Rome, Italy Day 1

Finally, the day has come. We made it to Italy! After months of anticipation and endless waiting, the trip began. And if I may say so myself, it started off extremely well. After school on friday, we began the thirteen hours of total travel that would eventually lead us to our destination. It started off with a smooth seven hour flight from DC to Amsterdam, where we remained for a two hour lay-over. Then, we boarded another plane that took us the reamaining two hours to Rome. On this flight, we got the pleasure of seeing some breath-taking aerial views of the Alps. We landed in the Rome airport and headed over to baggage claim to get our luggage. Although we did have some trouble when Mr. Green's baggage did not make it through to Rome, but Mr. Green worked things out and we were on our way once again. A beautiful one hour drive took us to downtown Rome, where we checked in at our hotel, dropped off luggage, and freshened up a little bit. Soon, we were beggining our Mr. Green-guided adventure through the city. The obelisk tour, which takes us to most of the major land marks in Rome, begins in the Vatican, so we hopped on the subway and made our way towards Saint Peter's Square. Although we only got through about half of the obelisk tour in the time that we had, the sights we got to see were truly amazing. These included the massive Saint Peter's square at the Vatican, Saint Peter's Basilica, the Castle Sant'Angelo, which was built as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, a talking statue, which is where ancient Romans would post gossip and criticism about eachother anonymously, and the wedding cake, or monument to Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. Oh, and I can't forget our stop for delicious gelato! We ended the day with a delicious 5 course Italian dinner, consisting of two types of pastas, chicken and potatoes, salad, and a berry cream pie for desert. Yum! The first day of our trip was a great sucess, with surprisingly little jetlag. I am greatly looking forward to the rest of the trip, and I know that everyday will be just as fun as today was!

-Adam Cohen