My Mom and my sister Kyra drove me to Tampa International Airport at 9 AM on June 20th before watching me scan my passport and get my boarding passes for my flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport and then to ROME!!
The flight to New York took longer than expected, since it was delayed about three times before we finally got to JFK, and by that time we had already missed our flight to Rome. This gave my group and I a good opportunity to explore New York, technically at least. We discussed our plans for what we would do when we get off in Italy over McDonald’s fries and some mysterious meat dumplings from the Chinese restaurant in the food court. I have never been to New York before, so even though I didn’t get to see the skyline or the many other things that scream, “Empire State”, I cherished every moment I spent in JFK.
We boarded our Alitalia flight to Rome at 10:15 PM, and that lasted about 8 hours. I could only manage to sleep for about a half hour after eating, so then I watched The Lego Movie, an episode of Shake it Up, Sherlock Holmes, and listened to the free alt rock they had available before we touched down in Fiumicino International Airport at 12:05 PM, Italian time.
Shortly after collecting our luggage, we met Jill, one of our tour guides. She led us to the bus that took us to our hotel, and after checking our rooms, we took a quick walking tour of Rome, and I was amazed by the statues outside the Vatican. We got fresh gelato at Lemongrass Gelato (I got the tiramisu flavor), did some minor grocery shopping at a supermarket, and filled up water bottles with the delicious water coming from the aqueduct system that has been in place for hundreds of years.
We went to dinner at La Vittoria, with Josh and Devin, our other tour guides. The lasagna was amazing, and I learned a lot about culture, especially for ordering at restaurants. Tax and tip are already figured into all prices on a menu, which means less time calculating numbers and more time eating!
Our first lesson in Rome starts tomorrow, and we’re going to do a whole bunch of other cool things, too, starting tomorrow. I will describe the places I visit in the next blog that will be posted tomorrow.
Until then,
Summer
