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So I slept pretty well. It was probably because I was so tired. But then I woke up easily. We don't have a shower, just a tub with a handheld shower-type nozzle. Interesting. We got to the school with the group where we took our test. Oh my goodness, I could barely fill in my name. I have discovered that I have very little retension of language. Oh well. At least I'm trying. After the test our instructor took us around the school. The school is so beautiful. Cute gardens and cute classrooms. We also met the director of the school. He seemed very nice. For lunch we got paninis at a butcher shop. All it had was bread and prosciutto. It was so good. Oh yeah, before lunch our instructor also took us around the neighborhood, showing us around and some good places to eat. When we got back to the school we sat around in the garden and chatted. We met a few people and talked with them. It's so neat to talk with people of different cultures. Then it was off to 2 hours of class. Oh wow. That was an experience. There was NO English spoken. Only Italian. It made it very interesting. We learned 4 questions/answers, and the alphabet. It has definitely been a while since I was a student. I should get the hang of it by the end, but it will definitely be an adjustment. We only had 30 minutes to rest before we were off to our next adventure. The Colosseum and the other ancient Roman building. The reaction when we walked out of the subway was complete awe. Everyone was a little tire before, but then you could totally feel the energy rise! It was surreal! We met up with the guide and off we went. She was very informative, a lot of history. There were so many tidbits of information about each place we were at. Like at the Colosseum there are numbers above each entrance. Seats were free to the people, but everyone was assigned an entrance for easy exit/entrance. Very cool. There were some original roadways and olive tree. So amazing. The only bummer was that we didn't go in! So we planned to go back the next day during our time off. We continued along the path to see lots more ruins. Rome was built on top of itself. It's really interesting to see al the layers. Our guide was able to get us into a gorgeous basilica - Basilica S. Cosmo E. Damiano. We walked in and everyone took a huge breath. There was a ton to take in during this tour. We would stand at one place and listen to the guide, then she would take off to the next area. The traffic here is absolutely crazy. I would never be able to drive in it. So many little cars, no traffic signals, or paint on the roads! Our tour ended and we ended up on the same road as we were on yesterday! We had a hard time getting everyone across the square. Once across we walked and walked. Jeremy got some pesca gelato (peach ice cream). Oh that tasted so fresh and yummy! Then we went down the very famous Via dei Condotti - designer street! It was so fun walking down the street seeing all the designers. All the stores had people to open the doors for customers. Kinda crazy. Then we climbed the Spanish Steps. It wasn't too bad. We sat for a while to take it all in. While we were sitting there, a man came up to try and sell us something. We had learned from the previous day to just say no and ignore these people. All of a sudden this other man comes up and takes the bag of stuff from the man selling. The selling man was totally afraid and ran away. It all happened in like 2 seconds. Max thinks that the peddlers are controlled "underground" and that this man was not part of that group. So the leader took his stuff away. Crazy! After that excitement we decided to get some food. We went back to a little pizzeria near our school. Oh that was a perfect ending to our day! I ordered penne with a tomato sauce. Fresh tomato taste with a little bit of spice. And perfectly al dente noodles. I didn't plan on eating the entire bowl, but all of a sudden it was all gone! We all also shared a bottle of Chianti and Pinot Grigio. You have to buy water at restaurants here in Italy. They think that tap water should not be served when you go out to eat. For dessert I shared a tiramisu with Barb. it was not too sweet at all. I am so happy here. Nothing to worry about. Good food, good people. And this was only day 2!
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