My First Week in Italy

Buongiorno Ms. Treneli and class!!

Airplane Ride- Sunday January 22nd

Arrived in Dublin at 5:25 am! (12:25 am USA Time)

Leave Dublin at 7:10 am to Rome! (2:10 am USA time)

Arrive at Rome on Monday January 23^rd at 11:20 am. (5:20 am USA Time)

Total: 12 Hour Flight! 2 Hour Lay over! WOWZAH! It’s going to be a fun ride…

Some Carry on Items:

• Travel books
• Maps or Europe
• Italian quick phrase book
• Sketch book
• Euros
• Journal
• Ipod
• Scarf
• Passport and Visa (Not the credit card but one of those too!)

51 lbs of my belongs for a whole semester! What would you bring??

Euros

My US money will not work in Europe! I tried to buy something in Dublin at the airport and they told me they used euros too! So I made sure to convert my money over! The euro is worth more than one US dollar.

$1 = .76 €               and             1 € =  $ 1.31

My first week In Italy!

Monday

• Got picked up and taken to our hotel in Rome! Located down the street from the Coliseum!

Fun Facts about Rome:

• A river called the Tiber runs through Rome
• The people who live in Rome have a Roman dialect, meaning their Italian sounds different that other parts of Italy!
• They love to recycle, including the buildings! The Coliseum had holes in it where the iron was taken out to be re-used for war materials.

Tuesday

I went on a 3 hour guided walking tour of:

• Roman Forum
• Coliseum
• Arch of Constantine
• Piazza Venezia
• Altare della Patria
• Pantheon
• Navona square

There is so much to take in here, so much art and ancient relics right next to you on the street.

After lunch we met in the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere for 1.30h hour Bus tour around Rome. The bus ride made me realize how BIG Rome is!

Wednesday

• We went to the Vatican, it is it’s own country! One of the smallest countries in the world!
  • There they have the Sistine Chapel where I got to see, School of Athens’ painted by Raphael a famous Renaissance painter

• That night we went to the Trevi Fountain, where you throw a coin in, this symbolizes that you will come back to Rome
• We also went to the Ponte Milvio- bridge where lovers take a lock and lock it to the bridge then throw the key in the river.

Thursday

• We took a bus ride to Florence!
• I was able to meet my host mother, Marry! She is so sweet and loves Marilyn Monroe! She doesn’t speak any English though so we play charades to communicate sometimes. I cannot wait to learn more Italian and have a real conversation with her. Dinner the first night was quiet because we wanted to talk to her but we didn’t know how too! What would you do to communicate?

I’d love to start answering your questions:

The cars

The cars here are sooo small! They all drive small ecologically efficient cars. Meaning car that impact the environment as little as possible. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see a single truck or SUV or even mid-sized car here. All of them look similar to smart cars and also are not all traditional American brands they have Toyota but also they have Fiat, Opel and Peugeot. They probably fit well into small spaces in the city. I also learned that they are CRAZY drivers they speed around so fast leaving inches between them and the next car! Kind of like New York City. I also noticed a lot of them drive mopeds and 3 wheeled cars, it looks like a moped with a cover on top. Isn’t that neat?

The rest of the week was spent in programs and getting tours of the city I can’t wait to tell you more about Florence next post!!

Ciao!

Lauren Wederich

Florence, Italy

Classmates Connecting Cultures