Benvenuti a Roma!

My time to study abroad has finally arrived! On January 4th I left the US for my 4-month new life in Rome. After a very long, 8-hour plane ride and 4-day orientation I finally had the chance to move into my home stay.

View of St. Peter's from our balcony.

My roommate Kiley and I live in the Prati neighborhood of Rome. We live with Nicoletta, a wonderful woman who cooks us delicious meals and is very patient with our broken and limited amount of Italian. We can see the Roman Olympic Stadium, St. Peter's Basilica and the old watch tower for he Vatican from the balcony of our apartment. Nicoletta speaks little English and fluent French. How convenient is it that neither Kiley or myself speak French, I can speak some Italian and Kiley can speak some Spanish? One could only imagine how our daily dinner conversations go, trying to talk about what is on the television or what we did in school that day. On our first night we all watched Meet the Fockers in Italian together.

Some Loyola/CUA taking a break after seeing the Catacombs.

I have been here for about two weeks and am finally feeling settled in and somewhat adjusted to my new life. The Loyola and CUA students take classes at St. Johns, located right near the Lepanto stop for the bus and Metro. On Mondays and Wednesdays I take the Loyola Philosophy and Ethics courses. On Fridays I take Liturgical Art and Architecture with Dr. Dawson. We spend a majority of this class touring the city of Rome and learning about how the art and architecture affect the liturgical aspect of Rome. So far we have visited the church of Santi Apostoli, where the tombs of Apostles John and Philip are located, the church of San Silvestro and the church of St Anastasio. This past week we visited the Catacombs of Priscilla, which contains over 40,000 graves. Afterwards, we ventured to the Church of St. Agnes and to Costanza's Grave (Constantine's daughter).

Doing Italiaidea homework on the Spanish Steps before class.

Every Monday through Friday, all Loyola and CUA students take 3 hours of Italian at Italiaidea, a school designed specifically to teach foreigners Italian. The whole three hours are spoken strictly in Italian. I can already feel my Italian speaking skills improving after just 2 weeks. Only 6 more to go!

St. Peter's Basilica

Since being in Rome, I have already seen many of the historical sites, but I plan on revisiting them all many times. Almost everyday I meet up with some Loyola/CUA students at the Spanish Steps before Italiaidea and do our italian homework on this major tourist attraction. Dr. Dawson gave everyone involved in the program and very detailed tour of St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world, pointing out the significance of every piece of art and structure of the church.