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School in the morning. Learning Italian through immersion is like a roller coaster ride. You start out nervous because you don't know what to expect. As you go along you feel like you are actually understanding, but then you come crashing down with no idea. For lunch Max took us to a cute Sicilian cafe. We took our food to a park. It was very fun, except there were no benches that were in decent shape to sit on. The food was different vegetables wrapped in dough. It was so yummy. I also tried the Coke. It is definitely sweeter than American Coke, but not in a bad way. Actually it seemed like a mix between American Coke and Pepsi. We were able to talk to Max about some of the history of Italy. That was really interesting. Mainly we talked about their part in WWII. Then Jeremy and I went back to the flat to take a rest before our ext tour. This tour was to be of the Jewish Ghetto, Isola Tiberina, and Travstevere. The over all impression of this tour was not the greatest. Partly it was because of how tired we were. Partly it was because of the guide. The Jewish Ghetto is/was the oldest area of Jews outside of Israel. There really isn't much left of the Jewish Ghetto. We wandered around for quite a while, trying to imagine what it would have been like back then. Then we moved on to Isola Tiberina - the island in the Tiber River. This part was better. There isn't too much on the island; a few shops, churches, and a hospital. I guess that the island was originally made to help people who were sick from the plague, so they have kept the tradition of the medicine on the island. Here on the island we got gelato and heard how our tour guide would like to get stuck in an elevator with Bruce Springsteen. Needless to say, that was too much information. Finally we went to Trastevere, kinda a Bohemian area of Rome. It was very fun walking up and down the streets, looking at all the shops. there were several dresses I could have bought,. This is where our guide left us. We didn't know if some of us could go into a church, so Max went to look. There were plenty of people in there that weren't covering their shoulders, so we all went in. It was so ornamented inside. Every single inch of the place has some sort of ornamentation. Very impressive. But it did make me a little sad. What really was the focus? It didn't feel like Christ. Also Becky and I got "yelled" at by some woman about not being properly clothed. I didn't care because she was just a parishioner and there were plenty of others who were dressed like us. From there we went to supper at this amazing pizzeria. We sat outside on the street. The place was so busy, you knew it was going to be good. We ordered beer and pizza. I got cheese and zucchini flowers. It was so good. And there was no red pizza sauce! While we were sitting there, a guy started playing the violin. How perfect! Before we got our pizza, we had a super amazing appetizer - suppli (deep fried rice balls stuffed with cheese). I could have definitely had an entire plateful of those. We sat and chatted for quite a while and then went back home. On the way back we decided to walk past the Coloseo at night. What an amazing site. First we saw the Forum lit up. I think it is actually more beautiful at night than during the day. We were all a little bummed that we were going to miss the play Julius Caesar in the Forum because of our tour, but when we were passing by we saw it going on. Even better, we were just in time for the killing of Julius Caesar! Pretty amazing! Et tu Brute? Then we turned around to see the moon rising over the Coloseo. To see the bright full moon rising over the Coloseo is just breathtaking. So we hustled over to take some great pictures. Somehow I'm going to have to get everyone's pictures before I start my scrapbook. Our group is very different, yet kinda similar, but we get along great. We are almost halfway through and we are just getting closer and closer as a group. What a great blessing!
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