February 16th, 2017

2/16/17

Emma Grenzebach and Clara Stein

This morning everybody had to be downstairs by 9:00 and wake up call was at 7:30. We got downstairs a little late because we woke up a little late, but everybody else had a nice breakfast of croissants and fruit and a variety of other breakfast foods.

Pasquale picked us up a little bit after 9:00 and we had a nice drive to Tivoli. A lot of people slept along the way. We arrived at Hadrian’s Villa and Catia (our local guide) paraded us around the Villa for about two hours. The Villa was very interesting and beautiful. We saw a lot of ancient ruins and baths, of course. Some of the tiles were well preserved, especially in the portion of the Villa that was meant for Hadrian’s guests.

Then we went to lunch in Tivoli, where we got pizza and a drink and it was pretty fantastic. We then went to the Villa d’Este. We saw a lot of art and a lot of the art depicted some very very sassy babies. There were also lots of fountains, it was incredible. We got to walk around the fountain area for a while exploring and taking pictures. We found another group of American students from North Carolina who were participating in an exchange with an Italian school in Rome. After about two hours in the Villa d’Este we shopped at some booths for 15 minutes and headed back to Rome.Once back in Rome Pasquale took us to the Ara Pacis museum which contains the Ara Pacis Augustae which is an altar dedicated to the Roman goddess Pax that was built to honor the return of Augustus to Rome. It was a beautiful altar covered with decorations and a figure of Augustus.We then walked to our restaurant for dinner where there was no bread. They gave us olive oil though? Dinner was still good. We ate pasta with red sauce and meat and vegetables and salad. We also had flan for dessert. It was mushy and interesting, but overall good. After dinner, some people got some gelato. We, however, did not, and immediately regretted the decision.

We then walked to the Spanish Steps and ran up them for fun. Clara beat Neha to the top of the steps two times, and Neha said that it wasn’t a real race, but that she would beat Clara in a “real” race. What does real mean? I think she might have been a sore loser. Too bad.

After the Spanish Steps Pasquale picked us up in the Car Bus and drove us to our hotel. At the hotel we listened to three more emperor presentations by Sophie, Caitlin, and Olivia. We then headed up to our rooms for free time. Our free time was spent writing this blog, while other people were doing homework and relaxing. All in all, it was a good day.