When In Rome

Well, after about 16 hours of traveling (9 hour flight, 4 hour layover, 2 1/2 hour flight, 30 minute cab ride) we are finally in Rome. The 9 hour flight really wasn't that bad. I read for about an hour, watched Invictus and The Book Of Eli (Both of which were very good movies, I highly recommend Invictus to anyone that hasn't seen it), and then slept for maybe two hours.

The dinner on the plane was actually pretty good, some kind of teriyaki chicken, rice, broccoli and carrots. Breakfast, however, was pretty terrible. A cold ham and cheese wrap, bad yogurt, and the worst cup of coffee I've ever tasted. The layover in London was actually pretty quick, the only downside being the poor decision I made in ordering a "cheese burger". It was pretty terrible. After that it was a quick flight to Rome where I slept most of the time.

I then rediscovered how depressing it is to exchange currency. $130 became 84 Euros, though I actually got a better deal than Eli. After collecting our luggage Eli, Trent, two other girls that were on the same ISA trip as us, and I all took a cab/van to the hotel. We're staying at the Grand Hotel Palatino, which surprisingly is actually the same hotel I stayed at last time I was in Rome three years ago. We were an hour late getting to the hotel, so we missed the first "Mandatory Orientation Meeting" (oops), but later learned that all they told us was "Don't be stupid" for 45 minutes. We did make the two hour bus tour of Rome, which was pretty cool, but it was kind of hard to understand our guide between her Italian accent and the bad PA system on the bus. It was essentially "To you left is something very old and famous, to your right is old and beautiful", but it was still enjoyable.

Last night a group of us went out to dinner, were the owner of the restaurant dubbed Eli "The Boss", which is now his nickname for the rest of the trip. We split 5 liters of wine between the twelve of us and I had a very good carbonara pasta. We then spent the rest of the night wandering around Rome, took pictures of the Colosseum (which looks very cool at night), and we were actually all in bed by 11:30 or so, the lack of sleep finally catching up with us.

Today we're scheduled to tour Vatican, the Colosseum, and a few other main spots around Rome. Tomorrow we're heading to Florence via bus.

This post was longer than I thought it would be.

Ciao,
ae

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