Guided Tour??? Pshaw!

So today was my first official day in Rome. I landed yesterday afternoon after basically a day and a half of flying. For those of you that don't know, I am doing a homestay while I am here which means, I am staying with an Italian. This means that I get home cooked meals and get to learn the best places to go and experience life like the Italians do. I was expecting to be by myself but it turns out that there is another girl staying with me in the same home. Her name is Rose and her and I are finding out that we have a lot in common, which is awesome! Anyway, my "Italian Mom's" name is Mary and she is adorable. She is a single retired woman who is just wonderful and an amazing cook! I have vowed to try everything she cooks, and for those of you that know me well, that is not an easy thing for me. Tonight she made this delicious vegetable quiche plus a salad and this meat thing and then clementines and sweet bread for desert. Apparently people really like clementines here because we have had them for pretty much every meal since I arrived. Well anyway, today we went in for a little orientation, but most of the information was for the students living in apartments or dorms and for those with no travel experience or no common sense. Nevertheless, it was informative about a few things. The study abroad program has planned some day trips for us that we are able to take advantage of. Both Rose and I are stoked to go on those excursions because they are to places that we would never be able to see otherwise; there is no public transportation to the towns. One is a visit to a Monastery and then to a medieval village with authentic medieval food and the other is a wine tasting excursion in an authentic Italian vineyard. We got a little break during the middle of the orientation where we were able to go get an authentic Italian cafe latte. It's amazing how much stronger coffee is in Italy than in the US. After the orientation, we were given the chance to get a guided tour around the area that surrounds the school building. Rose and I decided to go touring on our own. We walked around and saw lots of little dogs in rain coats and sweaters, which was a little strange, but apparently very Italian, and we just stumbled upon some really gorgeous places and then followed some small signs and found ourselves in front of the Pantheon! Guided tours, yeah no thanks. We got lost a few times, especially when we were coming home. We got off the bus and just kind of turned one way and started walking only to find out we walked like 3 blocks in the wrong direction. It's definitely an adventure! There is supposedly a beautiful park in the middle of Rome, similar to NYC's Central Park, called the Villa Borghese that I intend to take full advantage of. Lucky for me, Rose is an avid photographer as well and also brought a film camera and lots of black and white film so we intend on going on some photo adventures throughout the city! We are also planning to go to Venice for the famous Carnevale in a few weeks! It should be absolutely amazing! I can't wait!!! Here are some pictures from today that I took on my phone. Silly me, I thought to myself that I wasn't going to have time to explore or take pictures but I forgot, you don't need to really explore in Rome to find beautiful places. You just sort of stumble across them, most of the time by accident. That's the last time I make that mistake; my digital camera will be coming with me everywhere!!! I look forward to writing again. I would love to hear your comments and feedback, especially those who have been to Rome or anywhere in Italy. Places to go, things to see, etc.! Ciao!!!!

These two pictures are from the Piazza Navona that is basically on the way from the house to the school campus. I have a feeling you all will be seeing a lot of pictures of these fountains over the next few months. 

This is from a little cafe that is close to school called Bar Amore. It was so strong I was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the orientation. When I was talking to one of the Italian advisers about drinking coffee, I said that I don't think I would do it on an everyday basis. He said, and I quote "not on an everyday basis, just once a day" to which Rose responded, "that is an everyday basis". Oh the difference in languages :) 

Rose and I just sort of stumbled upon this museum today
when we were walking home. This was just the entry way,
we didn't even need to walk in to see beautiful sculptures!

One of the buildings that is next door to the school
building is a local library where other Italian students
go. It was beautiful! So many old book, they even use
the Dewey Decimal System!

This was another building that we just stumbled upon. We were walking by and just happened to look into this courtyard and saw this beautiful building and courtyard. Things just aren't made like this anymore!

While walking around and getting lost, we walked up to
this beautiful building. The only way to get a good picture
 of it though was to stand sort of in the middle of the
street behind a fountain. So that's what I did. 

This we thought was pretty funny. Italian graffiti.
 It took a second to realize that there was a sticker on
the sign. Normally it is a do not enter sign, but
apparently now it is a really large pillar or beam of
some kind. Some people have a good
 sense of humor!

This was a picture of the Pantheon. Please excuse the blurriness, no matter what they say, iPhone camera's are just not the same as real ones. I can't wait to get in there and get some good ones in my black and white film. The only bummer is, I can't develop them until I get home. Oh well.

This was a dome that was located inside the Pantheon. It as so beautiful. The colors were brilliant, just as the appear in  the photo, perhaps even more. 

This was a sculpture inside the Pantheon. I thought is was beautiful. All the different types of stone that surrounded it really added to the colors.

Oh and a little fun fact that I learned today, for those of you that make it to the end of this really long post. The building that the school is located was built in 1660. And we think that buildings that were built more than 30 years ago are old, HA! It was originally built by a very wealthy family that was on the board of directors of the Vatican. They knew that the Vatican was looking for a new location to house their bank so without telling anyone, they commissioned an architect to build the building and when it was done, they gave it to the church. Well the other board of directors weren't too happy about that so found another location and claimed the one that had been built was too far. The other building was only 100 meters closer to the Vatican than this building. So there is your fun fact of the day!