Class, Homework and the First Travel Weekend

Buongiorno (good day) from Italy! My second week in Rome consisted of classes, homework and the first free travel weekend. Classes started at 9:15 am on Monday morning. We went through the syllabus for Search for Happiness and had our first Italian class where we learned greetings and how to introduce ourselves. We had lunch at lo Pozzo, where we go every Monday. After lunch a small group of us went on a short walk and ended up getting gelato afterwards. I went back to campus and started to work on homework. I also started planning my weekend trip to Naples with a few people in the travel group. We had supper together as a large group at a local restaurant before booking our train tickets for the weekend.

We had Grandeur of Rome in the classroom on Tuesday and went over the syllabus and some facts. We had sandwiches in the dining room. I once again spent the afternoon making travel plans and working on homework. I headed into town to get some supper at the local supermarket for dinner before going to bed. One Wednesday we had our Benedict class, Search for Happiness, and Italian where we started to practice some of the things we had learned. We had pizza on campus for lunch and I worked on some more homework before our first Convivium of the semester. Convivium started around 6 with mass. Following mass there was snacks and a small presentation before dinner. We ate outside in the courtyard and enjoyed pasta, wine, and good company.

We started Thursday with Benedict class in the morning. I had leftovers for lunch before heading out into the city for Art History. We met Dr. Lev on the Capitoline Hill and started out first Art History excursion by exploring the Roman Forum. Dr. Lev taught us the difference between columns and the types of buildings that sit in the forum. We then went on a quick tour of the Colosseum before heading back to campus. A small group of us got dinner at a local burger place and picked up gelato on the way back. I then packed for my weekend trip before heading to bed early.

We left campus around 5:30 am on Friday to catch the bus to the train station. We arrived at the train station and grabbed breakfast at McDonalds before hoping on our high-speed train to Naples. The train ride took about an hour. We arrived in Naples and learned that the buses were on strike, so we needed to find a different way to our Air B & B. We spent some time looking for other transportation options and ended up being way over charged for our taxi ride. We arrived at our Air B &B early so we went to the grocery store to pick up some food. We checked into the B&B and asked the host where the nearest ATM was. She didn’t speak English, so we had to use google translate and she offered to take us in her car to the ATM. She also told us that if we wanted pizza, she would order for us. That afternoon some of the group took naps while the rest looked up how to get to Pompeii for the tour. We made spaghetti for dinner and spent time talking around the table.

We woke up early again to catch the train to Pompeii. We walked around some of the tourist shops for a bit before our tour. Our tour guide taught us how to tell the difference between houses and shops that lined the streets of Pompeii. Houses have smooth steps whereas shops have a grove in the step where the doors would slide open. Our guide took us around to many of the different buildings in Pompeii and explained their history. We then tried to get tickets to hike Mt. Vesuvius, there was only three spots available for two o’clock. Three of us headed up the mountain on a bus which dropped us off near the top. We hiked the rest of the way to the top enjoying the views of the crater and the surrounding landscape. We got drinks from a little bar on the top of the volcano and sat and took in the view. We then headed back down the mountain on the bus and caught the train home. Our host helped us order pizza from a local restaurant. We ate our pizza and talked around the table for a few hours.

We woke up on Sunday around five am to a large crash. After making sure everyone was okay, we headed back to bed. Later that morning we discovered that the windstorm that night had broke one of the windows. Our host was very understanding and said she was just glad none of us got hurt. We talked with our host for a while using google translate before we packed up, did some cleaning, and left the Air B&B. We caught the local train back into Naples and had some lunch before our train to Rome left. We took a normal train back to Rome and it took about three hours. After arriving in Rome, we caught the bus back to campus where I ate supper, unpacked, and went to bed.

Ciao, Ann