When in Rome...

Again.

I know.

But the old cliché seems to have become a motto of sorts for our little group, and I’m simply taking my turn at repeating it.

Sherri and I went walking yesterday with Laura, and we found the school in the Palazzo Taverna (but not the student entrance), the Piazza Navona, the ruins of Domitian’s Stadium, and the Pantheon (all after getting quite lost in the muddle of poorly marked streets—I am happy to report, however, that we are getting much better at spotting street names). When we got back, we got to meet more of the Rome Center students, and we all went out to see the Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio. As it turns out, our apartment is right at the base of the Janiculum hill, which is sadly not one of the legendary “Seven Hills of Rome,” but is said to be the site of the crucifixion of St. Peter and is the second highest hill in Rome. The church was closed for a wedding, so we only got pictures through the gate, but I think we’ll make it back eventually. If nothing else, we got some neat pictures of the Roman skyline.

After the Tempietto, we (which at this point in the story includes 14 people, mostly architecture majors) went wandering down the far side of the hill through some narrow but lively side streets. Aside from a creepy kid who followed us and made us all compulsively check our pockets for valuables, we dealt well with being pretty much lost. We eventually found a sign that had a map, so we just followed the river back to part of the neighborhood we knew.

I got to have my first Italian dinner last night as well. We all went to a little café down on the piazza about a block from our apartments, and it was nice, aside from the fact that the woman who first tried to serve us got angry because none of the people in the group spoke very much Italian. The food was amazing! Afterwards, we went wandering aimlessly for a while. Now, when I say “aimlessly,” I really mean that our group lacked a single aim. In truth, we had several. Apparently, some people wanted gelato, others wanted bathrooms, and the rest of us were just following along because the others at least appeared to know what they were after. What it all amounted to was us making a big circle through the neighborhood, splitting up, and heading back to various apartments to sit and chat. All in all, not a bad night.