Day 2

I woke up with Mike telling me that we're going to the Vatican. I dragged myself together and got ready. On the way we got pizza- mine had mushrooms, egg, prosciutto. LESSON #1: pepperoni pizza is an AMERICAN thing (new york i think). it was only 4€ but we couldnt eat there so we walked around with our pizzas folded over and stood around the fountain by the Santa Maria Cathedral. It was a rainy day so I didnt bring my camera :(. After that we went to the cathedral which was really impressive. The detail of these structures is incredible. After that we walked to the Vatican- it was huge- there were a lot of Japanese tourists. Unfortunately it cost 8$ to go in the building and we will get in free later, so we waited. It began to rain so we started to walk back. We got gelato at a nearby stand which as delicious (of course). I got pistachio and tartufo. We waited for the rain to let up a little bit and headed back. We visited another cathedral on the way back and waited in there for it to stop raining. After that we headed to the Pantheon. On the way there we crossed the University of Arkansas' architecture school. We headed inside to check out our new digs. The building was beautifully detailed and welcoming. I can't wait to have to go to class there- it's a small step up from dudley in terms of style. After a brief tour of the school and a chat with Finn and another professor (I fell asleep of course) we left and went to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was massive. Seeing pictures in a book could never capture the magnificence of the space. After that we strolled throughout the street towards our apartment. We went out to eat at a restaurant by our house- it was great. I had spaghetti carbonara and white wine. Afterwards we went out on the town. At this one bar I decided to strike up a conversation with some locals. I actually felt sort of good with my very basic Italian. I found out however that they had lived in Spain for the past year and that they spoke Spanish better than they did English. We spoke Spanish better than Italian so then we managed to have a quite engaging conversation for a while- in SPANISH. It was a great moment finally having a conversation with some locals. Marco ran off to get some food and we headed to Scholars Lounge.