Lago/Colosseum

9/2: We woke up early and met at the IES center. From there we got on charter buses and drove to the Lago di Matignano. It was about 45 minutes away from our center and I'm pretty sure it is not in Rome. It was in a rural area. We drove through a lot of beautiful country side on our way there. When we got about half way up the mountain that the lake was on, we had to stop and take turns getting on the smallest bus and taking that up the rest of the way because the other buses were too big for the little roads. When we finally got there we walked down a little dirt road to get to the lake and it was beautiful. When everyone got there we split into small groups and talked with a mentor about our experiences so far in Rome. After that we had lunch and got to hang out by the lake. We went swimming and apparently the lake is on top of an inactive volcano so the "dirt" at the bottom of the lake was actually volcanic ash. It was really soft. In the afternoon, about 6 people at a time could go out on a sailboat. There was an Italian guy who took us out to the middle of the lake and we got to jump and and swim. Then after that we took a paddle boat out and just relaxed.

That night we went to dinner at a restaurant that has "student dinners" which was 10 euro for an appetizer, a pasta dish, a dessert, and wine. The appetizer was bruschetta, the pasta was penne with tomato and basil, and the dessert was tiramisu and I had white wine. Afterwards, we went for gelato.

9/3: We were originally planning on going to the beach but we never actually received any information about where we were supposed to meet or what time or anything at all (this program has actually proved to be rather disorganized thus far; Italian bureaucracy at its finest) so instead I met up with a few friends around 11 and we walked to the Trevi Fountain which was beautiful and then we took the subway to the Colosseum after having lunch. But unfortunately it is really hot here right now so the people in my group not from Texas were not capable of dealing with the heat so we didn't stay long and went to get gelato. Then we took the bus/tram back home.

That night (and when I say night I mean night, like 9pm is when we go to dinner which is still earlier than most Italians) we searched for an apperitivo which is basically where you go to a restaurant and buy a drink and then they give you appetizers for free. There are good ones and there are bad ones and unfortunately we went to a bad one. We paid for 5 euro each for drinks (I got a bellini which is a cocktail with peach juice and Prosecco) and got olives and peanuts as appetizers. Next time we are going to try a different place that actually gives you real food for appetizers. After that we went to a pizza place called Pizza Roma. The people there were really nice. When we got there, no tables were available so we had to wait but they brought us a free appetizer which was basically the crust part of a pizza with olive oil on it. I split an eggplant pizza with mozzarella cheese on top and it was delicious. I also had a coke which tastes better than American coke. The waiter came over and asked us where we were from and when I told him Texas he went on to talk to me about his favorite sports teams from Texas including the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Texans. After that we got gelato (of course) in the Piazza di Santa Maria I think? I forget because there are about a million piazzas in Rome. In the middle of the piazza there was a fountain and a guy was juggling fire.

I start my Italian class on Monday the 5th and then the rest of my classes start on Monday the 12th.

Ciao!