So where did I leave off. Breakfast, yes that’s right. Ok so we were just about to go down to the market to go check it out and buy some really cheap Italian goods when…. We got a fb message from one of my friends from home saying that our last roommate to arrive was lost in Rome. Luckily just about after we got that message we found out that he had gotten a cab to take him to the correct location for our apartment. We found out, as Dylan stumbled in the door looking half dead, that he had spent two hours walking around Rome (because his cab driver had dropped him off in the complete opposite side of the city from where he was supposed to be. After about an hour of walking around and calling my phone, which was dead because I didn’t get it set up for international calls, he ended up calling the American embassy. Yes the American Embassy. The thing you go to when you’re in a foreign country and then there is a revolution or a riot. That’s how lost he was. Well thank the State Department because they gave him the number of the Accent people and they got him a cab to our apartment, which he arrived at safe and sound.
After we had all survived arriving in Italy we ventured down into the market to see the sights. It was rather wonderful. The market filled the entire street for a good 4 blocks, about 3 stalls deep, and all outside. There were so many things there, just about anything you could have wanted you could find. For example I found an Ethernet cord which now allows me to get the internet on my computer. YAY! And our oddest find was a confederate flag, yes the American kind. Besides that we found some fedoras, ties, lots of shirts, sunglasses and watches for 3 euro, and one of my friends got a purse for 5 euros. All the shop vendors were willing to haggle. It was very nice, and a good time.
After we ate a quick lunch of pasta, we decided to walk to the old parts of the city and try and find the ruins. It was a fairly straight shot to the place, we walked around the area alittle before we actually found the Colosseum but it was worth it. On our journey we found what was left of the Circus Maximus (the old Roman chariot race track) which is only a dirt path around a small raise in the ground. It was very sad to see something that used to be one of the greatest buildings in the world reduced to only to a park with some gravel to preserve where the track had been. None the less it was still very cool to see. After walking past that we found the Triumph Arch of Constantine which was huge, and for being almost two thousand years old, was still utterly breath taking in its stone work. Next to the arch was the Colesseum which was nice, but before going there we also wanted to see the Arch of Titus which was also in the area on the Palantine Hill (which is also full of ruins). As we reached the arch of Titus however it started to rain, and then storm. At this point we decided to turn back for the day.
As we were walking back however street venders somehow sensing that it was going to rain put on ponchos and began trying to sell umbrellas to the tourists. These people just came out of nowhere, and I mean they were all over the place. It was a fine example of capitalism at its finest and I must say I was very impressed by it. So by the time we had made it back to our apartment we were utterly soaked (except for david who had gotten an umbrella) and we just about collapsed. After this we had a meeting with our professor for our class as he described his plans for the next 3 weeks and then we went to dinner afterwards. I had my first Italian pizza which was very good, and not as different as I thought it was going to be from American pizza. For those of you wondering it had sauce, tomatoes, and spices on it. For dessert I had a tiramisu which was rather fantastic. And now I’m about to call it a night.
And with that, Goodnight world
Joe
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