As soon as we got off the bus and were assigned to our rooms, I was instantly stoked. The apartments were so much nicer than what I had anticipated, & they had wifi.. one of my biggest necessities. I think the first night after we unpacked, we immediately set out to explore. Nothing compares to the feeling of seeing something brand new for the first time. The cobblestone streets, the mini Fiats lined up everywhere, the beautiful buildings and ancient ruins casually lining the streets all seemed so unreal. Our first meal was at an expensive Americanized Italian restaurant but I was too excited about the lack of a drinking age in Italy to care that I spent almost $30 on a pizza/beer. I believe there was a soccer game happening this night as well, & I remember finishing dinner around the same time the game had ended, & being able to freely walk in the middle of the streets prior to clean up. Not familiar with the traffic in Rome yet, I later found out how rare of an event this was. To finish off the night I remember unknowingly walking around and discovering that we were right near the Colosseum. It had finally hit me that this beautiful ancient city (that I had dreamed and fantasized about while watching the Lizzie McQuire Movie circa 7th grade) was where I would be spending the next 5 weeks of my summer!