Via Bettolo #HogsAbroad

Well, it’s Friday, meaning I managed to survive my first week in Rome without my family. This week was a welcome speed bump in the midst of the 100 mph life I’ve been living up to this point. Now I am in my very own Rome apartment with other architecture students, preparing for classes to start next week. Even though this week was relatively slow, I did and saw and learned a lot, so here goes…

Before moving into my apartment on Tuesday, my family and I had one final adventure visiting the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We got up early and made our way to the center of the ancient city, which was surprisingly pretty sparse. I guess now that New Year’s is over, a lot of tourists are going back home. We got into the Colosseum without waiting in line, and were able to stay and look around without bumping into too many people. The Colosseum was awesome. You can really feel how old it is. Despite several instances of scaffolding/ preservation work throughout the arena, you also come across piles of ancient rubble and crumbling staircases that really showcase the age of the place. I figured it was too early in the semester to get yelled at by an Italian security guard, so I suppressed my passionate urge to hop the rope and hug some of the column remnants. Maybe sometime when the guards (and my mother) aren’t around…

Next we walked to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This was it. This was THE ancient Rome. I knew a lot about the Forum itself, in that most of the commercial and judicial activities took place there. What surprised me, however, was the expansive Palatine Hill overlooking the Forum, where the great emperors lived. Their homes are preserved a little bit better than the Forum below, and they had some pretty impressive palaces. Sadly, all of the column remnants were roped off so I was unable to hug them. But, much like the Colosseum, keep an eye out for pictures later in the semester.

After a quick stop to see the spot Julius Caesar was stabbed, we headed back to the apartment to grab my luggage. We took a taxi across town to the area of Prati, which is just north of the Vatican. I was the first of my roommates to arrive, and it felt like freshman year all over again with my parents moving me in. It was a tearful goodbye… despite the fact that I would see them at dinner later that night. Our apartment on the Via Giovanni Bettolo is awesome. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a dining room. The rooms are all very spacious and well lit.

Because I arrived fairly early I had to attend the 1:00 housing orientation, where I met up with Molly, Carla and Sarah, as well as a lot of Auburn University students staying in the same building as us. After hearing the rules of the apartment (again), we were given some freedom to explore the neighborhood. It was getting later into the evening, so my roommates and I walked over to my family’s apartment to have dinner in the Piazza della Rotonda. After eating, we tried to go inside the Pantheon, but they closed the doors as soon as we walked up… so we settled for some gelato instead. It was a long walk back to the apartment, so we all fell asleep as soon as we got home.

Wednesday was the Catholic holiday of Epiphany, so we didn’t have anything school related… but more importantly we were able to sleep late. No one in my apartment woke up before 10:00. Most of the city’s monuments and shops were closed for the day, but we still found a small café for lunch. By this point I was getting pretty tired of pasta, but I ordered it again because I wasn’t really sure what else to do. After lunch we found a grocery store where we purchased the basics: fruit, granola bars, bread, etc.

The tricky part was the milk. Just imagine 4 English-speaking milk lovers staring at a refrigerator full of milk. Different size bottles with different colored labels and different words on each one. I knew “latte” meant milk, but did I want latte intero or latte scremato? I blindly chose latte parialmente scremato (which I later used Google to translate into “partially skimmed milk”) hoping it was the right one. Next time, I think I’ll hit Google BEFORE going to the grocery store. One weird thing about Italian grocery stores is that you have to bag everything yourself. My professor Laura warned us about this phenomenon, but we forgot… so the 4 awkward girls staring at the milk refrigerator became the 4 awkward girls scrambling to throw their groceries into a bag at the end of a very fast conveyer belt. Nonetheless, we managed to make it through our first grocery shopping experience with minimal judgment from the cashier.

Despite sleeping late that morning, we were still incredibly tired and went to bed pretty early. After all, orientation started on Thursday, and we wanted to be fresh! Our professors greeted all the students outside our apartment at 9:00 Thursday morning. They walked us to school to show us one of the many potential routes we would be walking the next few months.

Because we live so close to the Vatican, we have the pleasure and privilege of walking right by St. Peter’s every single morning. Daily, I walk by something that most people hope to see once in their lifetime. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

We arrived at the University of Arkansas Rome Center, which is located in the Palazzo Taverna, a medieval palace in the center of the city. We were led upstairs to the grand meeting room where we were given access cards and important information about the school. As a former orientation mentor, it was kind of fun to be on the other side of orientation. We finished the day with a walking tour of the area immediately surrounding the school so that we could get our bearings.

After a long day, we walked back to Prati for dinner and some rest. I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather lately, so we went to one of the local Farmacias to get some medicine. My Italian pronunciation of “DEE-cone-jes-tee-oh-NAHN-tay” clearly wasn’t very good, as I had to point to my nose for the Pharmacist to understand that I couldn’t breathe. I finally got some meds, and let me tell you: Italian decongestants are 100x better than American decongestants (and I can say that because since age 12 I’ve tried almost every single nasal spray in the American market). I might just have to stash this stuff in bulk before returning home.

Day 2 of orientation was definitely more interesting than day 1. We talked about our options for classes, after which we were allowed to change our schedule if we wished. The four classes I’m taking are Architectural Design (studio), Architecture of the City (a drawing class), Historic Preservation and Travel Writing. Each class involves a lot of walking/ exploring the city… just today I walked 8.5 miles (I think I’ve earned a daily gelato). The afternoon was spent preparing paperwork for our Permits of Stay, which is a document required by the Italian government for students to live in Italy for an extended period of time (don’t ask me how it’s different than a visa… because I still don’t really know). Our afternoon walking tour took us to the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and the Piazza Venezia.

 After our professor left us for the day, we went to the suggested art supply store to buy our sketchbooks for the semester. We decided to make the long walk back to Prati for a quiet dinner at the apartment, but quickly realized we didn’t have as much food as we thought we did, so we ended up going out for Chinese food. That’s right, I finally cracked. After 8 days of nothing but pizza and pasta, I needed something else (I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t craving McDonalds too…). We ate our nightly gelato and walked back to the apartment, tired but content from our day. Tomorrow we have to go to the Post Office to apply for our Permits of Stay, so we’ll be up bright and early. But really, getting up early isn’t a chore when you live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Number of Columns Hugged: 0 (I’m sorry I know I’m slacking. The cover image is an earlier photo from Florence)

Days Since Mexican Food: 19
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Read more from Haley at https://haleywalton.wordpress.com/
To find out more about the U of A Rome Center semester program for Architecture, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecentersemester/