Day 4 (5-14-09) Farnesina and Trastevere

Settled. That is one of the words that describes today. Today I felt like I was finally settled in: my time clock has adjusted, I can find food, and I have Zyrtec! We started off today again with Professor Paul Gwynne and we got an art history tour of Farnesina and Trastevere. Once again I really enjoyed these tours because they were from a different perspective and they were just great places to see. I find it very exciting to see the way the Romans meshed all of the materials, such as wood and stone, and then mesh the old with the new all in the same building. This is neat to see because everything looks like a conglomerate of stuff compared to parts of the United States where we have brand new sections and old sections of towns. After this tour we came back and I went to a supermarket and a pharmacy where I bought food for lunch and Zyrtec for my allergies. Our next activity this afternoon was another Italian language and culture lesson. I’m still not really sure on what I think of Professor Maurizio Valtieri but I can tell you one thing: the consensus of the group is that we should not be paying all of these entrance fees and book fees every time we turn the corner. That should already have been taken care of ahead of time. I don’t care if the trip costs a little more but it is starting to kill me to have to fork out five to ten Euros every day. After this a few of us and Professor Frascatore and Wears went to visit the Piazz del Popolo and the Spanish steps. This is where the fun began. After we visited the Popolo we stated to walk down Via Corso, the major shopping street in Rome. Once we got part way down we decided to stop at a restaurant and grab a drink and some bread before we continued on. After this we did a little more walking till we came across a restaurant named 06 Bar. This looked like a great restaurant but that was not so. It took the waiter about an hour to get half of the food out and another half hour or so to get the other half out. At the end of this we decided that this was unjust and that we were not going to pay the 103 Euro bill. So we decided to pay 80 Euros and “dine and mosey”. And by mosey I mean make a b line towards the Spanish steps. After our hearts stopped racing from racing to the Spanish steps we sat down on them and took some photos, like the one above, and rested for a little while. After this the girls and I decided to walk back to the hotel where we met up with a few others and chatted about our afternoon. Now tomorrow all I have to do is find a sports jacket from one of the few hundred men’s clothing shops in Rome….. this will be interesting.