Day 1: Arrival in Rome

          


        I consider day one to be from the moment we all got to the airport on May 10th, through our landing in Rome, until my head hit the pillow on May 11th, at Hotel Atlantico. Needless to say, day one wasn’t like any other day; it was 34 hours of excitement and curiosity and exhaustion and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

       This was my first time on a plane for longer than six hours, and my first time abroad so my nerves and excitement were out in full force. As I expected, I only slept about 40 minutes on the plane. Surprisingly, it felt like the plane ride flew by (at least when Im comparing it to the plane ride home). Before I knew it, we were touching down in Rome and I was eager to see what the day would bring. We got through customs and got our luggage pretty quickly, and met our SAI tour guide in the airport. From there we took a bus to Borgo di Tragliata; a wedding destination venue outside of Rome. At Borgo di Tragliata our SAI guide gave us an orientation about studying abroad, and then we went inside for a presentation. The inside was beautiful; on the small side but very quaint. The windows were all open bringing in fresh, cool air even though it was a hot day. It made me wish there were more places like this back at home. Everyone relies on air conditioning so much that we lose the appreciation for fresh air. I really enjoyed the presentation; Destination weddings always interested me so it was really cool to hear about the different markets that have their weddings with them and how different cultures request certain things for their wedding. For example, she said that an Irish wedding is mostly concerned that the sun is shining and the bar is always open! Meanwhile for an American wedding, they like to have every moment planned out from the time they wake until the time their guests leave the last day.

       After the presentation, we went back outside to a courtyard-like area where tables were situated under canopies. We were all pretty hungry and they served us one of the best meals I had throughout the whole trip. (Weird to think one of the best meals I had in Italy happened to be my first meal!) We definitely experienced our first real Italian meal. It was 4 courses and we were sitting for about 2 hours. I remember after eating the first course, we all thought that was it. Thinking in American ways, we didn't realize that there were still 3 courses after that, including dessert! My favorite part was the rigatoni in this amazing pasta sauce, with crumbs of grated parmesan. It went perfectly with the wine that our server kept bringing more of :) By the time dessert came, I wasn’t hungry but there was caramel sauce drizzled all over it so I devoured it anyway.

     Now, it was time to tour the wedding venue and the hillside that overlooked it. We were all in food comas and walking up this beautiful hill to overlook the venue, and I was thinking “is everyday going to be this amazing?” Our tour guide Jordan showed us this small village at the top of the hill that had a tiny church. From there you could overlook the venue and see the farms where they grew fresh vegetables that we ate in our lunch. It was all amazing, but after taking some photos, we hiked back down and got on our bus, where Im pretty sure we all passed out within 10 minutes.  

      After a nice little nap on the bus, I woke up as we were entering the center of Rome. I watched the tiny cars and vespas circling in and out of each other, and one of my first thoughts was, “wow they really don’t have any traffic laws.” It was a little scary being in this huge bus riding through tiny streets with people and vespas everywhere. When we arrived to our hotel we got our room assignments, and all went up to get situated. Our room overlooked the street and it was just so surreal realizing that Im going to be spending the next 10 days in Italy. After organizing our things, and a little time of rest, it was time to explore Rome! Eight of us got together with a few maps, and decided to try to find the Trevi Fountain. Looking back, this is one of my favorite memories in Rome. It was the first night, and we realized the Trevi Fountain wasn't too far from our hotel. At least it didn't look like it was when we looked at the map. Between 8 of us, it took 2 hours to find the fountain. The funniest part is we had no idea how hard it would be. We thought it would be a short walk and before we knew it we were incredibly lost.

                                 

        Looking back, it was one of the greatest experiences of the trip because what better way to see an amazing, historic city, than to get lost in it? We saw some cool things on our journey to the fountain and it was overall a great learning experience. When we finally got to the fountain, go figure it was under construction. I mean seriously, after 2 hours of trying to find it, I can't explain the disappointment in finally getting there and seeing it was covered by metal bars and scaffolding. But after a moment of being upset, we decided to make the best of it. They added a little fake fountain where you could throw in a coin and make a wish. I always wanted to go and make a wish at the Trevi Fountain, and I wasn't leaving there without doing so! Three of us stood in front and threw our coins behind our head and made our wish, and I hope I can go back one day when its not under construction, and make another.

        Being our first night in Rome, we of course had to get Gelato! We stopped into a little Gelato shop right by the fountain and got our first cups of Gelato. After that, we began our walk back to the hotel. It was getting dark and we felt confident about getting back. Its as easy as retracing your steps right? Welllll no. Once again got lost on our way back, but maybe only for an hour this time. But as I said previously, I didn't mind getting lost. It was a lot of walking, and it was an extremely long and tiring day, but its true that you run on adrenaline. The excitement keeps you going. So by the time we got back to our hotel, and my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. Day one down- 10 more adventurous, exciting, exhausting, but amazing days left.