Italia...

I arrived in Italy and waited for my pick-up by the meeting point, only to meet with the program representative half an hour later, who had been waiting be another meeting point.  I was not surprised to find out that different people knew of different meeting points in Italy, but I was surprised to run into this situation so soon.

After a nap, I left my cozy apartment to find the Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.  I walked through a maze of streets and walked up to the Pantheon from the back - a large circular old stone wall, sitting low in the ground, but that was it.  I felt like it crept up on me.  Unfortunately, half is under reconstruction.  Nevertheless, you clearly feel how old this building is.

Already I love the sunsets in Rome.  The sunlight is so tender as it falls on the buildings.  The sun doesn't shine as brightly as it does during the day, and sometimes you don't even notice it.  But it creates a very special atmosphere; quiet and soft.

After the sunset, however, it started getting dark, and I had not yet done any grocery shopping.  I saw a sign for a supermercato right off of my street, then realized I didn't have enough cash, asked a lady where the "bancomat" is, and made it by the time the shop closed.

Today I started of with the Colosseum - it turns out perfect in every picture.  The Colosseum is something absolutely majestic, it's huge, it's old; it is absolutely out of this world, and at the same time it is standing right there.  It was too hot to stand the line and go inside on a busy Sunday, but it was quite a site anyways.

I used both the metro and the bus, which turned out to be very manageable.  The metro is just like in Spain, and buses have clear stop posters on each stop.  I decided to go to the Galleria Borghese to get out of the sun.  It's not a huge place, but has a very nice Italian collection.  It houses some of the most famous statues by Bernini, including Apollo and Daphne, which really is remarkable, and many paintings by Caravaggio; at least those are what grabbed my attention.  I didn't have the strength to explore the Villa Borghese, the actual park, which is huge and beautiful, like the Retiro in Madrid, but I will certainly go back there soon.  Here is an image of the Piazza di Popolo and the Rome skyline from the park.