Ugly Americans

I have officially been in Rome for a week and I have also officially begun classes. I used this weekend to explore Rome a bit more and sleep in (it felt sooo good after a long week). Friday night, a group of us went to Campo di Fiori, which is a place where Americans can go to escape all the culture that exists in Rome. In other words, it was totally touristy and kind of nuts. The area just has lots of bars and drunk study abroad students. The bars have authentic Italian names such as The Drunken Ship and Sloppy Sams. I did have fun, but it is not somewhere I will go too frequently. I did, however, meet my first non-ND student, though he was from Seattle and not Italy, so it was very uninteresting. I cant even remember what this guy and I talked about, it was that uninteresting. Remind me to never study abroad in Seattle.
Saturday, I hit up Ancient Rome by going to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Thank goodness for digital cameras, because otherwise, I would have gone through several roles of film. It is incredible to see such ancient things that are still in existence, especially considering that nothing in America even compares to the history that ancient Rome houses. By the Roman Forum was a fantastic photo op where we were on top of a hill and had a great view of the city. The skyline is different than anything I have seen. Where New York and Chicago have their grandious skyscrapers, Rome has detailed domes, beautiful columns, and ancient monuments.
We tried to watch the game that night at a local bar, but turns out Rome has trouble getting American NBC. It doesnt seem like the game was really worth watching anyway (I seem to have picked a good season to miss).
On Sunday, some of my apartment mates and I went to the beach. What we expected to be a 40 minute train ride turned into an hour and a half train ride, followed by a 5 minute bus ride. It was worth it once we got to the beach. The Meditteranean Sea is beautiful and warm and blue. We went to one of the public free beaches, so it was crowded and littered with vendors walking around selling Coca Cola, sunglasses, scarves, lost children, etc. I thought I would feel very body conscious, being on a beach full of beautiful Italian women, but it turns out that they look a lot better with their clothes on. While Americans are obsessed with looking good naked and getting that perfect 8-pack, it seems that all that matters to Italians is looking good in your clothes, which makes sense since you should be wearing clothes most of the time anyway. Italian women look slim in their clothes because they wear things that fit, instead of doing the American style of wearing a size two, just so you can say you wear a size two, then having a disgusting muffin top peek out under your XS shirt. The women here do tend to have a bit of a tummy, but they work it and sport the bella figura. The beach was also full of mostly naked old people. Ironic, how the young, attractive people keep their swimsuits on, while the old, icky people decide to let it all hang out. When I wasn't looking at the water, I kept my eyes to my Glamour magazine. Leaving the beach was a task, as we had to wait for the bus, then cram onto it, and I mean CRAM. There were about 50 too many people on that bus and everyone had just come from the beach, so the aroma was not too appealing. Thankfully, the bus ride was short.
Today, classes started. I am already completely lost in my upper level Italian class, but fortunately, a few other students seem to be in the same boat. I have three classes on Monday, Wednesday, two classes on Tuesday, and one on Thursday. I have big breaks in between a lot of my classes, which leaves time to grab a panini. Before going to class today, I stopped in St. Peter's Basillica for Mass. I was in total awe. The Pietà is right by the entrance and there are countless other priceless works of art. The thing is massive and incredibly ornate and I could probably be in there for days and not see everything. I have taken in so many artworks and monuments and beautiful sights, that pretty soon, my eyeballs are going to start shooting out statues.
My apartment-mate, Caitlin, and I have decided to become regulars at a local cafe on the way to school. The old man who makes our cappuccinos is named Tony, so we thought that was very appropriate. When Tony is not making coffee, he is standing outside the cafe, waving at everyone who goes by. It is quite adorable.
The other day as I was walking past a little negozio, a little dog shot out of the store and out followed a very GQ looking Italian man, desperately calling for his doggy to come back. As the GQ man stood there with his trendy messenger bag and leather shoes, pointing at the little dog who was heading towards a cafe, a larger and more manly Italian man came out of the store to run after the dog. The dog went straight into the cafe (maybe he wanted some espresso), the burly man went after him and the handsome man stood mumbling some distraught sounding Italian. And that is my cute little Italian story for today.