Sono finalmente in Roma! (I’m finally in Rome!)

My friends (Tyler, Elsa, and Ally) and I have finally concluded our travels through Greece and are starting to get settled in our apartments in Rome where we’ll be living until Christmas time. Now that we’re in Rome, we’ve noticed just how much our experiences in Greece taught us and adapted us to European lifestyles. Between sleeping in the hallway of a ferry on Saturday night and being kicked awake by a security guard (whoops) at 4:30 a.m. while tryyyying to sleep in the Athens airport on Sunday night, we had a rough couple of nights getting here. But like all of the other obstacles we encountered on our travels throughout Greece, we figured it our, made it work, and had a blast in the process. Our arrival in Rome was, like most of our arrivals to new places in Greece, characterized by the fact that we had nowhere to stay once we were here. Luckily this time we arrived mid-day and had time to deal with issues such as that the cab drivers did not know of the hotel we requested, couldn’t find our school’s campus (American University of Rome), and only actually found it once I pointed out that we were stopped right next to it…Anyway, we ended up in a hotel really close to our school our first night in Rome where we showered, napped, ate, and did some much needed laundry in attempts to feel remotely rejuvenated for AUR orientation.

Tuesday morning Elsa and I were picked up at the hotel and brought to our new apartment in the Travestere area of Rome where we met our two new roommates, Jessica and Tracy. The 4 of us spent the majority of Tuesday running around our HUGE Roman apartment in euphoria as we discovered its many unexpected amenities; wireless internet, 2 HUGE balconies, one off the also GIANT living room (complete with fancy chandelier) and one connecting the two bedrooms, more storage than we could possibly need including a storage closet about the size of a 3rd bedroom containing a spare mattress for visitors (such as my sister, Lucy!), kitchen, and a bathroom with an uncommonly large European shower. Needless to say we were already quite excited about our living situation, especially once we found out that we live about a 2 minute walk from the AUR campus compared to most of our friends from DU studying here who live a 10-15 minute walk at the closest and some are even so much as a 15 bus ride, so I guess you could say my luck continues!

Tuesday evening, Elsa and I took our first run in the park (Villa Scialla) near our apartment. This park is…incredible. It’s built within the ancient Roman city walls and has AMAZING panoramic views of the Rome skyline complete with the Colosseum, etc. The paths go from winding under vine-covered arches, to up and down hills, into a wooded forest, past fountains and palm trees and picnicking Italian families - - It’s all that I could’ve hoped for as far as a place to exercise safely in Rome and more. So needless to say, first impressions of my home for the next 4 months…not too shabby, I mean I guess I can get used to this lifestyle ☺

More to come on AUR Orientation Week shortly! Also, in case some of you hadn’t noticed, I’ve added links on the left-hand column of my blog to my photo albums for Greece and Rome thus far. I’ll write more when I can, stay tuned ☺

Diana
xoxo