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Our second week in Torremaggiore was pretty busy. Early in the week we visited the high school to talk with and meet local students. Later they brought us on a tour of Torremaggiore. We also attended a teachers lunch and visited City hall to meet the interim mayor. The food at the B&B continued to be amazing and i tried a lot of new dishes i hadn't had before. Symone and I taught our post card lesson to three more second grade classes. Later in the week we visited the castle in Torremaggiore and learned more about the towns history. We also attended a dinner with the Council for the twin cities of Torremaggiore and Buffalo.
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Upon leaving Rome, we took the train to Torremmaggiore. Being my first time on a train, it was an interesting and stressful experience but hey at least we made some memories. When we got to Torremmaggiore it was better then i had imagined. It is one of the most charming places i have ever been with lots of little shops and cobble stone streets. The B&B was perfect and we were surprised to see how huge the rooms were. The best part of staying there was the food. I truly feel like i got to taste so much authentic Italian food and had a truly authentic experience by staying in small town. Symone and i co-taught our first lesson that week and did post cards with a second grade class. I was so impressed by how well they did, some even going the extra mile to write personal messages to my students in the US. The teachers certainly showed us a good time on our first weekend in town. On Saturday night we went into the next town over, San Severo, to attend a concert at a wine cellar. I quickly fell in love with San Severo, everyone was out on a Saturday night, walking around and enjoying life. The wine cellar was truly something that i know i could never experience at home. Dating back to the 1800's, the cellar produced Prosecco (sparkling wine) and had concerts to raise money for stem cell research. The music was very entertaining (even though i had no clue what was going on). After the concert there was a ton of good food and samples of wine. That night we discovered the groups obsession for mozzarella cheese. On Sunday we went to Giovanna's home for lunch and met her family including her daughter Francesca. We were so overwhelmed (in the best way possible) by the families hospitality and the amount of food and alcohol we were given. I lost count of just how much i ate and how long i ate for, but needless to say it was a while !
On our last day in Rome we visited the Coliseum, the Palatine hill, and the Trevi fountain. It was a crazy long day and we walked so much. I really enjoyed the Coliseum even though it was freezing. The palatine hill was enormous and never ending. We walked and walked and i couldn't believe how huge it was. My favorite part of the day was our visit to the Trevi fountain. It was a bit of an adventure to find it. We walked down all these little streets with no cars, lined with little shops and boutiques. Suddenly we rounded a corner a the Trevi fountain was there. It was the most magical part of the trip.
We spent our second day in Rome at the Vatican. We visited St.Peters as well as the Vatican museums. I was amazed at how large the Vatican museums were. You would probably have to get there as soon as the museum opened and leave just before it closed in order to cover the entire thing. My favorite part of the Vatican was Sistine chapel which we were not allowed to take pictures inside of. After visiting the chapel, the group decided to go get food while Symone and i wanted to visit the Rapheal room to see a particular painting. Little did we know that the Vatican musuem is not set up in a way that you van just wander through it, but instead there is only one way through and one exit. We had to walk through most of the musuem again, inlcuding the sistine chapel. We probably looked crazy becuase we were rushing while the other musuem goers were taking their time to see everything. oddly enough when we finally got to the Rapheal room we didnt even know that we had arrived. We asked the sequrity gaurd where the Rapheal room was and then he told us we were in it ! on our way out of the vatican we were running so late to meet the rest of the group that we were basically running through the musuem and trying not to get distracted by all the things we wanted to look at ( though we did stop for a few very famous things). The worst was when we got to their modern and contemporary art collection. It was terrible to not get too look and see names like Salvidore Dali as we walked by. I was exhausted by the time we left. For dinner we went to a restaurant right below our hotel and the food was amazing. It is my favorite place we have eaten and favorite meal so far.This was the first flight i had ever taken that went over an ocean. Though i was not consciously nervous, on the day we left i felt as though i was going to be sick the entire day. Luckily i took some Dramamine and from that point on, traveling went very smoothly. Royal Dutch Airlines had an amazing crew, comfortable seats and free movies to watch. I was also really impressed with the cute packing of the food and the amount of it. We got a snack, dinner, and then breakfast in the morning. It was all not only edible but pretty good. Upon landing in Rome, i learned quickly that people here in Italy drive pretty crazy. Im not quite sure what their traffic law are, but i am sure that no one follows them. We rested at the hotel before going to dinner where i had a good meal with ravioli. Our waiter and the owner of the restaurant explained that he was a gladiator and even showed us a news article to validate his claim. Apparently, in Italy if you have eight sons, you are considered a gladiator. After dinner we decided to explore the streets of Rome, aiming to get to the Colosseum in order to see it at night. On the way we stopped for gelato which was amazing. It was so special to get to see the Colosseum and some of the Roman ruins at night time all lit up and it was the perfect thing to do on our first night in Rome ! |
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