we made it down a road a ways talking a quick walk along the huge park in Rome, the Villa Borghese.  as it was later we only stayed for about 5 mins before heading back to find a place to eat.  We found a very quaint place, where we were put in the basement almost by ourselves (it was still very nice).  We shared some pizzas and water and were off back to our apartment. the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful besides a quick stop to the Trevi Fountain once again to see it after dark.  We also bottled some of the water to take back with us.  All a good time.  As we got back I died until class this morning, but i wont bore any of you with those details.