Today was our second last day of classes. We took the speaking portion of the Italian exam this morning and then I studied for my art history exam all afternoon. The exam was at 5:30 and I'm fairly certain that I got every artist, title and date correct.

At 6:30, Matt, Joe, Ali and I met to go to a Ludovico Einaudi concert at Ostia Anticha (Ludovico is a pianist). We had two different sets of directions to get there, but we allowed ourselves three hours just in case we got lost, which we did. One set of directions told us to take the A line train to a station far down the line, but it ended up taking us too far and we had to backtrack eight stops. We transferred to two other trains with little issue and got to the venue before nine.

Ostia Anticha is the oldest road in Rome. Nearby are Roman ruins, including the amphitheater where the concert took place. We bought sandwiches, chips and beer and ate them on the ancient seats before the performance. As soon as he started playing, we were all carried away by the music. The first time he stood up to take a bow, we thought that it was just an intermission, but he had been playing for almost an hour and a half. It felt more like 5 minutes.

He did an encore and played for another hour and it was just as entrancing. The performance was definitely made when, at the end of one of his songs, the cat that had been wandering the amphitheater all night, jumped onto the stage and walked next to the piano as the music came to a stop. No one really minded; everyone was laughing and even Ludovico just smiled, which goes to show the Italian state of mind.

Getting home was a little challenging at first because the trains stopped running and we had planned to take a cab, but there weren't any around. We stopped at a shop to ask for directions and they told us which bus to take, but that it only ran every hour. We decided to chance it and we ended up only waiting five minutes at the stop before the bus came.

It was a long ride back to the city and then we had to catch a cab from just in front of the Capitoline Museum, but we made it home safely and got to sleep around 2:00.