ROMA BABY!!

Ciao Roma! Sei stati Belissima! Mi Manca Sempre!



(Goodbye Rome! You were beautiful! I will miss you forever!)

In order to meet my foreign language requirement at Dartmouth, I decided to take Italian rather than Spanish and it was one of the best decisions I have EVER made! After excelling in my courses and getting a better picture of what Rome meant outside of Gladiators and Pasta (mmm PASTA!)…I couldn’t turn down a chance to go see some of the most beautiful architecture, art, sculptures, and of course, men in the world.




I expected a lot from this trip: I wanted to meet a hot Italian guy to show me around the city and teach me the language (/wink), I wanted to eat some of the best food in the world and see some of the greatest art out there, I wanted to make friends with people on my trip, I wanted to have a great time and try new and amazing things.

I got most of my wishes…minus the Italian boytoy lol. Turns out all the guys in Italy are 5’4 LOL. I was sooo nervous about making friends as I knew NONE of the people who happened to be on my trip but it wasn’t a problem at all. The first day after class, I expressed my interest in finding a bar to celebrate and 6 others on my trip wanted to too. Everyone else wanted to go sight seeing (NERDS! We had 3 months to do that :P). There were five main partiers (known on the trip as Le Cinque or The Five) and we made the most of it. First week we got kicked out of a few clubs because one of our buds was drunk and almost fighting. Pretty much every day for the first month we came to class hungover or still drunk. Good times. Especially since I still got better grades than most of the people who stayed home and studied every day!

Found an amazing eatery right by the school which was cheap as well as an internet café where we could go and eat/drink after class while studying together. Also…a gelateria (if you don’t know what this is…your life isn’t complete yet!). Our school was also nestled in among some of the most beautiful and amazing places: Foro Romano, Coliseum, Parthenon (Temple of Athena!) etc etc! Amazing! Of course I also paid a visit to the Vatican (though I'm not Catholic)!

I have so many wonderful memories from the trip…I guess I’ll share:

- Trip to Florence – was an amazing trip! Went down just for a weekend for a “project” but ended up partying our asses off. Stayed in this horrible hostel which had these strict rules. The doors locked at 3 a.m. and they wouldn’t let anyone back in until 8 a.m. aaaaand to top it off…they cleaned the place at 10 a.m. and kicked EVERYONE out until 2 p.m. We had found some amazing club and stayed there until like 5 a.m. and then found some open air party and chilled there for a bit. When we finally got back in the hostel and passed out we were awoken and kicked out for several hours. At that point…I and one friend managed to be not hung over enough to go and see the Statue of David and steal a few pics. Everyone else was too sick to go. That’s how hard we partied!

- Got an almost two week vacation in the middle of the trip (the day after my 21st bday!!!) and me and Le Cinque +2 decided to head South. We went to Sicily for most of that vacation and rented out an apartment right near the beach. AMAZING!!!! We just stocked up on food and liquor and partied for the entire time!!!!! Our apartment was gorgeous and the view was sooo beautiful! We stopped by Pompeii on our way down and visited Positano and Capri as well (GORGEOUS).

- Fammi! One of Le Cinque’s host moms! She was AMAZING- fun, knew where all the parties were, and was rarely home. We crashed at her place a lot after hard nights of partying, even playing drinking games with her. She was AMAZING – I liked her a lot!

I so desperately want to go back but it won’t be the same without those people I went with. It was such an amazing trip and we all cried when we realized that it had to end and we had to go back to the States!! Kept in touch with most of the kids when I got back to school- partying with them and recreating our dinners together- but those things always seem to fade. I kind of wish I could go back to that term and do it all over again though! Che bellissima Viaggia (What a beautiful trip!).