Italia E Le Mie Lezioni

Circus Maximus at 6:30.
The game started at 8:45.

It seems like a much longer time ago than just last night, but yes, last night (Sunday July 1st) was the Eurocup Final... If you've seen the results, you know it didn't end well for Italia. Spain played extremely well and Italy seemed a little off their game. It was really fun watching though. We went to a restaurant in Trastevere where we got dinner for about 10 Euros each. Not too bad to sit in the air conditioning and watch the game. When it got to halftime, we went down to Circus Maximus with everyone else in Rome. Well, everyone but the people who were leaving early because they knew it wouldn't be ending well. (2-0 at the half can't be a good sign). So we made our way into the crowd and watched until Spain scored the third time and then decided we should probably head out. We weren't the only ones who felt this way and so it was really crowded.

There was an estimated 200,000 people there.

We walked from the Circus Maximus to the nearest metro stop, found out that it was closed, walked to the Colosseum stop and the rest of the group decided that it would be better to walk. Some Italian guys saw us looking at our map and when we told them where we wanted to go they told us to take the metro or the bus. We told them we were going to walk and they said, "You're Crazy!!" I agreed, but wasn't about to get on an overcrowded metro by myself. So we walked... It took an hour and a half... It was more than 3.25 miles... I was dead tired and just wanted water and sleep when I got back to the apt.

What the crowds looked like according to Google.
We were somewhere behind the smoke.

Today was our first day of classes (hence the second part of the title). My first class this semester doesn't start until 9:00 which means I can sleep in about 30 minutes more than June semester. That's fun and I appreciate it a lot. Also I now have 45 minutes in between classes instead of 30. So hopefully it will be enough for me to get between wherever we are in Rome and CEA's campus. It's a little stressful because it usually takes an hour to get between but maybe we can start class a little earlier than 9:00 and get out a little early.

Anyway, that class (Angels & Demons and Artists in Rome Art Through the Ages) is taught by the same professor as my art and archaeology professor from last semester. She's super nice and knows an incredible amount. I'm really happy to have her again, even though the first part of the course is a recap of what I had just covered. I'm excited for when we get past Constantine's time towards the Renaissance. It will be fun to take an actual class about Renaissance art.

My other class starts at 12:45 and is The Culture of Food and Wine in Italy. It should be mildly interesting if not quite as awesome as the other class. I am however, excited to learn more about what foods are from what regions. That should be fun. Anyway between classes I don't have much time to eat so I hope they give us a lot of food for the second class. That would be awesome.