Ciao amici e famiglia!

This is my last "catch up" post! Yay! :)

It's now Sunday of week 2. That means we're now in week 3! How in the world is it already the beginning of my 3rd week here? I feel like I just got back from Cinque Terre yesterday and now I'm on my way back to Rome from Florence (yup, we went to Florence for the weekend (more on that later)!

This week wasn't as exciting as the last (until this weekend), but that's okay because I have been feeling more comfortable and acclimated to my surroundings and that's always a good thing.

Monday started the first day of class again (for the week) and I was not very happy about that. We had a test Wednesday that I needed to study for and was not looking forward to.
Italian went well though and after I made my way back near my apartment to find a different grocery store than the one I had been to before.
It took me around 20 or so minutes to finally find the store I was looking for even though it ended up being right around the corner from my apartment! I even had to ask a lady for directions in Italian! But I figured it out and once I found the store I felt very accomplished! :)
I liked this store a lot better-- it was easy to navigate my way around in, had more of a selection, and was cheaper. Win, win...win, anyone?... I got a few things to make pb&j, granola bars, some pasta and sandwich baggies to take my lunch with me to class.
I know I know, why would I bring my lunch when I'm in Italy? Honestly, I just haven't found any restaurant (until last night, but even that is too far away to go to in between classes) that I have had really great [lunch] food at. Plus, buying lunch every day adds up and takes away money from awesome trips like Cinque Terre and Florence!
Therefor, I've decided to try and research what restaurants I want to go to and try out before I just start wandering around for food so I know exactly what I'm getting into and know they will have something I like or what to try. So far this has worked out because last night's dinner was molto delicioso!

Anyway(s), I'm getting off topic now..where was I?..oh, Monday!
After going to the grocery store I went back to my apartment and had lunch before my roommates and I met some other girls downstairs to head to the Colosseum! -- that was what we did for my culture class that day...pretty cool, right?

Well, naturally, we got lost [again] and ended up making it there right on time for our tour! The colosseum (coliseum) was incredible. It's absolutely mind-blowing to me that all of these structures around town (the town I live in!) are thousands and thousands of years old. Of course, they have been reconstructed a time or two (or three, or four) but it's still just awesome!
The only bad thing about this trip was that it rained, and my [$3 WalMart] umbrella broke and I didn't have my raincoat. :( ... It stopped raining soon after we got there though and I really enjoyed my time in the "home of the gladiators".

Afterwards, while Lourianne and I were headed back to our apartment, we got stopped by a "gladiator" standing outside of the capitoline and were basically forced into taking pictures with him. He then requested that we each pay him 5 euro for his "services".
Uh, no sir. He then proceeded to call us stingy and ask if we were from Africa. Are you kidding?!
I just deleted the photos and walked away.

After that I spent a relaxing night at home trying to prepare for my exam.

"Home"--did anyone else notice that? :)

Tuesday was another typical day as well. Except for our Rome culture class we went to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Unfortunately the power in our apartment went out and as Lourianne and I were walking out to meet the rest of the group downtown, we decided to tell the men downstairs that our electricity wasn't working so they could fix it. Well, that turned into a much longer process than we had anticipated.
The men didn't understand my English the first time and thought we were looking for a friend we had lost. We walked outside and they kept ringing the buzzers of the few student apartments they have in our building. Lourianne and I were so confused but just went along with it until finally one of the guards realized what we had meant. It was quite funny actually, after the fact. However, the whole debacle ended up making us late to our tour!

We rushed down to the forum, got our way in without a ticket telling the guard we had lost our group, and proceeded to look for them inside the forum. Well, the forum and Palatine hill are really big and after a while I decided that we weren't going to find them and it was better if we just took our time to walk around and see everything.
Luckily, I remembered that I had Rick Steve's guidebook on my phone with a self-guided walk of the Forum and the Palatine inside. I was so excited! We walked back to the Arch of Titus and started our tour.
We actually ended up running into our group, but it was just as they were finishing up. I was okay with it, though, because I learned so much just from reading and walking around myself-- more than I have on any other guided tour from my teacher (more because it's hard to hear, not because he's not a good teacher).

After the Forum we made our way home to go study for our test the next day. We ended up running into one of our roommates and we decided to go get coffee to keep us awake (we were so exhausted).
After walking around our block for about 30 minutes trying to decide on the perfect cafe, we finally made it back to our apartment and began studying. ( If I'm being completely honest it took me at least another hour to finally seriously start studying--procrastination at it's finest). Once I started falling asleep reviewing vocabulary I decided it was probably time for me to go to sleep.

The next morning I got ready, did some last minute reviewing and I was on my way up those dreadful stairs to class.
I took my test and it was actually much easier than I was expecting, which I was very happy about. After Italian class I stayed at the AUR and wrote my last blog post while I waited for my second class.

After classes finished for the day I went back to my apartment and started packing my things for Florence. Around 6pm I went down to meet some of the girl at the tram stop to go over to downtown Rome. We wanted to do another one of Rick Steve's self-guided tours from Campo di Fiori and stop in the middle in Piazza Novana to eat at a restaurant that one of my sisters (and Rick Steve's) recommended called Cul de Sac.
Well, we ended up passing Campo di Fiori, but found our way to Cul de Sac. We had to wait about a hour to get table because there were 7 of us and we needed two tables to fit all of us.
It was well worth the wait.
We started with an appetizer of two of Rome's best salamis and cheeses and the waiter's recommended house wine.
For the main entree I ordered their famous meatballs and mashed potatoes. It was so good! Quite possibly the best meal in Rome (or Italy) I've had so far. (Thanks Annie and Rick Steves)

Once we were done with dinner it was a little too late to walk all the way to the Trevi fountain and Spanish steps so we just started heading back to our apartment to finish getting our things together for our weekend trip.
However, some of the girls decided to make a pit stop at The Drunken Ship and convinced me to come with.
We only stayed for about a hour, but I'm glad I went since I missed out on the Fourth of July.

Once we got home, I caught up with Andrew (who got yet another job offer from RS&H engineering in Tampa!), finished getting my things together for Florence and went to bed.

I'm headed back from Florence now, so look out for a new post about my wonderful weekend in the medieval city!

Fino alla prossima volta!

Cassidy