Roamin' around Rome!

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June 26th 2011

Published: June 26th 2011

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SamiJane

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Chelsea, Grace, and I

Hello from Italy!

Sorry that it has taken me so long to update everyone on what has been going on. I have been in Rome for two weeks now. We spent a few days in Hartford & got here on June 9th. I spent my birthday wandering around the city & eating dinner at a restaurant around the corner from my apartment. I have been extremely busy because we had school the first weekend 😞 then Maggie & Steve were here for a week so I haven't had much down time.

I live with four other girls in Trastevere, Rome. Our apartment is cute, but very small! The neighborhood is very lively and there are people outside at all times of the night. It is across the river from the city center and about a half hour walk to most of the tourist attractions. There are 18 students total, 5 girls & 13 guys, with 10 management students & 8 students on the energy track. Our school is right near the Pantheon, we need a keycard to get in and are not allowed to bring anyone in or hang out in the courtyard because there are diplomats that live

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Steve & I in the Colosseum

there. I have class two days a week and site visits two days a week. I am currently working on a project with IBM Rome so four other students and I travel to their offices once a week. The other site visit we had was to a toilet manufacturing plant about an hour away. We got to walk through the factory to see how they make their high-end toilets. At the end we got a chance to see their showroom with a 24k gold plated sink only costing 3,500 euros!

Steve and Maggie both came to visit me for a week. They did some touristy things when I was in class during the day but we were able to spend the evenings together. I had a three day weekend that I was able to spend with them. We went to Pisa for one night to see the leaning tower, we didn't get a chance to climb to the top because we wanted to go to Florence. In Florence we took a hop on hop off tour so we could see the whole city. We watched the sunset from a Piazza that overlooks the entire city. It was gorgeous (minus

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the MTV camera crew filming panoramics of the city for the Jersey shore.) Maggie left on Monday morning and for the next two days Steve and I walked around the city & meet up with an old friend of his from high school. He left on Wednesday morning. It was awesome to see them & having them come here makes me miss everyone so much more!

This weekend I had a chance to climb up to the top of St Peters Basilica (over 500 stairs, with slanted hallways & in some places extremely windy stairs that my feet barely fit on!), go to mass in the Vatican, visit a castle, & have a drink on the Spanish steps! My roommate Grace and I took an adventure on Friday morning & found an overlook of the city right near a park. Rome is cool because there are always people hanging outside in Piazzas. They are very laid back and the food is delicious. I have been eating nothing but pasta & pizza but it is countered by walking everywhere! Another plus is cheap wine & having the ability to drink it anywhere!

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