Midterms and Sorrento!

28 Ottobre 2014
Ciao! We are on our mid-term week so life is currently full of flash cards and exams.  Also my parents and sister are in Rome for the week so juggling seeing them with school is my main goal. As a break, I thought I would add another entry to the blog to talk about our latest weekend excursion.

The weekend of the 16th through the 18th, the Rome family took a trip to Sorrento.  Our first day we visited the Island of Capri and had a wonderful day exploring the Island and having a class in the Villa Jovis; there we got to see the living quarters of an Emperor who retired on the top of the Island.  The views of the blue Mediterranean were so tempting and after lunch a few of us got to go for a swim!   The next day, a group of us decided to go for a hike out to the edge of the peninsula in Sorrento.  The hike out was relaxing but we decided to go a different way back that was quite long but the views did not disappoint!  After the journey we spent a little time getting to see Sorrento before leaving bright and early Sunday for Pompeii! While the outside view of the town makes the town seem small, once inside the ruins, the town continues forever! The maze of streets and temples, government buildings and houses was striking and in a strange way, beautiful.  Everyone had been assigned a different structure to give a presentation on so our time was spent moving from place to place with the students (myself included) giving guided historic tours.  Could there be a better classroom for Pompeii but Pompeii itself?  After we had lunch and continued back towards Rome.  On our way, we made a brief stop at the Abbey of St. Scholastica as well as the Monastery of  St. Benedict on the cliffs of Subiaco.  The artwork throughout the monastery was incredible and Benedict's cave was beyond words.

Italian Word of the Trip: Grotta- Cave
Place: Villa Jovis, Capri, Italia
Pictures to Follow!

Hello Again! Welcome to Ottobre!

My apologies for not updating my blog since before we visited Florence! I have been enjoying school and the experience but I am often away from the computer. These past few weeks have been full of activities from a soccer game (GO ROMA!) to exploring St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. Rome is always full of places to explore and for this I am truly blessed.  This week has already provided some highlights.  On Monday after history and Italian class, the students and I went to a conference on the Family and Marriage in the Catholic Church. Among the others allowed to the small gathering were several Ambassadors to countries such as Austria, Ireland and Canada as well as a special visit from Mary McAleese, the former president of Ireland.  We had the privilege of hearing from five panel members on a variety of issues that were being discussed in the Synod.  The conference had about 50 people from all over the world and they were all there just to listen like we were.
Today, we went to the Questura di Roma to the ufficio immigrazione where our existence in Italy became legal. This process has taken about a month and we are glad to have it finished! Hope I can keep this up and I will try to send as many updates as possible.

Italian of the Day: Ufficio- Office
Place of the Day: Questura di Roma, Roma, Italia

Vatican Museum

with Mary McAleese

in St. Peter's