Benvenuti a Roma!

Today, I arrived in Rome, Italy. Words cannot describe how excited I am to finally be here! We landed around 9am, Rome time- 3am in Philly. We found the representatives from AUR and they took us to meet other students before driving us to our apartment. In all honesty, I was expecting a small apartment, one bathroom, little storage, old building- typical Italian style home- but when my roommate and I opened the apartment door, we were shocked. It's a beautiful apartment! Huge living room, 3 bedrooms and two gorgeous bathrooms as well as a terrace that overlooks the city, the size of my apartment in Philadelphia! (seriously, no exaggeration there)
After we dropped our things, my roommate and I went out to lunch- ate some authentic Italian Pizza and had Gelato for dessert. We ordered everything in Italian and were able to speak with some locals for directions. We also stopped at a supermarket to get some food for the apartment. Then we unpacked and took a nap to get rid of some jet lag.
We went out again for dinner and met some other students from AUR. Tomorrow is orientation and I’m really looking forward to meeting some new people and getting back into the class routine. The school is a little far from my apartment, about a 20 minute bus ride, but that’s okay because it will give me a chance to learn the area.
I don’t think it’s hit me yet that I’m here- to stay. It feels like a vacation but I have 4 months to learn the country and its history. I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this, I feel so incredibly lucky. I can’t wait to see what happens next!